The Quebec Nation Within Canada: What?
A nation, is a nation, is a nation, albeit not in Canada. How did it come to this? It would seem in this country we are continually navel gazing. This past Monday our federal parliament voted to recognize the Quebec nation within Canada. My East West buddy Dr. Haque if he still lived here would ask, “will there be insurrection in the streets?
The answer of course is no. I’ve told him what seems a million times Canadians don’t do that. I’ve also told him could you imagine the US federal government recognizing Texas as a nation within the US instead of a lowly state? I don’t think so. Being what it is, Canada is simply being Canada. Our national unity debate, almost dead since 1995 has suddenly been foisted onto our national frying pan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper did the bidding. Somebody please put the genie back in the bottle.
It’s like running through an igloo spilling boiling water. Why is it that a country with low inflation, low interest rates, solid economic growth and a very high standard of living continually bend over backwards to accommodate the 30% of Quebecers who will never be satisfied with Montcalm defeat on the Plains of Abraham? This “nation business” simply put is for the crazy horse saloon.
However, Canadians are an accommodating lot. We collectively feel if we can come up with the right words, we can fit every little historical grievance with Quebec through a pinhole. The vote was 266-16 in favour of recognizing Quebec as a nation. Now the separatists have been handed a gift. When and if Jean Charest the current Premier is defeated separatists will flaunt this “nation business” as a step toward being a nation among others around the world.
For those of you who have strong views about this issue keep in mind I have an appreciation for Quebec and all it represents. I love that province, having both worked there and visited there many times. I have friends who all vote “oui” in the various referendums. So I believe Quebec is a “distinct society”! Oh my. Spare me. The truth is Quebecers are just like most other Canadians. They simply want to make a living. This “nation” business is up in the lofty political air. It’s all about semantics.
It’s also an emotional issue. That’s where things get shaky. It was brought home to me from a fellow economist who hired me many years ago to do some work for the federal government. As luck would have it the project was based at Laval University in Quebec City. One late fall morning in 1991 I took a flight from Sarnia to Quebec City. Minutes after I landed was surrounded by Laval economists busily discussing this federal project.
As the only English Canadian present, I asked the inevitable question to my new French-speaking colleagues. “What’s up with this separatism in Quebec?” My Quebec colleagues looked a bit aghast and at the same time beguiling. They shot back in broken English, that’s all politics and those guys are crazy. They all laughed. Feeling effectively muted, I got back to business.
Fast forward to October of 1992. That’s when Canadians rejected the Charlottetown Accord to bring Quebec into the constitution. At that time I heard from one of those Quebec economists I had worked with the year before. Once again, I asked what’s up about this “Quebec thing.” What he told me I never forgot. He told me it was an “emotional issue” within every Quebec soul. And when things get “emotional” sometimes they get a bit out of hand. Clearly, from his perspective the emotional train had left the tracks. Three years later in the 1995 referendum, we almost lost the country as Quebecers came within a whisker of leaving Canada.
The fall out from this current “nation business” didn’t take long. Intergovernmental Affairs minister Michael Chong resigned because he didn’t believe in his government’s motion. Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy and Ken Dryden came out against it. Kennedy said it was like “trafficking in symbolism”. Gilles Duceppe the Bloc leaders looked like he won the lottery. Parti Quebecois leader Andre Boisclair said the federal motion represented “symbolic progress” and will advance the cause of sovereignty. Both local MP’s Bev Shipley and Dave VanKesteran voted in favour of the federal motion.
Jean Chretien used to say that there would always be a minority of Quebecers who cannot accept that General Wolfe defeated the French General Montcalm in 1759. He said he didn’t like it either and if he could he’d go back and change things. However, he knew that was ridiculous and he dealt with the reality at hand. In his view Quebec belonged in Canada, case closed.
Please somebody tell Stephen Harper. This whole thing is absurd.