For that to happen, the way in which many Quebecers perceive their place in Canada has to deteriorate significantly. A sense of rejection With the failure of the Meech Lake constitutional accord, Quebecers understood that other Canadians did not consider them a distinct society. Many Quebecers thus concluded that their future would be bleak - as a minority in a Canada that had just shown them so little respect and consideration. The ultimate failure of the accord boosted support for sovereignty to a record high, even though the original purpose of the negotiations was to obtain Quebec's signature to the Canadian constitution. Constitutional negotiations tend to lead the debate into abstractions heavy with symbolic meaning, with slogans that leave no room for compromise.
Practical considerations disappear from view.
Questions as concrete as the division of jurisdictions between levels of government come to be regarded in terms of nationalism and the clash of collective identities much more than in terms of effective service to the public. Most Canadians and Quebecers knew little about the legal quibbling in the Meech negotiations and, indeed, cared little. This opened a real Pandora's box, as every part of the country resolved to claim its own right to equality and distinctiveness. The Quebec round of negotiations became the Canada round. And when Meech failed, they had a strong feeling of rejection, which encouraged them to consider radical positions ranging between a high degree of autonomy to outright independence.