bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1990), pp. 41–42
Was the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord a rogue foreign policy initiative concocted by someone in the Department of External Affairs? “Tommy rot,” reply senior officials in External who are keeping mum on the subject in face of increasing evidence to the contrary.
Policy Memorandum on Meech Lake
Inside sources swear that someone in External Affairs prepared a policy memorandum on Meech Lake at the beginning of this year. No senior official will confirm this and no copy can be found on the BICO files.
What is certain is that a rough draft of a memorandum, “Foreign Policy Prospects of the Meech Lake Accord Failure: And Now the Good News,” exists. It was found on the back of a diplomatic note addressed to the Embassy of Venezuela in February. Fortunately the Venezuelans returned the note to the Cabinet Liaison and Coordination Secretariat, believing correctly the draft note on the back had little to do with the issue of the payment of parking tickets on the front.
An aide in the Minister’s office confides that there was indeed a memorandum which presented a positive case for the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord from a foreign policy perspective. “It was incredible. It argued that the Meech Lake Accord deadlock could put Canada on the map and give us great foreign visibility. Sort of like Lester Pearson’s Nobel Peace Prize or Lore Greene on Bonanza. The Minister thought it was a dumb idea.”
Strategic Overview
While senior External Affairs officials are not talking, the rogue memorandum appears to be common knowledge within the Department.
“It wasn’t ours. But, it did accurately portray a great opportunity for a foreign policy initiative,” relates an official in the Policy Development Bureau. Pulling out some overheads, he goes on. “Just look at the foreign policy optic. The Cold War is over. Eastern and Central Europe are turning towards market economies and pluralist democracies. The Soviet empire is disintegrating. The EC is moving toward monetary and political union. Japan is forming a regional bloc in the Pacific. And the USA is working on a Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and a common economic zone with Latin America.
“Where does this leave Canada?” He points to a small dot on an overhead covered with squares, pyramids and concentric circles. “It leaves us here — out in the cold, so to speak. Nowhere. Marginalized. Forgotten. Nul.”
“Granted, there were some downsides to the initiative — like the actual disintegration of Canada. I heard Executive Committee was deadlocked on this. But you know how hard it is to get agreement in that group. It is an unwieldy process. You have to get unanimous agreement of 15 ADMs, two DMs, an undersecretary and countless special advisors and ambassadors. And they change every five months. They had to be locked up for seven days at Montebello to get an agreement.”
New Canadian Architecture
An official in the Europe Bureau admits seeing the memorandum. “Oh yeah, that memo. It came out around about the same time as a call for briefing notes on the visit of the Danish Minister of Small Business, so we didn’t focus too much on it.”
“It wasn’t ours. However, the memo was important for the Bureau. Here we are beavering away at memoranda, policy analyses and initiatives on the new European architecture, on a common European home, on the new Soviet federation and on institutional links with EC. The only problem was every European leader was telling us to mind our own business.”
“Gorbachev, when he was here, told us he didn’t give a bowl of borscht for our thinking on new arrangements for Lithuania and Estonia. Havel said much the same thing about our common European house thinking. As for Delors, he indicated our ideas on the EC would be as welcome as our proposals on the North Atlantic fisheries.”
“We needed something to bargain with — like a Canadian constitutional crisis.” He beams. “This came along and, by God, it worked. Since the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”
“Every European country has been offering advice. Some have even created task forces on a new Canadian architecture or a common Canadian cabin. Now they are delighted to listen to our ideas on their crises if we listen to their ideas on our crises. The Azerbaijanis and Armenians, in particular, have come up with some interesting ideas.”
The G-7 Summit Angle
The Economic Policy Bureau was uncharacteristically tight-lipped, but one director talked for three hours, after his number was inadvertently dialed.
“Franchement, a vrai dire, en toute franchise, the Bureau was originally against the initiative. It wasn’t ours. Comme disait Descartes, there were negative aspects — the most serious being the possibility of getting chucked out of the G-7.”
“But, as the Summit approached, everyone else seemed to have a pet political issue — the French had aid to the USSR, the Germans had unification, Italy had debt and the World Cup, and Japan and the USA had the Structural Impediments Initiative.”
“We had nothing, rien du tout. We kicked around a number of possibilities — talking about the Queen’s visit, the Blue Jays and Expos, etc. You name it, we thought about it. Finally, we said, what the hell. A Meech Lake Accord failure would give us the opportunity to draft some really interesting talking points for the Prime Minister for the luncheons and dinners.”
The Communications Plan
Officials in the Media Relations Division were all smiles. “Do you realize we have been trying to get the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Le Monde, the Financial Times, anyone, to write stories on Canada for the last year. No success. Apparently there is not much of a market for media features on the mating of polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba or the great pancake recipes of former Governor General Sauvé.
He continues. “This Meech Lake thing has given us a great profile, great coverage. It wasn’t our memo. But whoever thought of the scenario for the Meech Lake Accord collapse was a genius. What an imagination!”
The Mystery Remains
Who then initiated the rogue memorandum and what happened to it? Did someone in External Affairs really engineer the Meech Lake Accord collapse for foreign policy reasons or did it fail for domestic reasons?
When asked about the memorandum, an official in Privy Council Office looks puzzled. “What memorandum? We never saw any memo on Meech Lake from External. Why would they prepare a recommendation on the issue?”
He continues, “But then again, those guys at External often do the strangest things. For example, today we got their list of nominees for ambassadorial positions. Get this — they are nominating Clyde Wells as Ambassador to Portugal and Manitoba M.P. Harper as Ambassador to Greenland. Do they actually think the PM will buy that? In any case, the Prime Minister certainly has other ideas of where those two guys can go to.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1990), pp. 41–42. Read the rest of this issue →
