Meech Lake Accord

A set of proposed constitutional amendments agreed to by the prime minister and the ten provincial premiers in April 1987 . It was designed to bring Quebec back into Canada's constitutional family following the constitutional amendments of 1982 , which had not responded to Quebec's desire for constitutional recognition as a ‘distinct society’. The accord proposed to add a clause to the Constitution Act, 1867 , requiring that the constitution be interpreted so as to ‘recognize that Quebec constitutes within Canada a distinct society’ and to affirm the role of the government of Quebec to preserve this ‘fundamental characteristic of Canada’. Other provisions were designed to constitutionalize Quebec's role in immigration policy and its representation on the Supreme Court of Canada, to ensure a Quebec veto on future constitutional change, and to provide a provincial role in Supreme Court and Senate appointments and some limits on the scope of the federal ‘spending power’ in areas of provincial jurisdiction. The amending procedure for the Constitution Act, 1982 , required that the accord be adopted by all 11 Canadian legislatures, within a three-year period, before it became law. Between initial agreement and the final deadline, widespread opposition developed. Some objected to the recognition of Quebec as a province with distinct powers, others to a perceived weakening of federal influence, especially in social policy, and yet others to the ‘elitism’ of a constitutional amendment agreed to by first ministers meeting behind closed doors. An extraordinary federal–provincial conference, in April 1990 , failed to rescue the accord, and it died when two provinces, Newfoundland and Manitoba, did not ratify it.

Richard Simeon