Mr. Speaker, je me souviens; I remember.
On February 5, 6, and 7, 1968, an important constitutional conference took place in Ottawa, where two conflicting visions clashed. The Premier of Quebec at the time, Daniel Johnson, stated, “Everyone here knows that French Canada is decidedly unhappy about its place in Confederation.” He said, “equality or independence”.
The other vision was that of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau's view was that French Canadians were not a nation; they were a minority among other minorities. They were not a founding nation, but rather a minority. It was not the rights of the Quebec nation that needed to be respected, but rather individual rights. Quebec, well, it is just a minority, a province like all the others.
In the words of Pierre Bourgault, we no longer want to be a province that is unlike the others; we want to be a country that will be like the others.