Would Jack Layton accept the results of a Quebec referendum in favour of sovereignty? Short answer: yes.

Posted by Joanna Smith, Ottawa Bureau

New Democrat Leader Jack Layton was giving an interview to 98.5 FM radio in Montreal on Tuesday morning when the host Paul Arcand opened the line up to questions.

The first question was what politicians would call a "hypothetical": If the NDP formed the government -- majority or minority -- and the Parti Quebecois had a majority government at the provincial level, would Layton accept the decision of a referendum in favour of sovereignty for Quebec?

"La réponse est oui," Layton said, before going on to explain that it is a position the NDP has held for a long time.

The NDP position on Quebec is spelled out in the Sherbrooke Declaration, which the General Council of the NDP Quebec Section adopted in 2005.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the section on Quebec's right ot self-determination (beginning on page 7):

"The NDP is committed to respect, in all its dealings, the Loi Quebecoise sur la Consultation populaire (Quebec Referendum Act). Also, the NDP would recognize a majority decision (50 % +1) of the Quebec people in the event of a referendum on the political status of Quebec. The NDP recognizes as well that the right to self-determination implies that the Assemblee nationale is able to write a referendum question and that the citizens of Quebec are able to answer it freely. It would be to the Federal government to determine its own process in the Spirit of the Supreme Court ruling and under international law, in response to the results of the popular consultation in Quebec." (emphasis added, pp. 7-8)

That last bit is the kicker. Would the NDP accept the decision of a referendum? The short answer Layton gave might not have fully answered the question. It would depend on what the person meant when he asked Layton if he would accept the decision. If he meant that Layton would then move on to negotiations as per the 1998 Supreme Court reference on the secession of Quebec (which led to the Clarity Act), then the answer is still yes. But would he champion what the people of Quebec decided when it came time to negotiate? That question remains unanswered.

Layton was nonetheless clear that he would prefer Quebec remain in Canada, campaigning in the province on promises to extend French-language legislation to federal institutions and a law that would require Supreme Court of Canada justices to be bilingual. Layton has even said he would consider getting Quebec to sign on to the Constitution down the road, although he has stressed it is not a priority he is hearing about from Quebecers.

"I want to create winning conditions for Canada in Quebec, because I am from a federalist party and I would prefer to see a strong Quebec within Canada, because I was born and raised in Quebec and for me it is one of the key elements of our country," Layton said on the radio.

UPDATE: Paul Wells at Maclean's wrote a blog post Wednesday morning about Layton's constitutional musings that included an interview with NDP strategist Brian Topps, where he insists the NDP is not calling for the Clarity Act to be repealed.

But as Joan Bryden at The Canadian Press pointed out in her story Tuesday night, the NDP position on the Quebec referendum in general -- and the Clarity Act in particular -- has been all over the place.