Canada’s Unity: Four Years Bought

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32298, 16 May 1970, Page 15

Canada’s Unity: Four Years Bought

(From

MELVIN SUFRIN,

Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

TORONTO, May 14. A convincing Liberal Party victory in the Quebec Provincial election has bought four years of breathing space in the campaign to preserve Canada as a unified nation.

With 72 seats in the 108member Legislature, 36-year-old Mr Robert Bourassa has a clear mandate to solve the province’s problems within confederation and not, as some would have it, as an independent State. His main problem is unemployment The predominantly French-speaking province f 6,000,000 has a jobless rate of about 10 per cent. It needs 100,000 new jobs in a hurry and an infusion of investment capital to get its economy moving.

If Mr Bourassa should fail, the separatist Parti Quebecois is waiting in the wings. A relatively new force dedicated to seeking political independence, the party received 24 per cent of the Votes in the April 29 election although it won only seven seats.

Mr Rene Levesque, the brilliant intellectual who quit the Liberal Party several years ago and has since managed to unite various separatist groups in Quebec, was personally defeated but will continue as Parti Quebecois leader. And he can be patient, knowing that he has a base of support comprising almost one-quarter of the province’s voting population.

Shattered in the election was the Union Nationale, led by Jean-Jacques Bertrand, which had governed the province for four years with a slender majority. It remains the official opposition with 16 members but only 20 per cent of the vote. And there is talk that, after dominating politics in Quebec for many years, it may never recover from this setback. The remaining 13 seats ure held by the Creditistes, a Quebec-based offshoot of Social Credit, who received 11 per cent of the votes. Newcomers to provincial politics, they are expected to support the Federalist policies of the new Liberal Government. Mr Bourassa’s victory is something of a triumph as well for the Prime Minister (Mr Trudeau) who led the Federal Liberals to victory in

1968 largely on the strength of his opposition to proposals for special status for his own province of Quebec.

But while Mr Trudeau and Mr Bourassa belong to the same party, their relations may not be all sweetness and light. The Federal Government is dedicated to fighting inflation by cooling the economy and keeping a tight rein on spending. This will inevitably bring it into conflict with expected demands from Quebec for a larger share of taxes and other concessions aimed at reviving the province’s sagging economy. Mr Bourassa also wants a revised Constitution that will give the province more of the means to control its economic and political destiny. “I am not seeking special status for Quebec within the Federal system,” he says. “However, Mr Trudeau’s approach in the last two years has been too rigid. I think that with a strong Quebec Government and with good, logical arguments we can work out a more acceptable Constitution. . . . i

“The Federal system is the best protection against the United States, the largest type of Right-wing society in

the world. In North America, the smaller the political unit the more dependent it becomes. We are much safer in confederation but we have to make it work.” Mr Bourassa, a lawyer and economist whose wife is heiress to a shipbuilding fortune, is, at 36, the youngest Premier in the province’s history. Although he has been Liberal leader only since January, when he was chosen to succeed his mentor, the former Premier, Mr Jean Lesage, he appears well equipped to tackle Quebec’s problems. He has studied at Harvard University, the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne and has degrees in law, economics and political science. He served on a series of Federal and provincial task forces and commissions and at 30 headed a Royal commission of inquiry into Quebec’s financial situation. Mr Lesage invited him to

run for election in 1966, on the promise that he would become Minister of Finance if the Liberals were returned to office. As it turned out, they were narrowly defeated. But Mr Bourassa won a seat. Now, four years later, he has a chance to test his economic theories from a platform of power. And to the extent that investor confidence will help him succeed, he has a major advantage over his opponents. There is evidence that fears of separation in the last few years have scared off millions of dollars of investment money. Some firms left the province and others abandoned plans to establish operations in Quebec. The day after the election the Montreal Stock Exchange rose sharply. The people with money to invest were obviously happy with the result. It should not be long before capital begins to flow into Quebec once again.