Canada: The Dawn of a New Family

Bleary-eyed but triumphant at 5:40 a.m., Canada's ten provincial premiers and Brian Mulroney, the Federal Prime Minister, emerged from a 20-hour negotiating session last week and proclaimed that their country was finally one. Back in 1982, after 115 years of British stewardship, Canada's constitution had been given over to Ottawa's direct control. But the French-speaking province of Quebec refused to sign the charter, charging that then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was using the document to dilute French Canada. In April of this year, Mulroney and the provinces hammered out a delicate agreement recognizing Quebec as a "distinct society" and permitting it a larger degree of autonomy. Yet some premiers soon had qualms over the favors granted French Canadians and forced Mulroney into last week's marathon renegotiation. By sunrise, there was accord on provincial rights, and the premiers signed the constitution. "Today," said an ecstatic Mulroney, "we welcome Quebec into the constitutional family."