The leader who was a thorn in Brian Mulroney’s side during the Meech Lake debate is remembering the former prime minister as a significant Canadian and a “dominant feature of public life in the country during his period.”
Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells opposed the Meech Lake Accord, which amounted to a series of constitutional amendments to appease Quebec and recognize the province as a distinct society.
Wells says his opposition to the accord had nothing to do with Quebec’s recognition as a distinct society, something he calls “an obvious fact, unavoidable.”
“But I disagreed strongly with subordinating the entire Constitution into a recognition that Quebec was a distinct society, and would be whatever the Quebec government and legislature decided to promote it as a distinct identity for Quebec,” he said. “I mean, those things were fraught with major difficulties, and created major changes between Quebec as a province of Canada and all of the other provinces.”
In the end, it was Elijah Harper, an Indigenous Manitoba MLA ,whose refusal to vote on Meech Lake dismantled the accord.
But Wells’ vocal opposition to the plan generated national attention, with the House of Assembly debate televised nationally.
It even led to an unofficial campaign for Wells himself to run as prime minister, complete with T-shirts promoting the cause.
“I would have loved to have been Prime Minister of Canada,” Wells tells VOCM News.
“But I just recognized that my total inability to converse in the French language would make it practically impossible for me ever to be an effective prime minister.”