One year after he signed a manifesto calling for radical change in Quebec, former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard has spoken out again, urging Quebecers to be honest about problems plaguing their society.

In a speech at McGill University's Redpath Hall Thursday evening, Bouchard said the time has come for Quebecers to stop gazing at their navels and take a look at what their future holds.

Former PQ premier Lucien Bouchard.
(Paul Chiasson/ Canadian Press)

The speech capped a one-day conference that marked the first anniversary of a controversial manifesto Bouchard and other leading Quebec figures signed in 2005, which set off a bitter debate about Quebec's future.

The manifesto for a "Clear-Eyed Vision of Quebec" warned the province was being left behind by globalization, and faced serious challenges given its aging population and changing demographics.

Quebecers should feel guilty about the legacy they're bequeathing future generations, and should reconsider the value of tax reform and paying down their public debt, Bouchard told a crowd of people in business suits on Thursday.

"We must gently raise uncomfortable questions and try to come up with answers." 

These issues will exist whether Quebec chooses sovereignty or not, he warned.

"Whatever the constitutional and political vehicle, the problems to settle are the same, exactly the same. It won't change."

'I was never insulted that much': Bouchard

Bouchard admitted he was shocked at the reaction the 2005 manifesto generated, and the criticism that rained down on him and other signatories, who were reproached for criticizing Quebec's institutions.

"I have a list of the words, the insults. I was never insulted that much in my political life," Bouchard said in a press conference after his speech.

He rationalized the attacks by concluding the manifesto must have hit a nerve in the general population. "It is difficult to lift the veil. We have a beautiful country, a great civilization, but it is threatened by looming dangers ahead. So people don't like to be reminded of that."

Bouchard also defended comments he made in a French-language television interview aired Tuesday, in which he chastized Quebecers for not being productive enough. He wasn't trying to insult anyone, Bouchard said.

"You can't escape the truth. And I like Quebecers too much to not tell them the truth."

Bouchard drew fire from union leaders and former political colleagues for his comments. At the unveiling of Robert Bourassa's statue in Quebec City on Thursday, former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau said Bouchard had disappointed Quebecers once again with his comments.

After his speech at McGill, Bouchard shot back at Parizeau. "[He] also greatly disappointed me … greatly, the night of October '95, with the speech he made."

On the evening of October 30, 1995, Parizeau caused controversy across the country when he told thousands of disappointed sovereigntists that the reason they lost that year's referendum on Quebec sovereignty was because of "money and the ethnic vote."

Bouchard said he has no regrets about what he said. "I'm very relaxed. I'm happy to have spoken out."