In June 1987, after a 2O hour long marathon session of bargaining, prime minister Brian Mulroney and the 1O provincial first ministers believed they had drafted a document to, as Mulroney said "welcome Quebec back into the constitutional family". The document, which had been formulated after considerable "wrangling" on such issues as the importance of  Quebec's french language culture, federal funding of provincial programs, and appointing of members of the supreme court and senate, was described at the time by Mr. Mulroney as "closing one chapter in Canadian history and beginning another". Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned, and this is one chapter Mr. Mulroney probably wishes he'd never had to begin. Let's go back to the spring of 1982, and see where things began to go awry.

February 1982: British parliament approves the "Canada Act", a series of changes to the 1867 British North America Act. Included are a Charter Of Rights And Freedoms and a clause to "patriate" the constitution, and thus end all reference to the United Kingdom for future amendments (which has been  especially annoying for the french Quebecois). Because Quebec - unlike the other nine provinces - failed to agree to the Act, the Liberal government of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has had to take the Act to the British Parliament on the approval of only nine of the ten provinces, although it was passed by both the house of commons and the senate. The  Quebec government, outraged by the decision, attempts to challenge the Act in court after it's passing by House of Commons on December 2, 1981. Flags  fly at half mast on this day in Quebec.

etc., etc., etc.   The "you are here" approach I thankfully abandoned in future writings.