Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill S-14, to establish a national holiday in honour of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
The decision to establish a national holiday in honour of a parliamentarian or any other person may seem unimportant to some people, but not to the Bloc Quebecois.
This bill aims to pay tribute to the very first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald, as well as to the first Prime Minister from Quebec, Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
John A. Macdonald worked relentlessly for an extremely centralized federation in Canada, while Sir Wilfrid Laurier fought very hard to protect Canadian unity, at the expense of the progress of his own people.
This bill would give Canadians the opportunity to reflect on the history of their country and to be proud of the contribution of these two men to Canada and to all of its communities. Do members really think that the people of Quebec will feel like celebrating on such a day? I do not think so.
In the minds of Quebecers, John A. Macdonald wanted to give the impression he was negotiating the terms of federation with Taché and Cartier. Later on, some would go as far as to talk about a confederal treaty when talking about the so-called consensus that is supposed to have taken place before the British North America Act was passed.
It bears reminding that when Lower Canada joined Canada in 1867, it was by a very slight majority, 24 against 22. Needless to say we are talking about parliamentarians who were duly mandated to speak on behalf of the people, but the people were not consulted.
In fact, the British North America Act is drafted in such a way that instead it envisions a very centralized state made up of provinces—which is a far cry, you will admit, from the concept of sovereign states—without in fact the exclusive authority to pass and implement laws without interference from the central government. This historical ambiguity regarding the creation of a Canadian federation or Canadian confederation could only lead to numerous problems later on, both for Canada and Quebec.
Lower Canada displayed a lukewarm interest in what some mistakenly called a confederal treaty but was in fact a constitutional soup by chef John A. Macdonald, seasoned with a unitary, centralized and centralizing federal regime.
As for Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he indeed worked very hard to unite the Canadian federation. His 15 year government was marked by a lot of tension: on the one side, French Canadians, who were afraid of being assimilated, and rightly so; on the other, English Canadians, who wanted to have closer ties to the British Empire.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier governed Canada by trying to find a middle ground and keep the country together. Today, the current government's approach, true to Wilfrid Laurier's ideal, espouses the strategy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who wrote that of the ways of making separatism less appealing is to spend time, energy and a lot of money to promote federal nationalism. Such is the goal of Bill S-14.
The establishment of holidays to celebrate John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier is part of that strategy. All Quebecers know that the federal government does not hesitate to spend millions of dollars in public funds to promote the Canadian identity. And what about the virtual monopoly of federalist forces on the media?
In his book Le déclin du fédéralisme canadien , Joseph Facal, the Quebec minister for relations with the citizens and immigration, minister of Canadian intergovernmental affairs, and minister for relations with French-speaking and Acadian communities, wrote this:
The federal government takes a subtle and seemingly generous attitude when it professes to recognize the different identities, the Quebec identity included. What it refuses to this particular identity is its full access to a collective, institutional and political expression. This can be seen in the incapacity of the Canadian constitutional order to recognize the fact that Quebec is a nation, in its refusal to institutionalize its definition of Quebec's specific character, and its untiring efforts to control Quebec's international relations.
Since 1867, Quebec has been held back because of the numerous barriers the federal government has put up. All of this stifles the social, cultural and economic development of the Quebec people.
Amongst all the days celebrated in Canada, whether national or international days, only one commemorates a person. And, would you have guessed, it is Queen Victoria. No other person is honoured in such a way. Previous parliaments may have recognized that in cases like this, and many others, discretion is usually the better part of valour.
There are many ways to commemorate the role that men and women have played in politics: streets, parks, cities, government buildings, ports, airports, statues, highways, aircraft carriers, ice-breakers, stamps, libraries, sportsplexes and what not.
A national day that is not representative of a wide consensus is a moot one and it can easily be considered as arrogant.
I call upon the common sense of all parliamentarians. They should vote against Bill S-14 to prevent a precedent that could create pointless tensions. If we create a day for John A. Macdonald and a day for Sir Wilfrid Laurier now, when will we create one for the prime minister who is responsible for free trade? When will we create one for the prime minister who unilaterally patriated the Constitution? When will we create one for the prime minister who stayed in office the longest? The answer is obvious.
I find it extremely dangerous for Canada to start commemorating everything. It is clear that the Bloc Quebecois will vote against this bill. I hope there still are sensible people in this parliament.