QUEBEC-Canada doesn't care about Quebec, and the hour is nigh for the province to make its own decisions on whether to forsake its traditional powers or stand up and defend them as a sovereign people, Lucien Bouchard said Wednesday.
In his opening address to the 36th legislature, Bouchard staked the year 2000 as the deadline fore Quebecers to choose whether to yank the simmering sovereignty debate off the stove, or turn the heat up to full boil.
"We must be frank and tell Quebecers that in the current Canadian context, there is a political price to pay for getting mired in indecision," he said.
In saying that Canada has chosen a centralist model of government, Bouchard claimed no provincial jurisdictions are safe from federal meddling.
"English Canada has made its choice, and more than ever, that choice is Ottawa. Good for them," said Bouchard. "We in Quebec have no quarrel with this new resolve, as long as it takes into account Quebec's wish to retain its personality...as long as we are not bullied into following someone else's vision."
Bouchard
sketched out the sweeping strokes of his mandate: a focus on youth, education, health and economic growth.The premier said his government will follow through on all the main election goodies, including unspecified millions for health, maternity-leave reforms, plus a grocery list of about 30 social and economic policies.
Liberal leader Jean Charest accused the premier of being rudderless and ambiguous with the aim of creating confusion.
"The Parti Quebecois government is [going to] submit all of Quebec to a different kind of bug for throughout the 2000 calendar year," he said. "If they have a plan, they didn't unveil it today."
(text of March 4, 1999 Vancouver Sun article)
-WELL,
HE'S FINALLY SAID WHAT HIS PLANS IN THIS REGARD ARE.