Worth Fighting for (Hardcover)

Chapter One

Much to my surprise, after I informed the central campaign of my full availability, the phone did not start ringing. This was a mystery. Over time I learned that the “No” campaign, headed by the provincial Liberals, had three kinds of tours: the A tour, for the people they wanted speaking throughout the province (primarily provincial Liberals and Tories); the B tour, for lesser-known lights who might be able to cover off some of the less important tour areas; and the C tour, for people they really did not want to show up in the province. I was relegated to the C tour. I found out later that invitations were flooding in from all parts of the province for ministers from outside Quebec, because organizers wanted to be able to show their regions that the rest of Canada truly did care about the outcome of this election. As soon as the invitations reached the “No” headquarters in Montreal, however, they would be cancelled or detoured to

Chapter One

Much to my surprise, after I informed the central campaign of my full availability, the phone did not start ringing. This was a mystery. Over time I learned that the “No” campaign, headed by the provincial Liberals, had three kinds of tours: the A tour, for the people they wanted speaking throughout the province (primarily provincial Liberals and Tories); the B tour, for lesser-known lights who might be able to cover off some of the less important tour areas; and the C tour, for people they really did not want to show up in the province. I was relegated to the C tour. I found out later that invitations were flooding in from all parts of the province for ministers from outside Quebec, because organizers wanted to be able to show their regions that the rest of Canada truly did care about the outcome of this election. As soon as the invitations reached the “No” headquarters in Montreal, however, they would be cancelled or detoured to Quebec politicians. Incredibly, the “No” team was worried the presence of people from outside Quebec would actually attract votes for the separatists. At one point, I angrily remarked to one of our people, “We act as though the province is already separate and then we wonder why people want to separate!”

Let me give an example of how bad it was. I was sent in to an east end Montreal riding which was literally a stone's throw from the main ”No” campaign headquarters in Montreal. I arrived with national media in tow to find an empty committee room with about six people in it. The event had all the makings of a disaster, which would reflect badly on me and worse on the campaign momentum. In the campaign office I quickly sized up the situation and announced to the waiting media that today we were going to be riding the rails — the Montreal subway system, to be exact. We left the office, made our way down to the nearest subway entrance with the six workers, and proceeded to campaign for Canada on the Montreal metro. The television clips were great, people's reaction was positive and we averted one of many near-disasters in a dismal campaign.

At this point, I was so frustrated, I went to the “No” campaign headquarters and tracked down one of the key organizers, Pierre Anctil. I told him about the near-disaster we had just been through that morning and asked him why nobody from outside Quebec seemed welcome in the referendum fight for Canada. Pierre spoke bluntly and directly. As far as he, and most Quebecers were concerned, this was a fight within the family and as outsiders (non-Quebecers), our presence would not be helpful. He then went on to say something that absolutely stunned me. He told me he did not care what the outcome of the race was, win or lose, as long as the difference between the no and the yes was not too great. I could hardly believe my ears. Imagine going into a campaign for your country when your concern for family peace overrides your desire to keep your country together! That, I’m certain, was not only the view of Pierre Anctil. It reflected the general thrust of the leadership of the “No” forces. Here we were, in a fight to the death for Canada, and many of the provincial geniuses in charge of the campaign were playing some silly tactical game of their own. So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that a smart, positive separatist campaign, coupled with internal federal divisions finally produced a near-death experience for Canada.

Only a few days before the end, the numbers on the referendum showed the separatists were poised to win. I was travelling in the west when I received a phone call from Brian Tobin. The usually ebullient Brian sounded positively shaken as he recounted the deadly numbers in the latest referendum internal polling. We were trailing by seven points. What to do? We immediately decided that the time had come to take matters into our own hands. We would let Quebecers know that we cared. And if Liberal organizers kept us out of the province, as federal mps and ministers, we would go full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes, and organize our own rally. And so the rally that saw 100,000 people converge on Canada Place in downtown Montreal took shape in seventy-two hours. We lined up every train, plane, and taxi that could get our people in Montreal. In my own case, we sent sixteen school buses from Hamilton for a gruelling one-day round trip, and there were so many people lined up for the twenty-hour voyage that hundreds were left stranded in Hamilton. Mayor Bob Morrow organized a parallel rally to accommodate those who could not get to Montreal. Liberal mps like Dennis Mills were pulling people in from across the country. The energy was palpable. We were positive and buoyant, sure our message was going to get through to Quebecers, who had been left wondering for weeks why no one cared.

That morning, Brian Tobin and I rose early with the intention of getting on stage about an hour before the official program, to warm up the crowd. We had already been told that, even though we had organized the rally, no non-Quebecers would be speaking as part of the official program. We knew the unofficial program would be just as important. So while mike checks were taking place, we bounded onto the stage, only to have the power disconnected by a key “No” committee organizer, to make sure we could not use the microphones. I could not believe how little so many of the organizers apparently wanted to win.

We even gave up on any semblance of an official tour. Right after the rally, we organized a small plane and Brian Tobin and I headed to the Gaspé and Sept-Îles, ending the whirlwind four-day campaign on Sunday in the Magdalen Islands. In those four days, we went from fishing village to church basement to aboriginal centre, encouraging everyone to cast their vote for Canada. I remember meeting with an aboriginal chief outside Sept-Îles on Saturday morning. Less than forty-eight hours before the vote, no one had ever bothered to contact him to seek his support; Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin had offered to go, but he was waiting for the okay from the “No” committee that never came. When I met with the chief and the tribal council, he told me that they intended to boycott the vote. I literally begged him to convince his people to take a stand for Canada. In the end, his people came out 7,000 strong to vote. That one Saturday morning meeting could literally have made the difference between winning and losing our country.

Yet while Brian and I were on the road, the “No” committee central campaign was on the phone in Montreal trying to cancel our visit. At one point, I received a call from a desperate local, begging us to visit their community for a final Sunday brunch pep rally. We agreed and he was ecstatic. An hour later, he was called by a member of the central committee and told to advise us we were not welcome. I won't repeat the very frank message we left for the central committee but I will tell you that the Sunday morning rally was one of the most successful of the campaign. Conservatives and Liberals came together in the fight of our lives, the fight in which saving Canada meant much more than any political feuding.

A final word about that rally we organized in Montreal’s Canada Place. Cynics may say that it had no effect, other than helping out the Montreal tourist trade. But I believe that we all owe a huge debt to the people who made the effort, and who undoubtedly swung some votes — maybe enough to win the election in that nail-biting night of October 30. So if you were among those who made the trek to Montreal, thank you. What you did was important.

As for my own role, I take it as a badge of honour that I was so active in organizing the rally in the teeth of the Johnson Liberals’ opposition that they refused to let me speak there.

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Excerpted from Worth Fighting For by Sheila Copps Excerpted by permission.
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