Provincial Autonomy Quotes

Traitor? Traitor to what? My country is Quebec!

No Province shall be transferred from one Government to another without the consent by plebiscite or otherwise of the population of such Province.

Why would it be ridiculous that Quebec has an army?

My party will do nothing on climate change because environment, it's a shared jurisdiction, and provinces, they have programs for that, and so I'll let provinces decide what they're going to do to fight climate change.

A nation, therefore, has no right to say to a province: You belong to me, I want to take you. A province consists of its inhabitants. If anybody has a right to be heard in this case it is these inhabitants. Boundary disputes should be settled by plebiscite.

The biggest risk to Quebec isn't sovereignty. It is staying in Canada.

Punjab believes that every province has equal rights, and when all provinces will make progress, Pakistan will make progress.

Confederation is a compact, made originally by four provinces but adhered to by all the nine provinces who have entered it, and I submit to the judgment of this house and to the best consideration of its members, that this compact should not be lightly altered.

I want my own country, not against Canada but for Quebec.

To suggest that Quebecers willingly give up the chance to exercise fully their influence within the federal government would be to betray the historical role Quebec has always played in Confederation, and to undermine the legitimacy of their pride and ambitions.

Well, the federal government has a responsibility to provide leadership in bringing together provinces.

Ottawa gives to foreigners, Duplessis gives to his province.

Hungary together with her annexed territories is independent and should be governed and administered according to her own laws and customs and not as other provinces are.

Recognizing Quebec as being different, recognizing our history, recognizing our identity, has never meant a weakening of Quebec and has never been a threat to national unity.

If, as is believed by many Canadians, Canada can not exist without Quebec, then it simply does not deserve to exist.

I know Quebecers don't want to relive old battles; they prefer to build for the future.

If Quebecers want to keep the Canadian dollar, they'll keep it - and nobody can stop that, end of debate.

I don't expect my children to suffer much if Quebec should withdraw or Canada withdraw from Quebec. ... Yet it's been a lovely place to grow up in …

The Chinese Republic stands upon a base of sand, that the moderate men are looking forward to the re-establishment of a monarchy, the army to a military despotism or extended anarchy, the provinces to autonomy, and the robber Powers around China to spoliation on a scale even bigger than has hitherto been possible. Young China's friends have served the honest members of the party badly, by persuading Europe and America to accept as genuine the elaborate sham which has been erected, by talking of the solidity of the Republic and the acquiescence of the people.

It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.

We're going to make sure there is a strong price on carbon right across the country, and we're hoping that the provinces are going to be able to do that, in a way, for themselves.

Withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan... Collect our own revenue from personal income tax... Resume provincial responsibility for health-care policy. If Ottawa objects to provincial policy, fight in the courts... [E]ach province should raise its own revenue for health... It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta.