Canadian French nationalism is a complex issue that has its roots in the settlement of the country by French explorers. It has been a highly emotional issue that has affected the politics of Canada over the years. The eye of the storm is the province of Quebec where 81% of its people spoke French as opposed to the 90% of Canadians who spoke English in the rest of Canada during the early stages of the secessionist movement (Fenwick, 1981). The current Separatist movement has lost power and is no longer the threat to Canadian political and social stability it once was because; 1) the French language has lost its unifying power due to a rise of statutory bilingualism; 2) the two major Separatist political parties, Parti Quebecois and Bloc Quebecois have lost their support of the younger generation and lack the power and influence to be a current political threat; 3) and the economic issues of a sovereign Quebec would be potentially devastating and would actually make life worse for the Quebec people.
There had long been conflict and resentment between the French and British Canadians. An important aspect of any separatist movement is emotion. One can not examine this issue without giving credence to the emotions that are behind the secessionist’s ideas. The important characteristic of this strong attachment is the feeling of pride. Those who wanted an independent Quebec did so out of a sense of pride for their province and the common bonds, especially the use of the French language shared by the people there (Jacobs, 1980). The French Canadians felt they were forced from their rightful claims to the province by the defeat of the French forces by the British in 1759 (Salloum, 2008).
The focal point of this growing sense of pride was a developing French culture that grew in the 1960s. This ‘quiet revolution’ as it was deemed, was the result of French Canadians migrating to Montreal in particular, where a French tainted culture grew without any plan or design. As Jane Jacobs recognized, as of 1960, Montreal was an English city with French speaking people, but by the end of the decade it had been transformed into “a French city with many English speaking inhabitants.” (Jacobs, 1980). It was this unplanned transformation not only in this urban center of the province but across Quebec that generated the call for French, the language that tied the people of the province, to become the official language of Quebec.
When Pierre Trudeau became Canadian Prime Minister in 1969, his ability to speak both English and French, made it easier for him to push for the government to pass the Official Languages Act, which created a bilingual Canada. This act had a multi-faceted effect It placated the demands of the French Canadians while triggering the Anglophones against the use of the French language in the province. When the new provincial political party, Parti Quebecois, came to power in Quebec in 1976, it attempted to strengthen its position by playing to the sense of pride of the people of Quebec. It moved to make French the official language of the public entities such as the government, courts, and businesses. A bill was passed to make all the French shop signs in Quebec twice as large as their English counterparts. The party moved further to strengthen the dependence on French by passing Bill 101. This restrictive bill put limits on the use of English in education, in addition to requiring all immigrants to Quebec to enroll in French - language schools (Salloum, 2008). While this reinforced an already high level of French identity within Quebec at the time, it has indirectly helped to reduce the fervor behind the use of French and remove it as a unifying factor among the people of the province.
Initially, this move stirred much resentment from English Canada. The Anglo-Canadians claimed the laws to be illegal as they wanted Ottawa to step in and reassert the English language to its dominating place in all of Canada. This could have been a unifying factor by the francophones, however, the English in power realized the French played an important role in the establishment of Canada and they deserved to have their language spoken in their province (Salloum, 2008). Not only did the acceptance of this notion help to quell the emotions over the issue, but with French being more accepted by the English without a fight, it actually helped the use of the English language to grow in use in the province. The moderation of the current generation has allowed for the use of English to gain more of a foothold in Quebec and weaken the unifying strength of French (Hays, 2014).
Oddly enough the passage of Bill 101 may be at the heart of the French language losing some hold in the province. While forcing new immigrants within the province to speak French, it also adversely allowed for English to be retained in additional bilingual households. As an example, an Anglophone, Melanie Hotchkiss, who moved to Quebec with her mom couldn’t speak any French at the outset. In the end, she is happily fluent in French, yet she is indeed an Anglophone, reflecting pride in her English background (Balsam, 2013). A Canadian census supports the concept of a rise in bilingualism: in Quebec between 2006 and 2011, those whom spoke only French at home dropped from 75.1% to 72.8%; in 2011 78.9% of the people had French as their mother tongue as opposed to 79.6% 5 years before; at the same time the number of households with English as a mother tongue grew from 8.2 to 8.3 % (Linguistic, 2011). As can be seen from the percentages, a bill which meant to strengthen the reliance on the French language actually resulted in a drop in the dependence upon French as the unifying factor. As the acceptance of English grew in Quebec the crusade for the use of French became less important as a reason for sovereignty.
