Quebec Liberals say province needs its own constitution to affirm 'who we are'

The Quebec Liberal Party is proposing that the province adopt its own constitution, a project it says will be «unifying.»

On Monday, members of the party's policy commission — Julie White and Antoine Dionne Charest, son of former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest — announced the idea in a video released on social media.

«A constitution allows us to affirm who we truly are, with our language, our civil law, and the powers of the Quebec government,» White says in the video.

Quebec refused to sign the Canadian Constitution, which was patriated from the United Kingdom in 1982. Since then, political leaders in the province have offered various ideas about Quebec's place in the federation, some campaigning for sovereignty, and others advocating closer ties to Canada.

In 2017, former Liberal premier Philippe Couillard called for a «dialogue» with the federal government and the other provinces, with the goal of reopening the Constitution for an eventual signature from Quebec. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swiftly said no.

«You know my opinion on the Constitution,» Trudeau said at the time. «We're not reopening the Constitution.»

Party seeking new leader

With polls showing support from the francophone majority in the single digits, the Liberals are once again calling for a constitutional debate. In the video, Dionne Charest says the proposal is in response to polices of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec that he says divide Quebecers, and to the Parti Québécois plan to «separate us from Canada.»

A constitution, he said, is «what unites us against the PQ, for whom immigrants and Canada are the source of all problems. It's what protects us against the CAQ, especially against its laws that stigmatize Quebecers who speak a language