United We Fall: The Crisis of Democracy in Canada

Penny E. Bryden teaches history at Mount Allison University in New
Brunswick.

Rich with insights gained from extensive interviews with the political
participants, this is a detailed and informative study of Canadian
politics during the long months of 1992—a year that witnessed efforts
to right the perceived wrongs of the Meech Lake Accord, the frenetic
referendum campaign, and the eventual departure of a number of key
figures from the public limelight. With sensitivity to the validity of
the competing arguments and a keen eye for interesting tidbits of
constitutional gossip, Delacourt charts the evolution of what became the
Charlottetown Accord from the perspective of the participants and
pseudo-participants—the provincial premiers, the federal government,
the National Action Committee, and aboriginal groups.

The book is not without flaws. Delacourt sometimes glosses over the
subtleties of various positions in an effort to impose cohesion on
chaos. Prime Minister Mulroney and Minister of Constitutional Affairs
Joe Clark are misleadingly portrayed as near-adversaries in the struggle
for a new constitution—the former representing Quebec’s demands and
the latter supposedly speaking for the “Rest of Canada.” Elsewhere
Delacourt lets her sympathy for Trudeau’s brand of liberalism color
her analysis of the perils of constitutional renewal. On the whole,
however, this is a fair and informative study of constitutional politics
in 1992.