Marois no model
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond’s meeting with Quebec Premier Pauline Marois this past week will probably not be much more than a footnote in diplomatic history. Marois had intended to offer Salmond her “referendum files” pertaining to the 1995 Quebec vote which saw the separatist cause defeated by the thinnest of margins. Salmond, according to news reports, declined the offer. Scotland is planning for an independence referendum in 2014. You’d think the Scottish independence movement would benefit from Quebecers’ experience.
Not, it seems, on your sporran. There was no joint news conference after the leaders’ lessthan-an-hour meeting. Their statement to the media made no mention of sovereignty. One Scottish civil servant said “the Québécois are making more of this (than we are).” You have to wonder why.
Perhaps, as some pundits have speculated, Salmond didn’t want to risk offending the Canadian government, which it will be looking to for recognition should the Scots say “yes” to separating from the United Kingdom. Moreover, Salmond probably has about as much desire to associate his party’s independence efforts with the Parti Québécois’s twice failed separatist program as he does in listening to a badly played bagpipe.
But there is also a different style, a different psychology, at work. Quebec separatists have often shown bitter hostility to the rest of Canada, using most any event — an abused flag, the royal presence in Quebec, objections to bilingualism on cereal boxes — to reinforce the two solitudes syndrome.
By contrast, Scotland’s move toward independence has been fundamentally civilized. In 1998, British Parliament passed the Scotland Act allowing for the legitimate establishment of a Scottish Parliament. Last year, Salmond and British Prime Minister David Cameron signed an agreement giving the Scottish Parliament control over the referendum’s wording, timing and franchise and campaign funding.
This is the behaviour of a politically mature populace. Indeed, you can see the straightforward style in the proposed six-word referendum question: “Should Scotland become an independent country?”
Compare this to the 38-word, sleight-of-hand question asked of Quebecers in the 1995 referendum: “Do you accept that Quebec should become sovereign, after having formally offered Canada a new economic and political partnership, within the scope of the bill on the future of Quebec and the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?” This is the language of con artists.
Obviously, Salmond should offer referendum files to Marois.