MONTREAL — While much of Quebec's political class laments the failure of the Meech Lake accord, there's one leader who doesn't regret the collapse of those constitutional talks 20 years ago.

Jean Chretien.

The former prime minister -- who became Liberal leader just as the accord was dying on June 23, 1990 -- expressed little sadness Tuesday about the anniversary.

"We don't fix daily problems by changing constitutions," Chretien told reporters.

"That was my opinion at the time, and it remains so today."

Chretien presided over what was arguably the most significant consequence of the agreement's collapse: the 1995 independence referendum, which came amid a tidal wave of Quebec nationalism following Meech.

He broke down in an emotion caucus meeting before the vote over the thought that Canada might split up under his watch.

As emotional as that event was, Chretien says he spends little time looking back now that it's over.

"You're caught in the moment," he said. "The next day you have to face the problems at hand.

"Speculation about what happened in the past was never a priority for me."

That makes Chretien a unique figure on the Quebec scene these days. Politicians both past and present have been debating what might have happened if Brian Mulroney had been able to convince provincial hold-outs Manitoba and Newfoundland to rewrite the Constitution to recognize Quebec as a distinct society.

That concession would have secured Quebec's support for the Constitution for the first time since 1981. It would have given the province an additional legal argument in some court cases, like the recent one where the Supreme Court of Canada struck down part of its language law affecting schools.

But it was too bitter for others to swallow -- notably Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who emerged from political retirement to rail against the provision.

Yet several years later, the Canadian government -- this time led by Stephen Harper -- agreed with little fuss to recognize Quebec as a nation.

Quebec sovereigntists have complained that the 2006 "nation" concession is empty, and does not carry nearly the same legal weight as any change to the Constitution.

Chretien suggests, however, that both the 1990 and the 2006 changes were of equally minimal use.

"The first time around, it didn't pass and it didn't change much," he said. "The second time it did pass, and it didn't change much either. Add them together, we talked a lot and not much changed."

Chretien was in Montreal to receive an honorary degree from Concordia University. During his speech, he returned to what has been a hobby horse of late: rescuing respect for Canada's politicians.

"These days politicians are having a tough time," he told a graduating class of business students. "There's a lot of cynicism out there and I'm not happy about it."

He said it was important that young people don't get too jaded about voting, because the future of the country is at stake.

Chretien pointed to his decision not to join the Iraq war in 2003 as an example of democracy in action, revealing he was influenced by public opinion.

As he always has, Chretien said Tuesday his decision on Iraq was based on respecting multilateral institutions like the United Nations.

But, in his speech at Concordia University, he added a twist.

"(The decision) was... based on the fact that young Canadians had made their view very well known," he said.

"Participation in public life is extremely relevant."

While in office, during his retirement address to Parliament in 2003, and more recently in his public speeches, Chretien has often complained that people's obsession with scandal hurts democracy.

His own tenure was tainted by the sponsorship scandal, in which kickbacks from government contracts were found to be going to the Quebec wing of the Liberal party.

In his final address to Parliament, he warned colleagues that constant scandal-mongering might help "sell newspapers" but it would "destroy" their institution.

Chretien suggests cynicism keeps people from caring about public institutions, and says young people should get involved.

"Voting matters because government matters," he said.