The Quiet Revolution as alluded to earlier was a time period of growing awareness of their French culture, and a pride in the identity of being French Canadian. Rising from this emotional and cultural awareness was the Parti Quebecois, a provincial party that backed the idea Quebec independence. It recognized the potential political failure of a franco centered province within a federal system dominated by the English The party attempted to increase its influence by appealing to social and economic issues besides sovereignty. As enticing as using a common culture and language to entertain the idea of separation, it took eight years of votes before the Parti Quebecois was elected to power in Quebec in 1976. It took four years to gain a feeling of self-assurance that the people were ready for a referendum vote on sovereignty (Etzel, 2015). This first vote in 1980 which was defeated by 60%, was a wake-up call for Quebec nationalists (Salloum, 2008).
A prime example of the constant double edged emotional battle going on regarding the creation of a separate government within Canada, many Canadians viewed the Quebecois as traitors, yet others believed Quebec had earned some equality based on their historical role in the settlement of Canada and they should be able to form their own nation if they so desired. The political realities of the sizable defeat influenced the thinking of the Parti Quebecois, who acknowledged the opposition against their separatist stand. In 1985 a majority of Parti Quebecois delegates voted to not argue if their sovereignty platform was questioned in the next convention. Provincial popular support of separatism faded among the Quebec citizens during the decade (Salloum, 2008).
The Quebecois Bloc was formed in the early 1990s to give separatism a voice in the Canadian government in Ottawa. In the midst of the political power roller coaster, after the federal voice for separatism was established the voters of Quebec elected enough Members of Parliament to form the official opposition party on the national level. This added support persuaded the separatist parties; Parti Quebecois, Bloc Quebecois and the Action Democratique, to support a referendum in 1995 (Salloum, 2008).
When Lucien Bouchard, the leader of Bloc Quebecois, took control of the Yes side of the sovereignty push right shorty before the election, there was a dramatic shift towards separatism. To compensate this increased separatist threat, right before the election, the federal government supported a “Unity Rally” in Montreal under the guise of making the province of Quebec feel wanted and a part of Canada. In the most competitive vote on Quebec sovereignty, 94% of the eligible Canadian voters went to the polls and 49.69% voted against separatism. Less than one percent, 54,288 votes separated the potentially monumental event of Quebec forming its own country (Valiante, 2015).
The threat from separatism dissipated after 1995. The liberal influence that is at the heart of the sovereignty issue is also an influence in the loss of support. The party gained enough votes to once again establish a minority government in the 2012 elections by appealing to a more moderate platform that was not centered on separatism. Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois then called for another election in 2014 enticed by the possibility gaining a majority and bringing separatism to the forefront (Etzel, 2015).
The Quebec people spoke in the election of 2014 when they tired of hearing of the ‘next referendum’ and push for sovereignty, they put the Liberal party in power, giving the Parti Quebecois its largest defeat in 44 years of voting (Patriquin, 2014). A public opinion survey at the time found that in 1980 those under 35 years of age represented the heart of sovereignty support, while in 2014 the average age of separatist support came from those over 55 years (Patriquin, 2014). Essentially the same generation was the one actually supporting separatism. The defining moment and one which speaks volumes to the differing interests of the current Quebec populace came as part of a speech by the new party leader Pierre Karl Peladeau. He had taken control of the Parti Quebecois in 2014 and in the midst of trying to repair the party’s appeal he ended a pre-vote speech with this kiss death phrase, “Finally, I end by telling you that my membership in the Parti Quebecois is in line with my most profound values. That is to say, make Quebec a country!” (Patriquin, 2014). In an attempt to recover from this potential invitation to disaster the Parti Quebecois tried to appeal with a francophone stance of supporting the Quebec Values Charter. The focus of this move was aimed at the Islamic sect by banning religious symbols from the heads of Quebec’s public government employees. In this way, the party could promote sovereignty without ever directly addressing the issue. Rather than solidifying the Quebec French populace, it led to the support of the Liberal party as the Parti Quebecois was voted out of relevance (Patriquin, 2014).
