Charlottetown Accord

The Charlottetown Accord was a package of constitutional amendments, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.

The campaign

The campaign saw an alignment of groups in support of the new constitution. The Tories, the Liberals, and the New Democratic Party supported the accord, unlike the Reform Party of Canada and the Bloc Québécois. First Nations groups endorsed it as did women's groups and business leaders. All ten provincial premiers supported it. In the English media, almost all opinion pieces were in favour. The campaign began with the accord popular across Canada. All three major party leaders travelled the country supporting the accord while large amounts of money were spent on pro-accord advertising. While many advocates of the accord acknowledged that it was a compromise and had many flaws, they also felt that without it the country would break apart.

Related Topics:
Tories - Liberals - New Democratic Party - Reform Party of Canada - Bloc Québécois - First Nations

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The No side was a smaller collection of groups. Quebec separatists, Lucien Bouchard's Bloc Québécois and the provincial Parti Québécois led by Jacques Parizeau, were strongly opposed as they believed it did not give Quebec enough powers. Preston Manning's fledgling, western-based Reform Party battled the accord in the West, opposing the acknowledgement of Quebec as a distinct society and arguing that Senate reform did not go far enough.

Related Topics:
Lucien Bouchard - Bloc Québécois - Parti Québécois - Jacques Parizeau - Preston Manning - Reform Party

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The most important opponent of the accord was probably former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In a piece first published in Maclean's Magazine, he argued that the accord meant the end of Canada and was the disintegration of the federal government.

Related Topics:
Pierre Trudeau - Maclean's Magazine

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As the campaign progressed, the accord steadily became less and less popular. This is often credited to much of the electorate finding at least some part of the lengthy accord with which they disagreed. It is also closely connected to the extreme unpopularity of Brian Mulroney in 1992, and to the nation's general antipathy towards the constitutional debates. Many critics, especially those in the West argued that the Accord was essentially a document created by the nation's elites to codify their vision of what Canada "should" be. BC broadcaster Rafe Mair gained national fame and notoriety by arguing that the Accord represented an attempt to permanently cement Canada's power base in the Quebec-Ontario bloc at the expense of fast-growing, wealthy provinces like Alberta and British Columbia that were challenging its authority. To proponents of such beliefs, opposing the Accord became portrayed as campaign of grassroots activism against the interests of the powerful.

Related Topics:
Rafe Mair - Grassroots

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