Canada's Union With Quebec example essay topic

Back south, here in the land of the brave we hear once in the blue moon about those Quebecois and their independence movement and we shelve it because perhaps it is not directly relevant to us. There is a movement up north that could potentially alter the landscape of our continent though it has been losing steam recently. Much like many secessionist movements (though not all) it has much to do with emotion other than economic or even political necessity. It's not like the Francophone population is under the repressive yoke of the Anglophones though there is bickering (naturally). The prime minister Jean Chretien is one of them. So then why the need for secession and where do these emotions come from?

Most likely the cultural differences. The French seem very concerned with maintaining their identity afraid of being diluted into the Canadian national consciousness. Unlike other similar situations terrorism was never a major part of the equation, but there have been certain episodes. Chretien though recently has done much recently to quell the movement of secession. Even though sick, it is probably not dead yet, far be it from that. The future though not as bleak as it was it is still uncertain.

The concessions from Ottawa to Quebec must have some limit, must end sometimes. When we reach that impasse who knows what its' results will be. So will this conflict that originated as England vs. France in the old continent translated to the New World be fully resolved? There doesn't seem to be an answer in the immediate horizon. How did this all start.

Well, with the French Crown backed voyage of Jacques Cartier down the St. Lawrence in 1534. Colonists started flowing from France and sure enough in 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City the first French colony in North America. The French colonists immediately found themselves in conflict with the Iroquois tribes over the profitable fur trade. Later on the Seven Years in which British were fighting the French spilled into the New World. At the time the British were in better condition economically and militarily prevail in the conflict.

As a result the British were able to send more reinforcements. The estimated military strengths were 50 000 for the British and 7 000 for the French. The British logically prevailed with the final blow being dealt in the Plains of Abraham battle in 1759 in which the French substantially lost any claim to the continent. From that point on the French were to be governed by the British or Anglophones in one form or another until the present day. The resentments as a result probably survived and might be the root of today's predicament. From 1759 one must advance to 1791 when as a result of a great influx of American loyalists, Upper Canada (modern day Ontario) and Lower Canada were created.

There was some autonomy granted to Lower Canada but a certain individual named Louis-Joseph Papineau inspired by the system of government of the Americans in the south campaigned for reform and was prominently crushed. In 1838 the British sent the Earl of Durham, to serve as Governor General and to investigate the grievances of the rebels. He submitted his Durham report in early 1839. In 1841 the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were united taking a step towards unification.

The next steps were the Quebec City and the Charlottetown conferences. The final step took place in 1867 in London where British and Canadian officials met to draw the BNA act the defacto constitution of Canada. The Quebecois were represented by George-Etienne Cartier. It was very vague in fine British tradition and some principles were even left unwritten. The date was July 1st which is Canada's national holyday. Quebec seemed to gradually fragment from the motherland, France.

Since the revolution French politics had become too radical while Quebec had maintained their traditional Catholic values. After the Paris Commune event in 1871 a theory of the two Frances begins to be developed and Thomas Chaplain states it clearly: "At the present time there are two Frances, the radical France and the conservative France, the France of the unbelievers and Catholic France, the France that blasphemes and the France that prays. The second France is our France". This on the other hand did not automatically did not mean some sort of conciliation with the Anglophone population of Canada. Relations seemed to improve slightly as Laurier a Quebecois became the Prime Minister from 1896 to 1911.

He started an industrialization process that was further induced by Anglophone elements. There is a clash between the very conservative religious Quebec ideals and the working class. The clergy staunchly opposed the creation of any unions. Be that as it may at the end of the Laurier era in 1911 Quebec had greatly changed. The population was now half rural while the rural population had been 80% of the total numbers in 1871. Then there is the normal movement from the countryside to the cities as happened around the world.

There is a movement to industrialize and sort of catch up with the Anglophone population. Public relations man Errol Bouche tte urged the French majority to direct their kids towards universities and more precisely science, because the Anglophone minority sent their children to higher education at a much greater rate. Then the Great War arrives and another impasse. The French refuse to participate in what they see as a British matter. In 1917 Ontario passes bill 17 which bans French from its's cools creating more strife. After this industrialization of Quebec continues further as the province begins to urbanize more.

From this area the voices of separatism grow louder but the premier of Quebec Lower Gou in argued that that would hinder the condition of Franco phones outside Quebec and also that Quebec couldn't survive alone. The United States also grew in influence in Quebec in the late teens early twenties, influence which decreased and re papered (due to the Great Depression). WWII evoked the same reactions in Quebec as WWI, that is to say the Quebecker's didn't want to participate in it as they maintained it didn't regard them. The conservative ideology which emanated from the clergy in Quebec who pretty much directed the country politically, started to be challenged around WWII. It emanated from different elements such as trade unionists, intellectuals, journalists, artists, students and profession ists.

Quebec's new demographics were the main creators of these new ideas. These new elements weren't reacting against their French ness, but only against the conservatism of the clergy which still had a stronghold in the post WWII era. During this period Quebec was completely transformed into an industrial province, the rural population was the minority now and industry almost doubled in the growth rate. In the postwar the attack on Conservatism began in earnest at the walls of Laval University. Social problems were being pointed out and the Asbestos strike of 1949 opened the eyes of the populous. The liberals started to criticize Quebec's catholic clergy for their strong ideological sort of noose with which they held rural Quebec and guided it towards the Union Nationale.