Parti Quebecois and Bloc Quebec have existed for over 40 years and seen their influence rise and fall. While utilizing their influence as an official minority party to call for a referendum, they have never had majority party status. The separatist platform no longer carries the weight and effect it once did. Too many Quebec citizens recognize that the province already has a degree of autonomy within the Canadian government, they do not need to go to the extreme of leaving Canada (Etzel, 2015). The harsh reality is separatism has been demoted to a background passion that will always be there. The current social flow is content with the cultural makeup that is Quebec Their recent past is complete with political ups and downs as provincial parties gained than lost support. Not with standing a major cataclysmic event, separatism will never come close to being a viable threat to Canada’s unity (Remiorz, 2016).
Members of the younger generation claim their interests lie with the environment and an independent Quebec that supports diversity in a new globalized world (Bleiberg, 2015). They opposed the Quebec Values Charter for its ethnocentric platform According to a 2015 survey, 57% of Quebecers supported opposition to the Energy East platform, which would create pipelines to carry oil from Western Canada to refineries in Eastern Canada (Bell, 2016). They acknowledged the need to fight the potential negative effects of the environment over the economic draw of the oil industry. Content with the notion that ‘old school’ issues of language and cultural separatism within Quebec have been attained the younger generation has directed its focus on these new age objects. A 29-year- old governmental employee separatist, Jean-Bernard Marchand expresses the challenge facing the modern separatism movement “We have to reinvent the message because Quebec is changing, the old generation is passing, and there are real problems, social injustices that really touch people every day.” (Bleiberg, 2015).
A survey coinciding with the 20 year anniversary of the 1995 referendum and the brink of true sovereignty sets the current state of the movement. Only 30% of young, 18-34 age bracket, would vote for Quebec’s forming its own nation. At the same time, 57% of francophones, once the center of the separatist cause, would vote to not have a separate nation (Mennie, 2015).
There is an assortment of economic issues that would result in negative consequences for an independent Quebec. Foremost would be what to do with its banking and currency procedures. If it did create its own currency there would be the question of market acceptance among the countries of the world. This would be extremely important obviously for trade and paying back debts to other nations. An appearance of a new currency might take a while to be accepted. If Quebec kept the Canadian dollar, it would then have to rely on the Bank of Canada to stabilize its own economy. This would be dangerous because it would not have the autonomy to use the Bank, instead it would be a prisoner to the manipulations of a foreign national bank. A separate Quebec would be walking a tight-rope regarding public debt. As an independent nation, it would have to negotiate with Canada to deal with its share of the federal debt it currently owes as the province of Quebec. This potentially would coincide with the creation of its own debt all of which could eventually lead to raising taxes. This could very well incur the animosity of its citizen base as they would realize how good they had it as a part of the Canadian government (Etzel, 2015).
Separatism and an implied state of independence for Quebec have faded today. The forced use of French on new immigrants has influenced the rise of bilingualism as a feature of modern Quebec, pushing the impact of the French language to the back burner. The fact that Quebec was less than one percent from becoming its own country demonstrates the appeal sovereignty had at one time. The role of the Separatist political parties which utilized the early desire of the Quebecers to be their own nation has been the unifying factor in the province. At the same time, because these parties did not adjust with changing demographics over time, they have lost attraction and influence with the younger generation and found themselves being voted out of power in 2014. The younger generation is more concerned with stability within the province while championing minority rights than they are leaving the Canadian government. There are economic issues that make the forming of a separate nation not feasible for Quebec. They would face too many harsh economic realities that would not only hurt the stability of their economy but potentially raise the wrath of its people who lead a relatively decent life as a part of the province of Quebec. These factors when taken in total make it clear that the current Separatist movement has lost power and no longer represents a threat to Canadian political and social stability.
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