After Meech Lake: An Insider's View

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

As constitutional advisor to David Peterson during the latter’s time
as Premier of Ontario, Monahan was intimately involved in the Meech Lake
constitutional fiasco of 1987 to 1990. This work, his reflection on the
entire process, is an extremely useful and informative essay on the how,
why, and why not of the ill-fated constitutional proposals of 1987.

Canadians are clearly suffering from Trudeau’s decision to “go
without Quebec” in 1980. Meech Lake was intended to rectify that rash
move; unfortunately it failed. However, we can learn from our mistakes.
Monahan has given us a map of the past and a possible blueprint for the
future. Meech Lake may have seen the demise of “executive
federalism.” The question now, as Monahan indicates, is whether
Canadians can develop the necessary creative solutions and at the same
time bury their antagonisms to “permit all groups and individuals to
retain membership honourably in the community.” As Monahan points out,
we must overtake our history in order to survive as a nation.

Readers will look foward with keen anticipation to his forthcoming
book, Meech Lake: The Inside Story.