Mr. Speaker, former Quebec premier Robert Bourassa died seven years ago. The day after the failure of the Meech Lake accord in June 1990, he made a solemn and historic statement:
English Canada must understand in a very clear manner that whatever is said or done, Quebec is today and for all times a distinct society, free, capable of assuming its destiny and its development.
In Vancouver on March 2, 1996, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs made his first speech as minister. In it, he stated that formal recognition of Quebec's status as a distinct society was a crucial step towards reconciliation in Canada.
Are we to believe that the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs feels that the recent and extremely centralist turn taken by Canadian federalism bears any resemblance to Robert Bourassa's notion of federalism, which is based on Canada's formal recognition of Quebec as a distinct society or to what the minister himself stated in his speech in Vancouver?
This is hard to believe now.