A
Are Be
Guest
How will Quebec react?JOHN IBBITSON G&M !! READ THIS !!
How will Quebec react?
For the first time since the 1960s, the province will not be Ottawa's central preoccupation
By JOHN IBBITSON
UPDATED AT 12:53 PM EST         Friday, Dec. 12, 2003
Advertisement
Today, for the first time since Lester Pearson brought the wise men to Ottawa, we have a government that is not all about Quebec.
The new prime minister is not a Quebecker (however much he likes to pretend he is), and in Ralph Goodale and Anne McLellan, we have two figures at the pinnacle of the cabinet hierarchy who are both anglophone and unilingual.
It is an extraordinary change, one that will influence the federation as significantly as any policy that Paul Martin might present. One of the more interesting political questions now facing us is how Quebeckers will react.
The ascension of Ms. McLellan as deputy prime minister and Mr. Goodale as finance minister are part of Mr. Martin's campaign to defuse the issue of Western alienation and strengthen the Liberal Party in that region.
Ms. McLellan grew up on a farm outside Truro, N.S., studied law at Dalhousie and at the University of London, and taught law at the University of Alberta. She is formidably intelligent, passionate about policy, an advocate on consensual decision-making (some critics say that's a nice way of saying she can never make up her mind) and a good friend, as well as a loyal supporter, of Mr. Martin.
Mr. Goodale grew up on a farm outside Regina, worked briefly as a lawyer and in insurance, and was at one time leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, which may be the loneliest job in politics. He has an enviable reputation for probity, prefers policy over personality, comes across in public as pleasantly dull and is as loyal to Paul Martin as the Saskatchewan day is long.
Their personal and professional qualities, and their strong ties to the West, have earned them high office and Mr. Martin's trust. But neither has any extensive experience with Quebec and neither is bilingual. Nor are the people who were the most senior political advisers to Mr. Martin in the years when he formed the priorities and policies that, starting today, will dominate the federal government: David Herle, Terrie O'Leary, Scott Reid, Tim Murphy, Richard Mahoney, Brian Guest -- their names say it all.
And the prime minister is not a Quebecker. Granted, Paul Martin has lived much of his adult life in Quebec, and represents a Montreal riding. But he was born and raised in Windsor, and is anglophone whether he likes it or not.
That is a far cry from past governments. Consider: In 1990, the governor-general, the prime minister, the head of the public service and the chief justice of the Supreme Court were all francophone. Today, none of them are.
Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien all had reason to fear that they could be the prime minister who lost Quebec.
Their principal weapon in containing Quebec nationalism was to give Quebeckers disproportionate influence within the federal government.
Quebec also greatly benefited from the federal government's largesse. Downtown Ottawa was ravaged by Pierre Trudeau's decision to move much of the federal public service to Hull. The equalization formula ensured that Quebec would always receive and never give. Economic-development grants, sponsorships for cultural festivals, naked pork-barrelling -- la belle province profited from it all.
The price of placating Quebec was high. A piddling air force maintenance contract that went to Montreal instead of Winnipeg helped give birth to the Reform Party. The national energy program enraged Alberta even as it placated Ontario and Quebec. Then even Ontario began to protest: David Peterson, Bob Rae and Mike Harris grew increasingly angry as Ottawa siphoned the province's resources to subsidize a Quebec-centric agenda.
While the federal government devoted its energies to damping separatist flames, the French fact steadily diminished in importance within the Canadian mosaic. For the past four decades, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to this country have come from Asia, Latin America and Africa. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham meant no more to them than the Treaty of Westphalia.
The necessary price of embracing multiculturalism has been a certain national ahistoricism. Ottawa's addiction to the Quebec question thus rendered it less relevant to the lives of the country's newer citizens. The rebalancing of priorities in the Martin government is a necessary antidote to a federal government estranged from much of the populace.
Quebec is grievously underrepresented in the new PMO. Four of the 13 senior staff in the Prime Minister's Office are francophone. But when the full cabinet is revealed today, Quebeckers will have their fair share of posts.
In the government of Paul Martin, however, Quebec will be a region, a region that is primus inter pares, perhaps, but a region nonetheless. Its interests will be balanced against -- and will not necessarily trump -- the interests of Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.
Many Quebeckers will not like this. Already some Quebec journalists have questioned the propriety of a finance minister not being bilingual. And, as usually happens when the provincial Liberals are in power, support for sovereignty in Quebec is on the rise.
On the other hand (and there is always another hand), Mr. Martin is enormously popular in Quebec (he is fondly remembered for having supported the failed Meech Lake accord). He can be expected to reach out to nationalist Quebeckers of the sort who were once more comfortable in Brian Mulroney's Conservative government. The Bloc Québécois will suffer at the hands of Paul Martin in a way it did not suffer at the hands of Jean Chrétien.
But politics is often a zero-sum game. If Mr. Martin genuinely wants to assuage regional alienation -- and the appointments of Mr. Goodale and Ms. McLellan is a solid demonstration of that desire -- then he will have to do it at the expense of Quebec interests. Call it a fresh humiliation if you want, but it is the way of the new political world.
jibbitson@globeandmail.ca
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
How will Quebec react?
