Federalism or democracy ?: the Meech Lake Accord vs. the Spirit of 1982

The aim of this thesis is to examine the impact that the 1982 Constitution Act has had upon Canadian political culture, using the debate over the 1987 Meech Lake Accord as a case study. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms created a "Spirit of 1982," which emphasizes individual rights and democratic values. The Charter unites Canadians through shared and uniform rights playing down the importance of linguistic duality and provincial identifications. The Meech Lake Accord grew from the older Spirit of 1867, which supported parliamentary supremacy and the accommodation of regional elites. The thesis demonstrates that opposition to the Accord was rooted in the Spirit of 1982, and that this new spirit continues to dominate post-Meech political thought in Canada.