Meech Lake Accord (1987)

In 1987 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the premiers agreed to the Meech Lake Accord, which proposed amendments to the constitution and the decentralization of certain federal powers to the provinces. Robert Bourassa, who had returned as Quebec premier, claimed the accord would bring his province into the constitutional framework from which it had been excluded in 1982. Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who spoke out during a Senate hearing, was furious, partly because of Bourassa’s interpretation of the events of 1982 but mostly because the accord created the potential special status for Quebec that he had so long rejected.

Elijah Harper, the first Indigenous MLA in Manitoba, forced delays in the province’s legislature in protest at the lack of consultation with the country’s Indigenous people. Elsewhere, opposition to the accord, which all provinces had to approve by June 1990, gained support from two new Liberal premiers, Frank McKenna of New Brunswick and Clyde Wells of Newfoundland. The die was cast for its death in June 1990 when Wells, citing the delays in Manitoba, adjourned the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador without a vote.