Word: manitoba
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Most Quebeckers are perplexed. They find it hard to understand why a deal that was supported by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and approved by eight of ten provincial legislatures representing 94% of the population could have been blocked by a handful of politicians in provinces like Manitoba and Newfoundland. The answer, it seems, is not so much that the naysayers were hostile to Quebec as that they were determined that other Canadians must be granted the same recognition...
...weeks ago, Mulroney thought he had secured an agreement on the pact after a 70-hour marathon of closed-door bargaining with provincial premiers in Ottawa. Last week he saw that deal fall apart when the legislatures of Manitoba and Newfoundland adjourned without taking ratification votes. "Today is not the day to launch new constitutional initiatives," a somber Mulroney said afterward. "It is a time to heal wounds and reach out to fellow Canadians...
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...
...stonewalling clutched an eagle feather as a sign of divine guidance. The province's aims "are the same goals we as aboriginal people are seeking to achieve." Ottawa's attempts to mollify Harper with promises of an active role in future constitutional reform were rejected by native leaders. Said Manitoba's Ovide Mercredi: "We aren't interested in horse-trading...
...federal government made a last-ditch attempt to save the deal. Mulroney's chief constitutional negotiator, Senator Lowell Murray, announced that the government would ask the Supreme Court to extend the June 23 deadline, thus giving 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...