This party was headed by Maurice Duplessis, it commended the conservative ideas that had always existed in Quebec and was suspicious of intellectuals and of new ideologies. The opposition came from the Liberal Party. The opposition was not based so much on confrontation as it was based on the feeling of catching up. The young intellectuals saw the U.S. advance in many fields and they saw the conservative status quo as being a hindrance to Quebec's advancement.

The conservative elites had highly idealized Quebec, the conservatives had claimed that their Quebec had improved on the concept of being French and had attained a pure form of Catholicism (idea attributed to Duplessis). Many looked to Ottawa as the model society to overthrow the old clerical social order, one of these students was future Prime Minister Trudeau. It took many years for the Liberals to gain any sort of power. One would actually have to wait till the death of Duplessis, who died as Premier in 1959. The Liberal Party lead by Jean Les age finally gained the office. This was an important turning point for Quebec.

Here was a chance for the liberal elements that had been bubbling under the surface to push for change finally. In 1960 the Quiet Revolution had its' beginnings finally. It involved no popular uprisings and it was Quiet because the revolution occurred within the mentality of Quebec. It wanted to topple a virtual theocracy in, which it successfully did. It also went into another direction. It reawakened strong secessionist feelings.

The theocracy had sort of driven towards a mentality of self examination and self criticism, but the Liberals looked towards Ottawa and Washington for that. The ambiguity of these goals made the revolution sort of run out of steam a little bit. The Union Nationale regained power and the Liberals gravitated towards Ottawa more and Trudeau became Prime minister in 1968. In the same year monsieur Rene Levesque combined all of the remaining separatist fronts to form the Parti Quebecois. He was the son of a country lawyer from a place called New Carlisle which was peculiarly inhabited by an Anglophone majority. He had been one of the original consorts of Trudeau, but then saw this sort of conciliation with Ottawa as selling out.

His party was very unsuccessful at first. In 1970 only 7 seats in Quebec, then 6 in 73 and then 71 in 76. The concept of Sovereignty-Association, which wants a sovereign Quebec still united to Canada. According to Levesque he wasn't seeking sovereignty first then an association later, rather radically transform Canada's union with Quebec. By sovereignty Mr. Levesque explains he means the right of exercising full national responsibility. On the other hand by association he means maintaining economic ties like no tariffs between the two entities (free trade) and no passports required for people traveling through them.

This had an immediate effect. Their economic radicalism drove many Anglophone businesses away to Ontario and Francophone businesses started filling the void. Whether it was intended or not it had an effect on future development of the economy of Quebec. With the roots in the Quiet Revolution there was a movement called Quebec Inc. in which local Quebec government invested in stimulating the economy and it has yielded many results.

Through intentional measures or not Levesque initiated an economic upswing for Quebec which many in the province viewed it as the confidence they needed to view a sovereign Quebec as a viable alternative. In the early 90's there are varying responses to separatist feelings from the prospering and sizable Quebec business community. Their sentiments seem to change with every economic upswing and downswing. The one prevailing question still remains, how well would an independent Quebec would fare in the World stage? First of we have to distinguish from two concepts sovereignty-association which I will call just sovereignty from now on or complete separatism.

Many view separatism as something completely non viable. Complete economic separation can't be achieved. About half of the finished products Quebec exports go to the rest of Canada and a quarter exclusively to Ontario. The flip side is how would the rest of Canada react? Even if Quebec eliminated all tariffs and allowed free trade would Anglophones still invest in the same manner, emotions might overrule business interests. Many agree that Quebec has a booming economy and that a Quebec economy would be viable if conditions were to remain exactly the same as they are.

That again depends on the rest of Canada and the relations that could possibly be developed. Now let's move to the people, many economic forecasters see a diminishing or at least a stagnating (remaining the same) of the average wage in Quebec. So the standard of living in Quebec will probably decrease with sovereignty at best remain the same. This is one of the major roadblocks to the sovereignty movement. So again is a sovereign Quebec economically viable? It will probably depend on whether negotiations with the rest of Canada over it have an air of acrimony or an atmosphere of harmony (tough luck).

It seems that recently the movement if one might call it that has been loosing steam, probably because Jean Chretien. One might see him as a modern day Trudeau. Just like many felt that Trudeau's election signified an appeasement to the Franco phones and a uniting factor to the Anglophones. Many people including Levesque one of his former allies criticized Trudeau as selling out to the federal government. One might see today that the Bloc Quebecois, today's evolution of Levesques' original Parti Quebecois would react the same way to liberal Jean Chretien. Chretien has a wide Anglophone following, because he regularly criticizes extreme pro Quebec feelings that recently have been diminishing.

He recently criticized the schools of Quebec because of their extremely slanted view of history taught there. While hugely popular in English Canada, the French portion is still in question. Perhaps they voted him in just simply because he is francophone and voting and Anglophone would be worse, it is still unclear. So what does the future hold? No one knows for certain.

We can only surmise. What is certain are Canada's constitutional problems. It does seem that Quebec's autonomy will increase. Also as previously stated it does seem the sovereignty movement also somehow motivated by economic factors as in 1998 the economy was in a definite upswing and the referendum of independence almost passed and in the present day the sovereignty forces weren't able to even muster enough support to submit the referendum.

Having said that, it does seem that soon the desires of Quebec can't be quelled through democratic means while still in the federation. When could this happen? We will find out.