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The Accord of Charlottetown is a fallen through project of reform nelle Constitution in Canada. Proposed by the Canadian federal government and the provincial governments in 1992, this project was rejected by the Canadians by way of referendum on October 26th, 1992 in Quebec.

Context

Until 1982, the Act of British North America of 1867 and the amendments subsequent formed the base of the Constitution of the Canada. Because the Act of 1867 had been written by the British Parliament, the government of Canada was in an atypical position: although its independence was recognized with the international scales, Canada was to obtain the approval of another government, the British government, to modify its clean Constitution. Several unfruitful attempts had been made before to repatriate the constitution, in particular in 1971 by the Charte of Victoria.

In 1981, the Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau arrived after negotiations at an agreement which formed the Loi of 1982 on Canada. Even if this agreement were adopted, thus making Acte of British North America the Constitution of the country, it were rejected by the Prime Minister for Quebec Rene Lévesque and the National Assembly of Quebec. Despite everything, the Supreme court of Canada judged that Quebec nor no other province had a right to veto enabling him to prevent the federal government from making adopt the Acte of Canada of 1982 and that the new Constitution applied to all the provinces in spite of their claims.

Following the Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, were determined to succeed where Trudeau had failed, while arriving at an agreement which would have made it possible the Quebec to ratify the Constitution. Carried out by Mulroney, the federal governments and provincial signed the Accord of the lake Meech in 1987. Despite everything, in 1990, when the deadline of the ratification was reached, two provinces, the Manitoba and Newfoundland, had always refused to ratify the agreement. This defeat led to the rebirth of the movements Québécois souverainists.

In the two years which followed, the future of the Quebec dominated the national diary. The government of Quebec founded the committee Allaire (Jean Allaire, founder of ADQ) and the Commission Bélanger-Campeau to discuss the future of Quebec inside or outside the Canada. The federal government retorted by founding the committee Beaudoin-Edwards and the commission Spicer to find the means of solving worries of the English Canada. The former Prime Minister Joe Clark was chosen by the Minister for the Constitutional deals and was charged to forge a new constitutional agreement.

In August 1992, the federal governments, provincial and territorial, as well as representatives of the Parliament of the first nations, the Amerindian Council of Canada, Tapirisat Inuit of Canada and the National council of the Mongrels came from there to an agreement known under the name of the Accord from Charlottetown .

The agreement

By the agreement of Charlottetown, the politicians tried to solve several ancestral arguments surrounding the distribution of the capacities between the federal government and the provincial governments. It granted an exclusive jurisdiction on the forests, the mines and the other natural resources, like on the cultural policies. The federal government would have maintained its control on the Société Radio-Canada and the National office of the film. The agreement wanted to harmonize the policies between the various governmental stages in connection with the sectors like telecommunications, work, the development of the areas and immigration.

The federal right, under which the lieutenant-governor of a province could require of the federal government to approve a provincial law would have been abolished and the federal right to veto would have largely been some limited.

The authority of federal would have been prone to a control much more strict. The provincial governments often disputed certain agreements of federal according to which this one was to refund the provinces which rejected certain programs, like those concerning the health insurance, the social services, the education postsecondaire, etc, which would have been under provincial jurisdiction. These agreements were often accompanied by conditions on the financing. The Accord of Charlottetown would have prevented the federal government from imposing its conditions.

The agreement also proposed a chart to promote certain objectives the such health insurance, education, environmental protection and the trade. Clauses to eliminate the barriers with freedom of movement from the goods, services, capital.

The agreement contained also a “ clause Canada ”, which codified the values defining the nature of the character of the Canadians. These values included inter alia the egalitarianism, the diversity and the recognition of the Quebec as a distinct company. The autoproclamés Amerindian governments would have been approved by principle.

More than all, the Agreement proposed a series of institutional changes which would have radically changed the face of the Canadian policy. For example, the composition and the process of nomination to the Supreme court of Canada would have been establish by the Constitution. Convention wanted that three of the nine judges of the Supreme court are originating in the Quebec because of the application of the Civil code of Quebec rather than of the “Common law” of British inspiration, which constitutionally had never been elected.

