The Quebec Liberal Party has proposed that the province write its own constitution, which the party says would lead to “unity.”
The idea was announced in a video posted on social media on Monday by Julie White, a member of the party’s policy committee, and Antoine Dionne Charest, son of former Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest.
“The Constitution allows us to define who we really are through our language, our civil code and the powers of the Quebec government,” White says in the video.
Quebec refused to sign the Canadian Constitution, which was transferred from Britain in 1982. Since then, the province’s political leaders have expressed differing views on Quebec’s place in the federation, with some calling for independence and others arguing for closer ties with Canada.
In 2017, former Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard called for a “dialogue” with the federal government and other provinces with a view to eventually signing off on the deal in Quebec. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau summarily rejected the call.
“You know my views on the constitution,” Trudeau said at the time. “I’m not going to question the constitution again.”
The party is looking for a new leader.
The Liberals are calling for another constitutional debate as opinion polls show single-digit support from the French-speaking majority. In the video, Dionne Charest says the proposal is a response to the ruling Coalition Avenir Quebec’s policies that divide Quebecers, and to the Parti Quebecois’ plans to “separate from Canada.”
He said the constitution “unites us against the Quebec government, which sees immigration and Canada as the source of all our problems, and it also protects us against the Quebec government, and against laws in that province that seem discriminatory to Quebecers, especially those who speak languages other than French.”
The proposed constitution was tabled last year by the Liberal Caucus, which is seeking to reboot a party that has yet to recover from Couillard’s loss to Premier François Legault’s CAQ in the 2018 election. In 2022, the Liberals are down to 21 seats from 31, but will remain the official opposition to the CAQ.
Recent opinion polls have put the PQ in the lead, and its leader, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon, has promised to hold a referendum on sovereignty if his party wins the next election, scheduled for October 2026.
By then, the Liberal party is scheduled to choose a new leader in June. Former Montreal mayor and federal Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre has officially thrown his hat in the ring, as has Charles Milliard, the recently retired president of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Federal Liberal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez has said he has received an invitation from the Parti Quebecois.
