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Harper to announce deal giving Quebec more formal international role
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce a deal giving Quebec a greater role on the international stage with a semi-formal presence at a United Nations agency.
He will make the announcement alongside Premier Jean Charest when he visits Quebec City on Friday as part of his ongoing charm offensive in the province.
The deal will see the province gain new privileges at UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization.
One provision of the agreement will give Quebec an official representative within the Canadian UNESCO office in Paris.
But sources in the federal and provincial capitals said the deal should not alarm those worrying about Canada speaking with two voices internationally.
"Quebec will remain part of the Canadian delegation," said one federal official.
The prime minister promised during the recent federal election campaign to grant Quebec's request for a more formal presence within UNESCO.
The Tories subsequently won 10 Quebec seats in an unexpected breakthrough that now has them scouting the province as a gateway to their coveted majority government.
The Conservatives have attained their best opinion poll results in 15 years in the province and, in one survey, even jumped ahead of the recently-dominant Bloc Quebecois.
Harper has already met with Charest three times since becoming prime minister and the two consider each other strategic allies.
By way of comparison, Harper's meeting with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty on Thursday was billed as only their first one-on-one encounter.
There're a simple explanation for Charest and Harper's political honeymoon: they believe they need each other.
The unpopular provincial Liberals are pinning their longshot re-election hopes on a deal over UNESCO and federal cash transfers from Harper.
As for the federal Tories, they see Quebec as the launching pad toward a possible majority and hope to gain another dozen seats there.
The provincial Liberals were already rehearsing the anticipated lines for Friday's announcement.
"This is tangible proof of Mr. Harper's open federalism," one source close to Charest said of the deal.
"We are very satisfied. We got what we wanted."
Sovereigntists, however, will likely downplay the significance of the deal and argue that it doesn't represent any tangible gain for Quebec.
They will note that former prime minister Paul Martin also promised the province a vaguely defined "seat at the table" at UNESCO, although no formal agreement was ever reached.
Harper promised to give Quebec a more specific role, similar to the one it plays at Francophonie conferences. But Quebec has a completely independent seat at that organization, which is like a Commonwealth for French-speaking countries.
The prime minister was forced to admit after the election that he couldn't offer quite the same deal at UNESCO. The UN body does not allow sub-national states to become independent members.
Harper's campaign promise appeared to go even further than what the provincial Liberals had been demanding.
In a provincial position paper last fall, Quebec said it wanted a permanent representative at UNESCO who would be part of the Canadian delegation.
The request was just one element in a longer paper that argued that Canada must upgrade its approach to international relations to suit 21st century needs.
In an era when borders are opening, trade is being liberalized, and international treaties are being signed at a furious pace, Quebec says Ottawa cannot continue consulting provinces on an ad hoc basis while it prepares to sign deals to which they must later adhere.
Harper points to the Kyoto accord as a symptom of the problem. He says Canada will fail to meet its greenhouse gas-reduction targets because the Liberals didn't check with the provinces first to see how they might implement the treaty.
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