{"id":27458,"date":"2014-08-21T08:26:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T13:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=27458"},"modified":"2014-08-21T08:35:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T13:35:05","slug":"jacques-parizeau-planned-a-unilateral-declaration-of-independence-after-1995-quebec-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/08\/21\/jacques-parizeau-planned-a-unilateral-declaration-of-independence-after-1995-quebec-referendum\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacques Parizeau planned a unilateral declaration of independence after 1995 Quebec referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Montreal Gazette<\/em>, Don Macpherson<\/a> discusses a new book by Chantal H\u00e9bert to be published soon:<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t make sovereignist leaders like they used to. It\u2019s hard to imagine any candidate for the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leadership matching the combination of Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard in the 1995 sovereignty referendum.<\/p>\n

That referendum wouldn\u2019t have been held without Parizeau\u2019s single-minded pursuit of sovereignty. And the sovereignists wouldn\u2019t have come within fewer than 55,000 votes of winning if it hadn\u2019t been for Bouchard\u2019s ability to gain voters\u2019 trust.<\/p>\n

Yet, as a forthcoming book shows, Bouchard did not trust Parizeau \u2014 and with reason.<\/p>\n

Not only did Parizeau, who was premier, unscrupulously use Bouchard to deceive voters about his intentions, he intended to shove Bouchard aside after a Yes vote so he could make a unilateral declaration of independence.<\/p>\n

The book is The Morning After<\/em>, written by widely respected Ottawa journalist Chantal H\u00e9bert. It\u2019s to be published early next month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s based on recent interviews by H\u00e9bert and commentator Jean Lapierre (my fellow CTV Montreal political panellist) with political leaders of the day about what they would have done after a Yes vote in 1995.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update<\/strong>: Paul Wells<\/a> says the book also discusses an improbable Saskatchewan separation move<\/strong> if Quebec had left Confederation.<\/p>\n

A team of Saskatchewan officials worked quietly to develop contingency plans in the event of a Yes vote in the 1995 Quebec referendum \u2014 options that included Saskatchewan following Quebec out of Canada, a new book reveals.<\/p>\n

Roy Romanow, the premier of Saskatchewan at the time, never told his full cabinet about the secret committee\u2019s work, Romanow told Chantal H\u00e9bert, author of The Morning After: The Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was<\/em>, to be published by Knopf Canada on Sept. 2. Maclean\u2019s<\/em> has obtained a copy of the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiled under the boring title of Constitutional Contingencies \u2014 a choice intended to discourage curiosity \u2014 [the Saskatchewan committee’s] work was funded off the books, outside the provincial Treasury Board process, the better to ensure its secrecy,\u201d H\u00e9bert writes.<\/p>\n

The committee considered a lot of possibilities for the chaotic period Romanow anticipated after a Yes vote \u2014 including Saskatchewan seceding from Canada; a Western union of Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia; abandoning the Canadian dollar to use the U.S. greenback; and even annexation of Saskatchewan, and perhaps other provinces, to the United States. \u201cIn the eventuality of a Yes vote, clearly you need to examine all your options,\u201d Romanow says in the book.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently 1995 was even more of an existential moment than we knew at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Montreal Gazette, Don Macpherson discusses a new book by Chantal H\u00e9bert to be published soon: They don\u2019t make sovereignist leaders like they used to. It\u2019s hard to imagine any candidate for the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois leadership matching the combination of Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard in the 1995 sovereignty referendum. That referendum wouldn\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,53],"tags":[842,113,114],"class_list":["post-27458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-history","category-politics","tag-partiquebecois","tag-quebec","tag-separatism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-78S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27461,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27458\/revisions\/27461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}