The Morning After.

AuthorJones, David
PositionBook review

The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and The Day That Almost Was by Chantal Hebert with Jean Lapierre, Alfred A Knopf Canada, 2014, ISBN-13: 9780345807625, 320 pp., $21.74 (Hardcover), $12.79 (Kindle).

The Morning After is "iffy history." It is akin to alternate science fiction "history" hypothesizing what would have happened if England's Henry VIII had mature sons, Lee had won at Gettysburg, or Hitler had been assassinated. These can be speculative fun, but Morning After addresses a much more proximate issue: What would Canada's political actors have done if the "yes" side of the 1995 sovereignty referendum had prevailed?

Given the recently concluded Scotland referendum, the infinitely tighter Quebec sovereignty referendum (No: 51.6 percent and Yes: 49.4 percent), even 20 years past, provides some fascinating insights to the politics of what-could-have-happened.

The authors are well qualified. Hebert is Canada's premier bilingual journalist and political commentator; she wrote the text. Lapierre is a former federal Member of Parliament, member of two Liberal Party

cabinets, but also a founder of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Their tactic for the book was to interview in depth many key players; either or both Hebert or Lapierre knew them professionally, often for many years.

Consequently, their list of interviews included two Canadian prime ministers (Jean Chretien and Paul Martin); four Quebec premiers (Lucien Bouchard, Jacques Parizeau, Jean Charest, and Daniel Johnson); five provincial premiers (Brian Tobin [Newfoundland], Roy Romanow [Saskatchewan], Mike Harris and Bob Rae [Ontario]; and Frank McKenna [New Brunswick]. Additionally, they interviewed the head of the major federalist opposition party (Preston Manning [Reform]), the Canadian ambassador in Washington (Raymond Chretien-the prime minister's nephew but also a professional career diplomat), the leader of the second separatist party (Mario Dumont), and several minor players whose positions appeared bureaucratically important but whose roles were secondary/tertiary.

As I was Political Minister Counselor in Ottawa from 1992-96, I had a front row seat for the entire sovereignty/referendum effort. I met constantly during the period with federalists and separatists albeit it primarily at lower levels than those now tapped by Hebert/Lapierre. U.S. policy for the referendum was carefully designed and "tweaked" during the referendum campaign. Obviously, we had no interest in a...

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