Subject: Re: Odds and Ends re Quebec politics
From: Graham Preston (gpreston@mail.com)
Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 20:42:15 GMT
>JLSnoop@aol.com wrote
I'm just curious, and since you seem to be knowledgeable in the strange and
bizarre ways of Canada, I thought I'd ask. In school I'm doing a report on
the movement for a more autonomous Quebec, the FLQ, and Bloc Quebecois and
all that. So what do you think about it? Are all the Quebecians frenchy
jerks, or does Canada give them short end of everything like they say?
Jake<
If I may throw my hat in the ring for this topic it's important to make a
definition between the FLQ and the BQ. The FLQ (Front de Liberation de
Quebec) were a violent movement of the 60s and early 70s. They did such
stuff as bombing letterboxes, and creating general chaos up until they
kidnapped and eventually killed a Cabinet minister from Quebec. They lost
most (all?) support after the September Crisis (where they killed the
minister) and the leaders went to Cuba, France, or other places until they
returned and were thrown in jail in Canada. The BQ on the other hand is a
democratic political party which was organised in the late 80s after Lucien
Bouchard and other Quebec MPs felt dissatisfied with Conservative policies
towards Quebec (including failed constitutional reforms such as the Meech
Lake Accord, and Charlottetown Accord). They won the Official Opposition
post in '93, and their support culimated in '95 where they won 49.4% on a
referendum on seperation.
Quebec itself is entirely different place from anywhere in the US and
Canada. It is something which makes Canada Canada. The Habs (or Montreal
Canadiens), maple syrup, great hockey players, the oldest city in NA, and a
lot of our prime ministers all share Quebec as their home. Quebec's
feelings of "isolation" date to the Conscription Crisis for World War 1, and
have gained more and more steam and eventually peaked in 2 referendums for
seperation in 1980, and 1995. A major factor in the speeding up of these
nationalistic Quebec feelings ws the patriation of Canada's constitution in
1982 without Quebec's support. The late PE Trudeau's stark refusal to bend
to Quebec's influence remains one of the most ideologically focussed events
in Canada's history. To this date, Quebec has not signed our (eg Canada's)
constitution.
My feelings on all this are mixed. In some ways the BQ's arguments (I think
still archived at blocquebecois.ca) are very persuasive but at the same time
it seems absolutely insane to be talking about breaking up your country in
public (so Canadian, eh!). But if you look at how much we (the rest of
Canada) do for Quebec their arguments fall to peices. Canada has protected
french in the constitution (Official Bilingualism), supported Quebec's
sagging economy (with transfer payments from "have" provinces such as my
oil-rich Alberta), and made fantastic gestures (such as a failed "Distinct
Society" clause in the constitution which PE Trudeau violently denounced as
the worst move to make). Perhaps things have worked themselves out with the
BQ (and its provincial sister the Parti Quebecois) backing off a seperation
referendum question, and the support for seperation falling off, but time
will tell. If only les Canadiens were a stronger club right now (even
though they beat my Oilers a few days ago) then we'd have something going
on.
Oh, and by the way as a small nitpicking excercise, it's Quebeccers or
Quebecois, and not Quebecians. :)
Wow, that was long. Sorry for my ranting/raving in advance. =)
Graham
(that was a complete digression from Salingeria...)
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