We survived the death of Meech Lake, observes Andrew Cohen today. Indeed we survived it so well that hardly anyone else seems to be noticing the 20th anniversary of its collapse.
I recall Michael Bliss saying at the time, "It's a disaster if it passes and a disaster if it fails." But we would have been stuck with the disaster forever had it passed, whereas the disaster of failure turned out to be remarkably survivable.
Andrew calls the accord seemingly moderate, but concedes that the people were right and the political class was wrong. It was always the process that was all wrong. We are represented in legislatures not in first ministers; it was always impossible for a horse-trading gaggle of first ministers to make a legitimate constitutions.