For the first time since the 1960s, the province will not be Ottawa's central preoccupation
By JOHN IBBITSON
UPDATED AT 12:53 PM EST         Friday, Dec. 12, 2003
Advertisement
Today, for the first time since Lester Pearson brought the wise men to Ottawa, we have a government that is not all about Quebec.
The new prime minister is not a Quebecker (however much he likes to pretend he is), and in Ralph Goodale and Anne McLellan, we have two figures at the pinnacle of the cabinet hierarchy who are both anglophone and unilingual.
It is an extraordinary change, one that will influence the federation as significantly as any policy that Paul Martin might present. One of the more interesting political questions now facing us is how Quebeckers will react.
The ascension of Ms. McLellan as deputy prime minister and Mr. Goodale as finance minister are part of Mr. Martin's campaign to defuse the issue of Western alienation and strengthen the Liberal Party in that region.
Ms. McLellan grew up on a farm outside Truro, N.S., studied law at Dalhousie and at the University of London, and taught law at the University of Alberta. She is formidably intelligent, passionate about policy, an advocate on consensual decision-making (some critics say that's a nice way of saying she can never make up her mind) and a good friend, as well as a loyal supporter, of Mr. Martin.
Mr. Goodale grew up on a farm outside Regina, worked briefly as a lawyer and in insurance, and was at one time leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, which may be the loneliest job in politics. He has an enviable reputation for probity, prefers policy over personality, comes across in public as pleasantly dull and is as loyal to Paul Martin as the Saskatchewan day is long.
Their personal and professional qualities, and their strong ties to the West, have earned them high office and Mr. Martin's trust. But neither has any extensive experience with Quebec and neither is bilingual. Nor are the people who were the most senior political advisers to Mr. Martin in the years when he formed the priorities and policies that, starting today, will dominate the federal government: David Herle, Terrie O'Leary, Scott Reid, Tim Murphy, Richard Mahoney, Brian Guest -- their names say it all.
And the prime minister is not a Quebecker. Granted, Paul Martin has lived much of his adult life in Quebec, and represents a Montreal riding. But he was born and raised in Windsor, and is anglophone whether he likes it or not.
That is a far cry from past governments. Consider: In 1990, the governor-general, the prime minister, the head of the public service and the chief justice of the Supreme Court were all francophone. Today, none of them are.
Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien all had reason to fear that they could be the prime minister who lost Quebec.
Their principal weapon in containing Quebec nationalism was to give Quebeckers disproportionate influence within the federal government.
Quebec also greatly benefited from the federal government's largesse. Downtown Ottawa was ravaged by Pierre Trudeau's decision to move much of the federal public service to Hull. The equalization formula ensured that Quebec would always receive and never give. Economic-development grants, sponsorships for cultural festivals, naked pork-barrelling -- la belle province profited from it all.
The price of placating Quebec was high. A piddling air force maintenance contract that went to Montreal instead of Winnipeg helped give birth to the Reform Party. The national energy program enraged Alberta even as it placated Ontario and Quebec. Then even Ontario began to protest: David Peterson, Bob Rae and Mike Harris grew increasingly angry as Ottawa siphoned the province's resources to subsidize a Quebec-centric agenda.
While the federal government devoted its energies to damping separatist flames, the French fact steadily diminished in importance within the Canadian mosaic. For the past four decades, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to this country have come from Asia, Latin America and Africa. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham meant no more to them than the Treaty of Westphalia.
The necessary price of embracing multiculturalism has been a certain national ahistoricism. Ottawa's addiction to the Quebec question thus rendered it less relevant to the lives of the country's newer citizens. The rebalancing of priorities in the Martin government is a necessary antidote to a federal government estranged from much of the populace.
Quebec is grievously underrepresented in the new PMO. Four of the 13 senior staff in the Prime Minister's Office are francophone. But when the full cabinet is revealed today, Quebeckers will have their fair share of posts.
In the government of Paul Martin, however, Quebec will be a region, a region that is primus inter pares, perhaps, but a region nonetheless. Its interests will be balanced against -- and will not necessarily trump -- the interests of Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.
Many Quebeckers will not like this. Already some Quebec journalists have questioned the propriety of a finance minister not being bilingual. And, as usually happens when the provincial Liberals are in power, support for sovereignty in Quebec is on the rise.
On the other hand (and there is always another hand), Mr. Martin is enormously popular in Quebec (he is fondly remembered for having supported the failed Meech Lake accord). He can be expected to reach out to nationalist Quebeckers of the sort who were once more comfortable in Brian Mulroney's Conservative government. The Bloc Québécois will suffer at the hands of Paul Martin in a way it did not suffer at the hands of Jean Chrétien.
But politics is often a zero-sum game. If Mr. Martin genuinely wants to assuage regional alienation -- and the appointments of Mr. Goodale and Ms. McLellan is a solid demonstration of that desire -- then he will have to do it at the expense of Quebec interests. Call it a fresh humiliation if you want, but it is the way of the new political world.
jibbitson@globeandmail.ca
© 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.