QUEBEC – Philippe Couillard has “disqualified” himself to be Quebec premier by saying he wants to sign the Canadian Constitution without setting conditions, says Bernard Drainville, Parti Québécois minister of democratic reforms.
Couillard, newly-elected Quebec Liberal leader, has suggested Quebec could sign the Constitution by 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
Alexandre Cloutier, PQ intergovernmental affairs minister, noted that when asked whether there would be a referendum to ratify the Constitution, Couillard said it might not be necessary with a Liberal majority in the National Assembly.
In 1990, after the Meech Lake Accord to settle the constitutional status of Quebec within Canada failed, there was a rise in support for the PQ goal of making Quebec an independent country; in the 1995 referendum, the PQ came within a whisker of winning.
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