Word: according
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...months June 23 had loomed as the date of Canada's constitutional Armageddon. If the ten provinces failed by that time to ratify the delicate agreement known as the Meech Lake accord, years of effort at balancing the aspirations of French- and English-speaking Canadians would automatically fall apart -- and so, in the most pessimistic prognosis, might the country...
...outcome was unmitigated disaster for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He had stressed time and again that the Meech Lake effort would fail unless two balking provinces voted to ratify the accord. At the center of Mulroney's concern was the agreement's recognition that Quebec could preserve and promote a unique status as a "distinct society" within Canada, based on the fact that the province is the only one with a French-speaking majority. Many other Canadians, including former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, charged that the accord might fatally weaken the country...
There was rejoicing, however, among Canadians who objected to the accord's content. The Manitoba standoff was a victory for the legislature's only native member, Elijah Harper, 41, a Cree Indian. Harper had managed to stall debate on the Meech Lake question for almost two weeks. He wanted the accord to fail, on the ground that it did not recognize the unique status of Canada's 700,000 aboriginal people. Thousands of his supporters gathered before the legislature in solidarity, pounding drums and holding prayer vigils...
...Manitoba time to complete its ratification. The maneuver had the opposite result. The premier of the other dissenting province, Newfoundland's Clyde Wells, complaining bitterly of the "fabricated precipice" of the June 23 deadline, then called off his own legislature's vote. Murray announced an hour later that the accord had expired...
...wide-ranging accord, the U.S. agreed to raise its tax revenues. Japan said it would spend $1 billion more on public works in the next decade. The two measures are aimed at helping close the trade gap and easing trade friction...