THERELL ALWAYS BE A CANADA AND A CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Since 1976, when an avowedly separatist Parti Quebecois under Rene Lev esque took power in Quebec, Canada has been caught up in a drama of co ntinuing constitutional crisis, or so it appears. The most critical ac t was the popular defeat on referendum in October 1992 of a comprehens ive settlement reached unanimously by the first ministers, federal and provincial, and the territories with concurrence of interested groups . The latest act was a Quebec election in September 1994, which return ed the Parti Quebecois to power and may result in another Quebec refer endum on independence sometime in 1995. This article seeks to provide some historical perspective on the apparently continuing crisis; by br eaking the crisis up into its components, discontinuity becomes rather more prominent than continuity. Without attempting to predict outcome , it is reasonable to hope that there will, indeed, always be a Canada with Quebec included.