Mr. Speaker, former Senator Arthur Tremblay has made it very clear he will vote yes in the upcoming referendum. From very start, this senior civil servant of the modern Quebec state helped develop and put in place the vital tools Quebecers gave themselves in the early 1960s under Jean Lesage's vision of "Maîtres chez nous".
Hardened by his many years of experience and his knowledge of the workings of federal political machinery, Mr. Tremblay said it was no longer possible, within federalism as it exists, to recover the powers that Ottawa had taken on over the years and that the time has now come for Quebec to take charge of its destiny.
In Mr. Tremblay's words, if Quebec is to escape from trusteeship federalism and domination by a central government continually reinforced by the dynamics of the general powers it has given itself, sovereignty is the only option.