More handpicked essays just for you.
Quebec separatist movement in Canada
Separatism of quebec essay
2. Debate: Should Quebec separate from Canada
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Quebec sovereignty movement has been going on for over 50 years, and it seems, may never rest until complete. So why not let them go? How would that impact other Canadians living outside of Quebec?
True, Quebec has been part of Canada since confederation in 1867, and helps connect Canada from sea to sea (as MacDonald would put it). However, Quebec is much like a foreign country anyway, with its own language, culture and civil law. The majority of Canadians in the western provinces would welcome their sovereignty.
Quebec is Canada’s spoiled child. They demand to be treated as a “distinct” society, and cry for their own language, more money, more rights, and special treatment. Because a large percentage of voters are in Quebec, our Government continues to be blackmailed by Quebec, and gives into the demands. Why should Quebec receive more than other provinces?
The next few paragraphs will discuss how the separation movement started and how Quebec leaving would affect us everyday Canadians.
The separatist movement all started just before the 1960’s when Maurice Duplesiss, the conservative Premiere of Quebec, died suddenly. Shortly afterwards, his successor, and newly appointed premiere, also passed on . The death of these two premieres was referred by historians as the start of the Quiet Revolution, and a period of rapid change in the province of Quebec.
Soon after the death of the two conservative premieres, a liberal government was elected in the 1960 Provincial Election. The party was led by Jean Lesage, who quickly went to work by imposing a Quebec education system that replaced the Canadian government run educational plan. Major funding was put into the schools and several improvements were developed.
On the economic level, the government looked for francophone to control the economic spectrum of Quebec, which prior to the revolution, was largely dominated by English-Speaking Canadians.
The new government brought forward a new way of thinking for citizens of Quebec. There was a cultural shift from a Canadian identity to a separated society throughout the province. French-Canadians were now Québécois, and a new identity was formed. The province took care of its own, this was the creation on an Etats-Providence (welfare state).
In the 1962 Provincial Election, another liberal premiere was elected by the name of Rene Levesque, who would go on to found the Parti Québécois (a party focusing on a Quebec Sovereignty as its primary goal).
As its own state Quebec would have the capacity to act, consolidate and further create their own cultural identity (Heard, 2013). For example, Quebec could foster the national language to be French. By gaining independence from Canada, Quebec can then create their own laws, own immigration rules and levy taxes (Heard, 2013). This would allow Quebec to be completely independent from the rest of Canada, but they would have connecting boarders like the United States and Canada do.
“Just watch me.”Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau said in 1970. He meant it as he fought to keep Quebec a part of Canada. Not only did he do that, he managed to be prime minister for 16 years, as well as being Canada’s youngest leader at the time. He brought greater civil rights to Canadians, Quebec citizens mainly. His charismatic personality matched his innovative ideas, that enhanced Canada for the better. For his entire political career, not only did Canada watch him, the whole world watched him change the country for the better. He made a radical change to Canada by championing the idea of officially implementing bilingualism. Trudeau was a trailblazer from the moment he was elected.
Although Quebec is in Canada, a majority of Quebecers do not identify with the national identity of Canada. Both societies create a sense of identity as well as nationalism (Hiller, 295). Hiller mentions two approaches to assessing Canadian identity; the unitary approach and the segmentalist approach (Hiller, 277). The unitary approach suggests that society consists of people who regardless of their ethnic back ground, identify as belonging to the national society, while the segmentalist approach concentrates on groups and communities that share racial, linguistic, occupational, or cultural similarities (Hiller, 28). While most Anglophones are more unitary or pan-Canadian, Quebec heavily identifies with the segmentalist approach. This dissimilarity of identity perspective may be problematic for the country, at the same time however, it can also be viewed as a struggle where contradictory parties find a way to compromise and reshape Canadian society together (Hiller, 277). Canada’s former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made it his objective to unite Quebec with the rest of Canada. In 1969 Trudeau’s government implemented Bill C-120, otherwise known as the Official Language act, which made French an...
Quebec is the largest Canadian province, with the second largest population and economy after that of Ontario. Historically, the province of Quebec presents a unique frontier for the analysis of Anglo-French relations. It is important to note that Canadian domain as a whole was principally an extension of France until the British forces led by Jeremy Amherst took hold o Montreal in 1760. The 1763 signing of the Treaty o Paris essentially sealed this acquisition of Canada by the Great Britain. The present federal structure of Canada came into being in 1867; a structure that created the office of the Prime Minister and promised considerable autonomy to the provinces. However, the relations of the French-speaking province of Quebec
Canada: The Quiet Revolution in Quebec The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution.
