Conservatives should have learned the first time

I just finished reading  this article about Conservative plans to potentially re-open the constitutional debate in an attempt to garner more voter support in Quebec.  It seems that the Conservatives failed to learn from their constitutional mishaps of the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Brian Mulroney’s PC government tried, and miserably failed twice to get Quebec to sign on to the constitution.  In the process the political right fractured and Quebec nearly voted to separate from Canada.  I see that the Conservatives think that getting Quebec to sign the constitution would be a way to win a lot of Quebec seats, but that is never going to happen.  There is no way to get the other provinces to agree to special Quebec demands without giving something to them in return.

The Charlottetown Accord tried to please everybody, and when it went to the people it was resoundingly defeated.  There is no way to give major concessions to Quebec in the constitution without angering large segments of the rest of Canada, particularly out west.  Opening up the constitutional debate might yield some short term electoral gains for the Conservatives, but recent history has shown us that the short term gain for the Conservatives is a long term pain for the country as a whole.

I hope that if there is some scatter brained attempt by the Conservatives to woe nationalist Quebecers with promises of constitutional changes, that the Conservative heartland of Alberta responds appropriately by turfing a number of Conservative MPs.  I truly hope that any Conservative message getting played in Quebec gets heard in the rest of the country.  What might be gained in Quebec, should, and I think will, be lost in other parts of the country when people realize that constitutional favouritism for Quebec does not make the Canadian union stronger, but rather opens up an even bigger opportunity for Quebec sovereignty.