Mac-talla: Can you tell us a bit about the elections ... How major a role did independence play in this election?

Catherine Mason: The Scottish National Party (SNP) played down independence this time. They were more concerned about hospitals and education. The Gàdhlig language was a player in their manifesto as well. But independence was pushed to the side this time. Until the Labour party brought it up when they started to panic about the amount of support the SNP were getting in the polls. So, the Labour Party brought up the point of independence and made everybody talk about it again.

MT: It is little known in Canada that Tony Blair directly intervened in the election with regard to independence.

MT: Tony Blair was said to tell the people of Scotland that any vote for independence if the SNP came to power would be made illegal. The ScottishParliament did not even have the constitutional powers to produce a vote for independence. At the time Alex Salmon (then SNP leader) was said to had an agreement with Donald Dewar (Labour) as the Parliament came into existence. Salmon only came on board after he was guaranteed by Dewar that if the SNP came into power there would be a means of a referendum on independence.

MT: And what kind of a reaction did Tony Blair’s intervention create with the majority of the Scottish electorate?

CM: Well, I can’t speak for the vast majority of the Scottish electorate, but I can speak for a number of SNP supporters and other Scottish people I was talking to, and the word "slavery" did come up. The people of Scotland that I was speaking to don’t believe there is a Union any more, we are now part of England, we’re actually joined onto England as a "slave" nation now.

MT: It seems that Labour was trying to appease various interest groups, i.e., Gàdhlig lobbyists and others in this last election. Why was this so?

CM: Labour was fighting for their lives in this last election. The war had gone against Tony Blair. He brought up his big guns to Scotland, and they were trying to do everything to win back the Scottish vote. The pre-election polls were giving the SNP a slight lead, so they were trying to do everything to appease the Scottish people. They were going to introduce laws to safeguard the Gàdhlig language. They were going to shorten waiting times for hospitals. They were going to bring down school class sizes. They’ve been in power for the last four years and none of that happened. Waiting lists in hospitals just got longer. Is it just pure appeasement of the Scottish people? We will see.

MT: It seems that there hasn’t been a real political shift in this election. What’s the best way to ensure that Labour follows through on its promises?

CM: At the moment they are in talks about a coalition with the Liberal Democrats because Labour hasn’t got a majority. They’ve got to make a coalition like they did last time. The Liberal Democrats are only going into the coalition if certain parts of their manifesto and platform promises are kept. Hopefully the union of the two parties again will provide some stability. And it really is going to have to be the people on the other side of the Parliament who make sure that the Labour Party keeps these promises that they made. Because talking about the SNP, they made these promises for the people as well, so they really need to stand up and make sure the people know that they are fighting for them.

MT: What’s the future of devolution and eventual independence in your view? Is it attainable?

CM: Independence will happen. There’s no ifs, buts, or ands, but it is going to take something big to happen to make the Scottish people turn around and fight for it. Devolution took nearly 300 years to happen, but it did happen. After twenty years of Tory politics and Maggie Thatcher, it really took the poll tax, it took the Scottish people not voting for the Tories, it took years and years of built-up frustration to make the people of Scotland stand up and fight for Devolution. But, at the moment, the Scottish people are happy with the situation. So, we’re not standing up and fighting for independence. But it will happen, it will take something big. Maybe the two Parliaments will have two different leaderships and that will bring it about. But, I am 100 per cent certain that independence will happen in my lifetime.

MT: What was the poll tax?

CM: This was a system of taxation brought into Scotland. We were a guinea pig for the whole poll-tax system. Every member of the household over school age was taxed. You had to pay money to your council for every single person in the household. But when the Union of the Parliaments happened in 1707, it was law that no taxation process would be brought into one country without being brought into the other at the same time. When this happened the people of Scotland were up in arms about it. I’ve never seen so many people protesting in the streets about any political matter. But the Scottish people stood up and eventually won the day by winning devolution for Scotland.

MT: Considering the direct intervention of Tony Blair in the Scottish elections and his postponement of the general elections in Northern Ireland, how do you explain his seeming popularity?

CM: Tony Blair is a very lucky man that the war went over very quickly. If the war had dragged out Tony Blair’s popularity would have went further and further down. But that’s all over and done with. People have short memories. He is still a very popular man. The Labour Party in England have a huge majority, so they are able to influence Parliament and vote for whatever Tony Blair wants. The Labour Party really are a"puppet" party that backs Tony Blair and everything he says. The war was a wonderful example because the people of England did not want this war. But their Labour MPs would not stand up for their constituencies and put that position to Tony Blair. He had the final say and everybody just buckled down and did what he wanted.

MT: What are the lessons that we can learn here in Nova Scotia from what is going on in Scotland? Specifically, provision for minority languages like Gàidhlig?

CM: The first thing you have to do is not what has occurred in Scotland. We want the Gàidhlig language to be taught to children. Children are the future of any language in any country. You’ve got to teach languages to children. And the Scots don’t do that. We wait until the kids are in the secondary school and that’s about 11 years old. And it’s been proven that this is the wrong time to teach children. The best time is when they are 4-5 years old. Get them started early. Then you will have bilingual people. And that is the only way youare going to totally safeguard the language by making sure that it is a living, breathing language. And the only way to do that is by teaching children.