The root causes of Quebec Separatism go back almost a thousand years! This is because a large cause for Quebec Separatism is the conflict between the French and the English people. These conflicts go back to when France and England first became countries, and ever since then it seems the two countries have been at constant war with one another (Henley, 2011). This constant fighting spawns a built in belief of hatred for one another (Henley, 2011), which would make it hard for the two to live in the same country as they try to do in Canada. But out of all the wars the French and English fought, the most influencing for Quebecois and all of Canada was the sever year war taking place between 1756 and 1763 (Upper Canada History, 2011). The special thing about this war was that part of it was over the influence of the territory to be later Canada (Upper Canada histor...
Despite there being various actors who contributed to Quebec’s journey to nationalism, I would consider Rene Levesque to be one of the leading advocates for Quebec nationalism. He was viewed as an outspoken leader for Quebec’s independence and later formed the new provincial party in Canada – the Parti Quebecois (Tangelder, 1995). The purpose of the party was to essentially achieve Quebec sovereignty or independence by means of majority vote. Levesque used his platform to ultimately shed light to some of the root issues that were occurring in Quebec, specifically issues that negatively targeted French Canadians. One issue was regarding the concerns of how the majority of businesses (80%) were owned by Anglophones, which limited the chances of opportunity for French Canadians to progress in the business world (Fitzmaurice,
Regionalism is a growing concern for Canadians` as it affects economic stability, nationalism and western alienation. The economic stability is reliant on the regions having strong economic bases (Stilborn, 19). Nationalism with Quebec is a prime example of how distinct regional cultures hinder Canada’s unity, as they want to separate from Canada, while still having the federal Canadian government financially support them. Western Alienation is also a prime political culture that is regionally distinct.
It all started in Allumette Island East, which has a population of 458. It has since spread to municipalities along the borders with Ontario and the United States, and in the Montreal area. Unfortunately, this means very little considering the fact that these municipalities only represent approximately 6% of the province’s population. When the Parti Quebecois government called for the first referendum on secession in 1980, only 40% were in favor of separatism. When the party took over control again in 1995, the approval rose just about 49%.
government, t. p. (n.d.). Quebec Nationalism - Quebec History. Faculty.marianopolis.edu. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/events/natpart4.htm
...ereignty. As mentioned Quebec does not have complete sovereignty and it shares its powers with the federal government (Johnson). Strong words like Johnson's found in the mass media are very significant to issues such as this. As elected representatives the government will not act against the wishes of the majority of citizens. Therefore if the Canadian citizens claim that Native Sovereignty in Canada can not coexist with Canadian sovereignty than it will not.
...e to power in Quebec. This indicates that Quebecers supported non-violent methods in order to achieve independence for Quebec, rather than the violent methods of the FLQ, also indicating that the efforts of the FLQ would have been subdued by the Parti Quebecois. The death of Pierre Laporte was another unfortunate occurrence as a result of the War Measures Act which could have been avoided, yet some still believe his death is not related to the invocation of the War Measures Act. Justification is required for all actions which spark debate, and in events where the justification is provided under false pretences, someone must be held responsible. In this case it remains the Trudeau government. Trudeau may have had an admirable political career in which he made many wise decisions, however, the invocation of the War Measures Act in October 1970 was not one of them.
Canada experienced the revolution of changing politics and new ideologies, it was a necessary wave
Regardless of the part it played in creating the Québecois separatist movement and by default, other extremist groups, the Quiet Revolution brought forth invaluable progress to in Québec and therefore cannot be cited as a negative event. The Quiet Revolution serves as a constant reminder that resistance to change is the biggest hurdle in the way of progress. Ultimately, Québec would not have become the metropolis it is today had they not emphatically deviated from the Catholic church and started exploring their own path. One should always strive to take chances, make mistakes, and question the status quo because, as Jean Lesage said: “c’est le temps que ça change” (it’s time for a change) - Jean
So when you go to Quebec today you will notice people there will not be pleased if you try speaking to them in english and a lot of times they will refuse to speak english even though a majority of french Canadians nowadays do have at least some english speaking skills. When you're in any other province in canada you will always be able to get around even if you only spoke french. Must be that french nationalism quebec has adopted as theirs. I look at it as it's almost sad that French Canadians insists on being French before being Canadian. It made sense back in the day when Quebec was full of french that were just off the boat and have decided to stick with their heritage but after few generations of canadians in Quebec there should be more canadian nationalism than french. Also another thing is a lot of Canadians now days insists on bringing their heritage into the story, because in my experience talking to people about my background i often hear something like this; “i'm actually Ukrainian, mexican, French, polish etc.” it has always interested in why don't those people just make it so much easier on themselves and just say “i'm Canadian”. I personally would prefer that over being an immigrant but nothing i can do about that. Canadian culture is what we as the people that live in