Canadian Identity Essay

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Canadian identity, when defined by French-English Relations, changed negatively from 1982 and onwards due to the Constitutional Act. After a referendum was held in Quebec during the 1980s in order to figure out whether Quebec should be an independent state apart from Canada. Previously, Prime Minister Trudeau promised a new constitution that would favour the Quebecers demands for more control over their province and more political representation, if the referendum failed. The referendum ended up being a 60% vote of No to separation. PM Trudeau wanted the constitution to be Canadian and be able to be changed by Canadians to suit its needs. Therefore when the referendum in Quebec failed he saw it as an opportunity to bring forth his new idea. …show more content…

This caused Quebec and Lévesque to feel betrayed and in turn did not sign the new constitution. This night came to be known as “The night of the Long Knifes”. This betrayal by the whole country only resulted in more bitterness between French and English Canada. A couple of years later Prime Minister Mulroney met with all ten premiers to change the constitution in order to include Quebec. This came to be known as the Meech Lake Accord. There were five main proposals for the new document, all which benefited Quebec. However, out of all five points included in the accord, the one that caused the most questions was, “The recognition that Quebec constitutes within Canada as a distinct society”. The vagueness of this proposal frightened English-Canadians and Aboriginal people. Due to this, three of the ten premiers refused to sign the new accord thus not allowing for these five proposals to take place. Because the proposal was made to benefit Quebec, once it was rejected French-Canadians begun to look at it as English-Canada refusing to aid Quebec. This only added onto the negative relationship between both groups, so when it was time for the Charlottetown Accord, Quebec did not support the proposals in the accord, thus not causing any changes to the constitution made in previous

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