The Canadian senate would have been reformed so that this reform can be summarized by the acronym “Triples E” (Equal, Élu and Manpower). The agreement made it possible to the senators to be elected, either during an general election, or during a provincial legislature. However, the capacities of the Senate would have been reduced. The cultural and linguistic fields would have required a double majority, that is to say a majority of the senators and a majority of the French-speaking senators.

Changes were proposed by the House of Commons. After a redistribution, the number of the seats would always have been re-examined with the rise and a province could never have had less seats than another province of less population. However, the Quebec could never have had less than one quarter of the seats of the room.

The agreement would have formally institutionalized the federal/provincial processes of consultation/territory and would have allowed an inclusion of the Amerindian in certain circumstances. It increased also the number of constitutional subjects for which a proposal for a change would have required an adoption unanimously.

The referendum

Contrary to the Agreement of the lake Meech, the process of the Accord of Charlottetown was a national referendum. Three provinces, the Colombia-British, the Alberta and the Quebec had recently adopted laws obliging all the constitutional amendments to be subjected by referendum. Moreover, following the negotiations of Charlottetown, the Prime Minister for Quebec of then, Robert Bourassa, affirmed that it will hold a referendum either on a new constitutional agreement or or on a independent Quebec. The Colombia-British and the Alberta agreed to take part in the federal referendum, but the Quebec chose to make its own separate vote. (For this reason, the alive Inhabitants of Quebec temporarily outside Quebec had the possibility of voting twice, and this, legally.)

The agreement was not to only be approved by a majority of citizens, but also by the majority of the voters of each province. If only one province did not obtain the famous one, “50% + 1 vote” for Charlottetown, the agreement would not be adopted.

The countryside

The countryside obtained the support of several groups for the new Constitution. The preserving , the liberal and the Nouveau Democratic party supported the agreement, contrary to the Parti reformist Canada and the Québécois Bloc. The first nations endorsed the agreement like made the defense groups for the women and people of businesses. The ten provincial Prime Ministers supported it. In the anglophone media, almost all the leader-writers were favorable there. Therefore, the countryside on the agreement started well because it was popular from one ocean to another. The chiefs of the three more important federal parties travelled everywhere to Canada to support the agreement while impressive quantities of money were invested on publicity pro Charlottetown. Several of its defenders admitted that the agreement comprised several faults, but that it was also the only manner of maintaining the country plain.

The opponents with the agreement of Charlottetown came from very different horizons. In Quebec, mainly concerned by this agreement because of the failure of the agreement of the Lake Meech in 1990, there were the Québécois souverainists such Lucien Bouchard, chief of the Québécois Bloc, and Jacques Parizeau, chief of the Parti Québécois. They were savagely opposed to this agreement, because they believed that the Quebec did not obtain enough capacities and that the process, instead of concentrating on Quebec in order to repair the affront of 1982 (repatriation of the constitution), took the shape of a list of grocer for each and everyone. In Canada, Preston Manning, chief of new the Left reformist, made countryside against the agreement, because he was opposed to the recognition Quebec as a company distinct and to the reform from the Sénat which had not been made correctly. Another opponent was old the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, that which had carried out the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982 without the agreement of Quebec. In an interview published in the origin in Maclean stores, it defended the opinion that the agreement was going to lead to the end of the Canada and the dissolution of the federal government.

And whereas the countryside advanced, the Agreement became continuously less and less popular. Too much often, the electorate found part of the agreement with which it fell in dissension. And that, without counting the extreme unpopularity of Brian Mulroney in 1992 and the general antipathy of the population towards the constitutional debates. Several critics, particularly those of the west, affirmed that the Agreement was primarily created by the elites of the nation to codify what Canada “ should ” be. The diffuser Rafe Mair gained a recognition and notoriety main roads by declaring that the Agreement represented an attempt to imprison the capacity of the Canada to the Quebec and in Ontario with the profit of the other provinces like the Alberta and the Colombia-British which defied already its authority. The defenders of this opinion made countryside by using the antipathy of the people towards the interests of the elites of the Canada.

Results

The October 26th 1992, here the question which was put to the citizens:

Acceptez you that the Constitution of Canada is renewed on the basis of concluded agreement on August 28th, 1992?

Results:

SRC commented on the results by saying that " The Agreement of Charlottetown is death-né."

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