MLI's Brian Lee Crowley on Quebec Separation, the Clarity Act, and the NDP

Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of The MacDonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), hits the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP for signaling that Quebec separation should permit Quebec to initiate its separation from Canada.

The editorial shows the importance of the Quebec vote to the NDP, whose surprising strength in Quebec catapulted it to the Official Opposition in 2011.

Also, check out what else MLI has to offer.

From Crowley’s editorial:

Both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP are busy advertising how cheap they hold their country’s integrity and future. The BQ, for whom secession is the raison d’être, may perhaps be forgiven for returning to the charge with another bill to set the bar on achieving Quebec independence as low as possible, and abolishing the Clarity Act into the bargain.

The NDP, however, is another matter. This party has frequently stood four square behind Canada in the face of the separatist threat, and its courageous past leaders, such as David Lewis, Ed Broadbent and Alexa McDonough spoke out passionately for Canada. Yet today the heirs of this proud tradition stand in the Commons and, without blushing, say that a majority of one vote in a referendum should be enough to set Quebec on the path of separation from Canada.

…

These things are so fundamental to fairness and legitimacy that we don’t permit mere governments or even electoral majorities to change them on their own. We require big majorities before we allow these “rules of the game” to be altered. In the case of amendments to the Constitution, for example, most of them require the agreement of Parliament plus at least seven of the 10 provinces representing a majority of the population. That is a triple majority: a majority in Parliament and among the population and a two-thirds majority among the provinces. And some changes require all the provinces to agree.

The government of Canada could hold a referendum to get approval to change the Constitution and they could get 90 per cent of the population to vote yes and nothing would happen unless the change was approved by Parliament and two thirds of the legislatures representing a majority of the population. That’s not anti-democratic. It is the essence of democracy that fundamental rules require special procedures and broad consent to be changed.

That is what the Supreme Court meant when it said a clear majority of Quebecers needed to vote yes to a clear question before the rest of the country must sit down and discuss secession. Even after negotiating, both sides would have to ratify a constitutional amendment to effect secession. And those negotiations would have to consider the rights of minorities like aboriginal people, and those who voted not to leave Canada.

The logic behind this is impeccable and, like it or not, it’s impeccably democratic too.