Reaction
According to an opinion poll conducted by Angus Reid in November 1997, 62% of Canadians supported the Declaration's principles (39% "moderately," 23% "strongly"). 30% were opposed and 7% had no opinion. These numbers were similar to Quebec's, which found 23% "strongly" in favour and 36% "moderately" in favour (59% overall), and 30% opposed. Radio-Canada also found that in Quebec, 80% of the province's residents would classify the Declaration as "acceptable"; 18% were opposed.
Quebec Liberal Jean Charest voiced some support for the Calgary Declaration. However, a Parti Québécois minister Guy Chevrette said a referendum should take place before Quebec should adopt the Declaration, and sovereignty should be an option in such a referendum. In 2006, the eventually successful candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada Stéphane Dion recalled the Declaration as being unsuccessful. "Few people remember" the Declaration, he writes, and in Quebec the Declaration was quickly dismissed by politicians because it "had no teeth."
Journalist Paul Wells highlighted items he thought were missing from the Declaration, saying "The Calgary declaration says nothing about health care, good schools, the return of prosperity, the slow rebirth of a thoughtful Canadian foreign policy, or the possibility of sharing good ideas and ennobling projects with fellow citizens who don't speak the same language but who share the same values."
Read more about this topic: Calgary Declaration
Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
“Sole and self-commanded works,
Fears not undermining days,
Grows by decays,
And, by the famous might that lurks
In reaction and recoil,
Makes flames to freeze, and ice to boil.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Children, randomly at first, hit upon something sooner or later that is their mother’s and/or father’s Achilles’ heel, a kind of behavior that especially upsets, offends, irritates or embarrasses them. One parent dislikes name-calling, another teasing...another bathroom jokes. For the parents, this behavior my have ties back to their childhood, many have been something not allowed, forbidden, and when it appears in the child, it causes high-voltage reaction in the parent.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)