Cauchon says Trudeau is behind times
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau may be the youngest, hippest Liberal leadership contender, but when it comes to Quebec, rival Martin Cauchon says the front-runner is a relic of the past.
Trudeau has scoffed at suggestions that attempts must be made to finally secure Quebec’s signature on the Constitution — patriated by his father, Pierre Trudeau, in 1982 over the objections of the province’s separatist government.
While that was the right answer in the 1980s and ’90s, when Canadians were fed up with interminable constitutional wrangling, Cauchon says it’s no longer good enough.
Trudeau’s response to the national unity question amounts to “the good old answers that people used to give” in the wake of failed constitutional negotiations, Cauchon said.
“I say it’s time, actually, to have a closer look at the situation.”
Cauchon suggests the constitutional can of worms be reopened perhaps in 10 or 15 years.
But in the meantime, the federal government must adopt a more open, flexible, co-operative approach to federalism, he said, allowing provinces to assert more control over various areas of jurisdiction, as suits their needs.
Such an approach would be good for both the country and the Liberal party, he maintained.
“When (Quebecers) look at us, the Liberal Party of Canada, they look at a party that always stands for the Ottawa-knows-best type of approach,” he said.
“This is something they don’t like in Quebec and, as a matter of fact, they don’t like it in most of the provinces.”
Cauchon and Trudeau, a Montreal MP, locked horns over the national unity question during the final Liberal leadership debate in Montreal last weekend. Trudeau used his closing statement to reject the notion that special gestures are needed to placate Quebec.
“For far too long we’ve tried to buy Quebec, to buy them off rather than to get them involved. ... This is our real challenge. How are we going to bring everybody together and set aside old squabbles and quarrels?”