Trudeau warns Quebecers against vote for Impasse’

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 9

Trudeau warns Quebecers against vote for Impasse’

NZPA-Reuter Ottawa! The Canadian- Prime Minister (Mr Pierre Trudeau)! has warned Quebecers that! they face an impasse if they! give the Quebec Premier (Mr Rene Levesque) a mandate to negotiate the province’s partial independence from Canada. The Prime Minister was speaking in Parliament shortly after Mr Levesque announced in Quebec City that a referendum would be held on May 20 to decide whether he should get a ! negotiating mandate for his “sovereignty - association” proposal. Mr Levesque urged Quebec’s four million voters, most of them French-speak-ers, to vote “yes” to the proposal, which means political independence for the province, ' cushioned by freshly-negotiated economic union with the rest' of Canada,' . .■

He promised that there ; would be no change in Quebec’s status as a result of. any talks with Ottawa which! was not ratified in another referendum. But Mr Trudeau, in his first big speech on Canada’s most iundamental political issue since returning to power two months ago, declared: “Those who vote ‘5 r es’ should know that they, are going into an impasse.” I Mr Trudeau said the referendum question, stating that “sovereignty” and "association” could be negotiated simultaneously, was deliberately ambiguous and could not be negotiated on as it stood.

“Nobody can associate in a Common Market type of association with a Quebec which will not be independent . . . and nobody can

negotiate the independence of Quebec since the Premier of Quebec will not have a' mandate to negotiate it

unless he gets associatioi . .” he said. Mr Trudeau called on th province to-vote against th< demand for a negotiatin mandate to end uncertaint that had dogged Quebe since Mr Levesque’s Part

Quebecois was elected in November, 1976. Mr Trudeau promised that if Quebecers voted “no” in, the referendum, he would! work towards constitutional i reforms — called “renewed: federalism” — to reconcile i demands for greater autonomy in Quebec and some other provinces with the need to maintain a strong united country. Mr Levesque's announcement of the date of the referendum triggered 35 days of campaigning for the referendum. Preliminary campaigning had already started in recent weeks. But from yesterday, both sides are restricted to spending $2.1 million each ion the campaign. Mr Levesque heads the e campaign for a “yes” vote, ; while the Quebec Liberal ’Party chief, Mr Claude 7 Ryait, leads the campaign cfor a “no” vote in alliance t -with Mr Trudeau.