Qu Bec And Canada

Based on the premises that Quebecers vote for independence in a referendum and Canada accepts this result, The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada is a timely examination of the implications of separation for Quebec and the rest of Canada.

What kind of a country is Canada beyond Quebec? With a referendum on Quebec sovereignty looming on the horizon, this is a question Canadians are being forced to ask. In Beyond Quebec scholars from a wide variety of disciplines examine the current political, cultural, economic, and social situation of Canada outside Quebec and speculate on the nature of a Canada that does not include Quebec on the present terms.

The time has come to call it quits, to ask Quebec to leave Canada, and to forge a new nation without it. Time to Say Goodbye is a powerfully argued challenge to Canadians to accept that Quebec’s national aspirations can never be satisfied within the confines of Canadian Confederation, and furthermore, continued efforts to accommodate Quebec damage Canada in ways it can no longer afford. Canada without Quebec will be a more prosperous, generous, and hospitable nation than the linguistically and politically distorted one that has emerged from the past twenty years – since the first coming-to-power in Quebec of the Parti Quebecois. Reed Scowen, an anglophone Québécker and former member of the Quebec legislature, argues that Quebec’s political identity is based on language and ethnicity. Quebec has become an authentic nation-state. The rest of Canada has no comparable political ideology and will never comfortably accommodate Quebec. While many do not share the caustic view of Quebec Premier Bouchard – that Canada is not a country – many do worry that Canada, without Quebec, will break apart. But Scowen suggests that the breakup of Canada will be more likely the result of the continued, futile manoeuvres to satisfy Quebec’s national aspirations. Far better, he argues, to take a positive view: build a country based on the values, traditions, and procedures that the other nine provinces share.

Originally published in 1967. The nationalistic sentiment of French Canada was starkly dramatized by the Montreal terrorist bombings in the spring of 1963. Admittedly the work of extremists, that eruption of violence was an offshoot of the profound social, political, economic, and cultural transformation—an accelerated evolution rather than a revolution—that Quebec has undergone since the end of World War II. This revolution tranquille is characterized by a new sense of self-confidence among French Canadians, an eagerness to reject what they regard as any hint of second-class citizenship, and a determination to take full share in all aspects of Canadian life—without, however, sacrificing their French culture and heritage. A threat to the Canadian Confederation is implicit in the growing reluctance of modern French-speaking Canadians to abide the "tyranny of the majority," however enlightened or well-intentioned it may be. This first book-length study in English of the conflict between French and English Canadians provides a thorough treatment of French-Canadian complaints against English Canada, and of their implications for Canadian unity. Dr. Corbett devotes the first part of his study to an analysis of the ferment within the French-speaking population of Quebec during the postwar period. He discusses the relation between French-Canadian nationalism and other nationalisms and the roles played by the language barrier, the church, and the separatist movement. In the second part of the study he considers the political, economic, and social implications of separatism, with particular regard to the proposals for adapting the Constitution to Quebecois demands. After tracing the evolution of the ambivalent English-Canadian concept of Canada's national identity, he concludes that the future of the Confederation will depend on how far the English majority is willing to go in meeting French demands.

Humorous account of Quebec's language obsessed separatist movement.