| Abstract: | This article traces the attempts by Canada to redesign its federalconstitution to reflect that political reality which most effectivelydistinguishes it from its American neighbor, namely, its bicommunalcharacter. Reviewing various explanations for the constitutionalimpasse, notably that of a conspiracy by English-speaking provincesor of bad faith by the Québec provincial government,the author concludes that in the case of two territorially-basedsocieties, constitution-making becomes a battleground wherelocal elites strive to maintain societal autonomy and make useof governmental institutions to achieve their own objectives.Thus the retreat from bicommunalism, which has characterizedthe 1982 and 1987 constitutional reform exercises, should beseen not so much as a failure of federal-provincial diplomacy,but of the difficulties in accommodating two competing and mutuallyexclusive strategies of state-building. |
