II.

Background

The constitution of Canada, the British North America Act, had been adopted by the British Parliament in 1867 when Canada was still a colony. When Canada obtained full sovereignty in 1931, it was in a position to bring back or patriate its constitution. It did not do so then or in the following decades because the federal and provincial governments could not agree on an amendment formula, that is, on how to modify the constitution when necessary.

Another issue arose in the 1960s when the government of Québec requested more autonomy in the federal system. The reasoning was that, as the home of the French language and French Canadian culture in otherwise English-speaking Canada, Québec needed more freedom to develop that culture. In 1968 Québec politician René Lévesque, impatient with the lack of progress on this issue, founded a party dedicated to sovereignty-association. This plan would make Québec a sovereign state, associated with but equal to the federal government at Ottawa.

Lévesque became Québec’s premier in 1976, and in 1980 he put the question of sovereignty-association to the province’s voters in a referendum. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau campaigned vigorously against it, offering instead to reform the constitution. He did not spell out the reforms, however. The referendum failed with only 40 percent voting yes, and Lévesque challenged Trudeau to follow through on his offer.

In 1981 the federal government drafted a new constitution that the leaders of eight provinces rejected. After much political maneuvering, Trudeau got nine provinces to agree and proceeded, over Lévesque’s objections, to have the document ratified by all the provincial legislatures except that of Québec, where it was resoundingly defeated. Not only Lévesque’s own party, but also the opposition Liberal Party, which desired to retain the federal structure, rejected it. Many Québeckers objected to the new constitution because it did not recognize them as a people. But many also objected because they saw it as centralizing too much power in Ottawa. However, unanimity was not required, and the constitution became law on April 17, 1982.