The exploration must commence. What is missing from the rhetoric of the secessionist government in Quebec is the fundamental principle that the exercise of a majority's democratic rights must also be infused with legitimacy. Democracy and legitimacy do not necessarily coincide. Democratic legitimacy must also include a substantive concept of the rule of law. Democracies which are prone to power being achieved and exercised on racial or ethnic lines have particular challenges with respect to democratic legitimacy.
Barker asserts that legitimacy can be differently composed for different groups in society.
A democracy cannot be legitimate if only one section of a society, no matter how powerful, unilaterally determines the terms and conditions of a fundamental nature and affecting the future of all members of that society. Like the rule of law, the rules of the game by which the people exercise their democratic rights must be predictable, transparent, and accountable to all sections of the population. Legitimacy quickly departs from a democracy if the majority rides roughshod over the rights and dignity of minorities and, in the case of Canada, its special responsibilities to its First Nations. It was clear that, prior to the 1995 referendum, the secessionist government in Quebec led by Premier Jacques Parizeau was intent on ignoring the legitimate concerns of the rest of Canada, the minorities within Quebec and the First Nations in the province, including the Cree of Northern Quebec who had voted overwhelmingly to stay in Canada just before the referendum. It could be argued that such a non-transparent and manipulative referendum question is itself an abuse of the democratic rights of Quebeckers.