WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4,1989, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN A POST-MORTEM ON MEECH Perhaps some are unwilling to write the requiem for the Meech Lake so let me do it for them. Even those who pushed so hard for so long are withholding artificial respiration. When Premier Bourassa kicked it in the teeth, Brian Mulroney stood on the sidelines and declared it wasn't hurt bad and it wouldn't be dead 'til 1990 anyway so tere wasn't any need for first aid right now. Nobody seems overly upset about its imminent demise ...but then, maybe it's served its purpose and the sooner it disappears from the public consciousness the sooner the politicians can forget their mistake. The question so many aske.d was 'Why?" W1ýy such unanimity - Tories, Liberals and NDP; federal, and p ovincial - yet so little support outside the political sphere. The cynical yet inescapable conclusion is that Meech Lake was purely political - it was designed to win votes in Quebec. The Tories took'62 seats out of 75; it worked. The political reality is that it's nearly impossible te form a majo- rity government in Canada without most of Quebec's seats. With Bourassa facing a provincial election later this year, he had little choice but to lean away from federalism in order te placate nationalist sentiments in his province. As the federal election demonstrated, Quebec voters are capable of wild swings and nobody knows this better than Bourassa. He is, after all, the same Premier who lost to the Parti Quebecois under Rene Levesque in 1973 and the nationalism he faces today is the same force that defeated him then. He doesn't want te lose again and Mulroney doesn't want him to either. Maybe he will be more flexible after his re-election. Meech Lake, was a bad deal unless you believe that having Quebec sign the Constitution is the only thing that matteirs. Canada will continue to function quite nicely as it has for the last seven years without that symbolic signature. One signature ,is not worth the concessions that Mulroney offered the'provinces. Meech Lake was bad for Canada but good for the provincial premiers. Mulroney gave all the provinces every- thing that Quebec wanted. He gave the provinces what they had agreed in 1981 could not be given to Quebec. In 1981 Trudeau, who, after all, is just as French as Bourassa and more French than Mulroney, created a federalist constitution. Its major flaw (at the insistence of the provin- ces) was the "notwithstanding clause." It allows the premiers te override ven the Supreme Court and the Charter of Rights as Bourassa has done. As Frank. McKenna of New Brunswick observed, no premier should have that authority and that plu,3 certain clauses in the Meech Lake accord have te be changed before his government will ratify it. Nationalism is a constant element in Quebec politics but it is only independentist when the federalist option is empty. Mulroney keeps the federal option popular in Quebec with crass political give-aways at the expense of the rest of the country. But now, with another four year mandate, he can afford to let Meech Lake die. He can launch a new initiative in a couple of years to replace it and smell of roses Fleur de Lis all the way into the next election. Mulroney is nothing if not a very astute politician. Sa having buried Meech Lake, what of the future? Not much. The only thing that Meech Lake supposedly accomplished was to pave the way to negotiations on other issues like Senate reform and aboriginal rights which Quebec would ave no part of as long as it was not a signator te the Consti tion. But Meech Lake also made all such future negotiations next to impossible. So all those other issues have te stay on the back burner until such time as it is in Quebec's interest te deal with them. And that day will come when Quebec' wants something badly enough that it will negotiate in better faith than it has in the past. Probably the most damaging result of the last few weeks had nothing at all to do with constitutions and the like. What it did was give new ammunition to all the bigots in the country who constantly look for new excuses to bash the Frogs or the Wasps or whatever derogatory terminology they can invent. And it has left all the positive developments towards bilingualism dangling. All those tens of thousands of English parents who have opted to have their kids educated in French have a right te feel angry that Quebec won't allow English signs even in English parts of Quebec. The balance of confederation seems a little one-sided these days. If French was really in danger, I could be sympathetic, but it isn't. The resurgence of French in Quebec in the last twenty years - in business, in government and on the street - is far more than even the most militant Quebecois would have dared to predict. And the acceptance by anglophone Canada of the French fact - French courts, French laws, French education, even French signs - is evident in all but the most churlish segments of the country. Meech is dead. May it rest in Peace. May the new year bring new initiatives. PI I 8 éL WHITBY HIGH SCIHOOL LITERARY SOCIETY, C. 1931 This picture was taken outside the west door of the Whitby High School, located at the corner of King and Colborne Streets, where the Windsor Place Senior Citizens' Apartments are now. The school was demolished in 1975. In the back row are: Frank Rosettani, Keith Jackson, William Baker, Eileen Gibson, Isabel Brawley, Goldie Levine, Ian Davey, Ross Aylsworth and Sam Donnelly. In the middle row are: Alva Bird, Betty Lawler, Zorah Gee, Mrs. E.M. Brown (teacher), Maude Park and Madeline Mihalko. In the front row are: Ted Bassett, Dick Stuart, Helen Rosettani and Julia Vaselesky. The Whitby High School was built in 1873, designed by Toronto architect Henry Langley, and extensively remodelled in 1915. It became a senior public school when Henry Street High School was built in 1954. The principal in 1931 was Arthur A. Archibald. Whitby Archives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, January 3, 1979 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS • An Ontario Municipal Board hearing will be held at the Municipal Building on Jan. 25 to resolve objections from five families to relocation of the Oshawa Fair to Whitby. • New swings will be installed in Central and Calais Parks by the West Lynde Community Association. • Whitby's Block Parents are planning for incorporation. • Councillor John Goodwin starts his sixth term as chairman of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, January 2, 1964 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS No copy of this issue has survived. 75 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, January 1, 1914 edition of the WHITBY GAZETTE AND CHRONICLE No copy of this issue has survived. 1 2 qi 1