Today is the end of the twentieth century and Canada is poised to enter the twenty-first century.
If there is one thing Canadians have learned in the past one hundred and thirty years of Confederation is to face reality by paying attention to the needs of the times, not to the needs of the ruling elite to maintain the status quo. It does not take a genius to understand that the Calgary Declaration, the letters of Dion to Quebec ministers and the use of the Supreme Court to decide on the constitutionality of the right of Quebec to exercise its sovereignty are part of a single whole which aims to further negate the right of the Quebec people to affirm their sovereignty. Chretien's statement according to which before Quebeckers were buying the pipe dreams of he separatists, now they are becoming more realistic is an open admission that his main interest is to block the movement of the people of Quebec to affirm their sovereignty. It is to say that the Chretien Liberals will carry on with their politics of threats and interference in the affairs of Quebec until the time the people of Quebec give up their right to decide their own future. Since a right belongs to the holder by virtue of his or her being, and cannot be given, taken away, usurped or given up, and the right of the Quebec nation to self-determination is such a right, it is Chretien that seems to be very unrealistic.