Meech revisited: Or why I wake up at night screaming

If it's all right with you, gentle reader, I'm going to pretend that Stephen Harper did not promise to re-open the Constitution if Quebec helps him get a majority government. My fourth year seminar group just finished up our discussion of the constitutional fiascos of the late-80s and early-90s, which began with a promise from Brian Mulroney to have Quebec sign the constitution "with honour and enthusiasm" if he won a majority in 1984.

The old Conservative alliance of alienated Westerners and Quebec nationalists is forming again. It worked so well last time, didn't it - the formation of the Bloc, the launch of Reform, the decimation of the Tories, a squeaker of a referendum in 1995...

I'd rather not revisit the constitution on those particular terms, thanks very much.

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