The working paper, or the mandate, whatever it was called, that was given to the commissioners was to see how Canada could develop “on the basis of an equal partnership between the two founding races”. Pearson signed that, and that is not the direction that the commission took and that the Government of Canada later took under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau.
We're in a situation now where we're not in a bicultural country, where we're not in a binational country. It's very strange mathematics. Sometimes figures stagger me, too. We have one nation, two official languages, and many cultures—one, two, many. I don't know how you want to count that, but it just doesn't stick together. The non-recognition of a French Canadian nation, as such, as an equal partner—a potentially equal partner—for the English Canadian nation is where we went wrong.
Now, that type of recognition takes more than just a vote in a house of Parliament, saying “Quebec is a nation”, whatever that means. You also have to put your money where your mouth is.