
Just came across this in a reading, and was wondering if you could explain it. What is the Charlottetown Accord?
Hah, that's quite a question to ask. The Charlottetown Accord was basically a big package of constitutional amendments proposed by the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992. It aimed to correct a vast array of problems with Canada's political order, and would have introduced, among other things, an elected Canadian senate and given the provinces greater influence over the appointment of Supreme Court justices. But most controversially, it also recognized Quebec as a "distinct society," guaranteed that the province would perpetually control 25% of seats in the House of Commons regardless of its population, and gave the House's "Francophone" caucus the right to unilaterally veto certain kinds of legislation.
Almost everyone hated something about the Accord, despite the fact that it had massive, massive support from the Canadian establishment, including every provincial government, every political party, and most major media outlets. It was put to referendum and the Canadian people soundly voted it down, and in the aftermath the Canadian party system went a bit nuts for a while.
These are broad strokes. It's a very complicated matter to summarize, since people still very much debate to this day what the Accord really did or did not say, or what it would or wouldn't have done if it became law.

