Quebec In Question

This new edition of Marcel Rioux's bestselling history of Quebec offers an interpretation of the dramatic events of the seventies and the victory of the Parti Quebecois. Written by an advocate of Quebec independence, this lucid and scholarly book is the best introduction available for English-language readers to the intellectual foundations of the independence movement. Quebec in Question has sold more than 35,000 copies and continues to be widely read and referred to.

Jane Jacobs, writing from her adoptive country, uses the problems facing an independence-seeking Quebec and Canada as a whole to examine the universal problem of sovereignty and autonomy that nations great and small have struggled with throughout history. Using Norway’s relatively peaceful divorce from Sweden as an example, Jacobs contends that Canada and Canadians—Quebecois and Anglophones alike—can learn important lessons from similar sovereignty questions of the past.

What is Quebec's relationship with the rest of Canada? What makes Quebec culture distinct? What is Quebec's place on the international stage? Quebec Questions guides students through the process of examining these and other fundamental questions that underlie key debates and issues in Quebec.Bringing together compelling insights from leading scholars of various specialties, this intriguing collection encourages a multidisciplinary approach to thinking about Quebec from various historical, social, cultural, political, and economic perspectives. Featuring six new chapters as well asextensive updates throughout, the second edition of Quebec Questions offers readers an up-to-date, thoughtful, and passionate exploration of la belle province.

This book, first published in 1978, maintains that there is a clear answer to its eponymous question, perennially voiced by English-speaking Canadians. In this lucid and objective account, Andre Bernard examines both historical precedent and current attitudes to show that French-speaking Quebeckers share a body of beliefs and goals that transcend their partisan differences. He finds a high degree of consensus about the need for cultural survival, economic improvement and greater control of the levers of power. What Does Quebec Want? remains a valuable record of the consolidation of the Quiet Revolution in the late 1970s.

In Quebec and Scotland, questions of constitutional change, national identity, and national grievance play an important role in the electoral calculations of political parties and voters. Taking a strong stance on the national question can have strategic benefits both for parties pushing for greater autonomy and for those endorsing the status quo. In this in-depth look at issue voting, authors Éric Bélanger, Richard Nadeau, Ailsa Henderson, and Eve Hepburn examine how the national question affects political parties and voter behaviour in both substate nations. Through party manifestos, interviews with legislators, and opinion survey data, this book demonstrates that calls for constitutional change influence political debate, competition, voter choice, and the outcome of elections not only within Quebec and Scotland but also across Canada and the United Kingdom. Minority nationalist parties, the authors show, can gain support by claiming ownership of issues with widespread public agreement, such as self-determination and protecting the identity and interests of the nation. A comprehensive analysis of recent electoral politics, The National Question and Electoral Politics in Quebec and Scotland greatly enhances our understanding of the electoral impact of substate nationalism.

In a multilingual society, the role of each language is parallel to the importance of the community that speaks it; change in power relations between groups is linked to modifications in the status of their language. The Quebec language laws provide a case in point of the relation between social change and language planning. This comprehensive analysis of the Quebec language issue exposes the material and symbolic causes of these legislative measures and assesses their effects. This detailed appraisal also provides answers to more general questions of the nature of language laws and the conditions for their legitimacy.