A Portrait of QuébecIts History, People and Politics

Frédérick GagnonAssistant Professor, Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal

Director, Center for U.S. Studies, Raoul Dandurand Chair

Source:Government ofCanadaWeb site

Why Study Québec?

• In 2005, Québec had 7.6 million people

• Québec is about 24% of Canada’s population

Why Study Québec?

• Québec is 83% French speaking / 10% English

• Québec is a living, working francophone society (the largest in the Americas)

Spoken languages in Canada

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census Profile of Federal Electoral Districts.

An ongoing debate

French Canadian Emigration to the U.S. (1840-1930)

• 1840-1930: 900 000 French Canadians left Canada to emigrate to the United States

• This has been largely forgotten by people in Québec but is an important event in our history and in U.S. history

According to the 2000 U.S. census:

• 13 million Americans claim to have French ancestors (4% of the pop.)

• 1,6 million of them speak the French language at home

• A large proportion of them have ancestors who emigrated from French Canada during the 19th and 20th century

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

• American novelist, writer, poet, and artist from Lowell (MA)

• Born to immigrants Léo-Alcide Kérouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque

Kerouac = father Beat movement

• Beat writers emphasized a visceral engagement in worldly experiences combined with a quest for deeper spiritual understanding; many of them developed a strong interest in Buddhism

• Echoes of the Beat Generation can be seen throughout many other modern subcultures, such as hippies and punks

• Kerouac and others inspired the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, etc.

First published in 1958

Is a largely autobiographical work that was written as a stream of consciousness creation - based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America

Battle of Iwo Jima (Japan - Feb. - March. 1945)

Joe Rosenthal photographed five Marines: Ira Hayes, Mike Strank, Franklin Sousley, René Gagnon, Harlon Block, and a U.S. Navy corpsman, John Bradley, raising the U.S. flag

atop the 166 meter (546 ft) Mount Suribachi.

René Gagnon (1925-1979)

• Born in Manchester (NH), the only child of French Canadian immigrants from Saint-Luc, Quebec, Henri Gagnon and Irene Marcotte

U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery

Clint Eastwood movie (2006)

Her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell, has French Canadianancestors who immigrated to Nouvelle-France in the 17thCentury!!!

Plan

• A brief history of Québec

• A short description of the population of Québec

• A quick overview of Québec politics

A brief history of Québec

It « all » started in 1534

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557)

French explorer who landed on the shores of the St. Lawrence River in 1534

First Voyage (1534)

GASPÉ

Second Voyage (1535)

Gaspé - July 24, 1534

Cartier:

• Planted a ten-meter cross bearing the words « Long Live the King of France »

• Took possession of the territory in the name of France

• Called it « Canada »

• Canada became a colony of « New France » (other colonies = Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland)

« Long Live the King of France »

What was New France?

• The area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the first voyage of Jacques Cartier (1534) to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in (1763)

France expanded its influence in America

• Goal: to exploit valuable natural riches

• Ex.: Beaver fur, as the European beaver had almost been driven to extinction

It was a very hard time for me!

Early attempts to establish permanent

settlements…

Sable Island (1598)

Tadoussac (1600)

Île-Saint-Croix on Baie François(Bay of Fundy) (1604)

Then this man founded Québec city (1608)

Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635)

…and established a fur trading post

on the Island of Montreal (1611)

Then this man founded Montreal (1642)

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve(1612-1676)

Montreal (1642)

Montreal (1680)

« Coureurs de bois »

(Runner of the woods)

• Individuals who engaged in the fur trade without permission from the French authorities

• By 1681, France realized the traders had to be controlled so that the industry might remain profitable

• Many « coureurs des bois » became « voyageurs »

France then began a policy of expansion in an attempt to dominate the fur trade

• French influence extended west, north and south

• Forts and trading posts were built with the help of explorers, traders and Catholic missionaries

• Treaties were negotiated with native groups, and fur trading became very profitable and organized

New France (1645)

New France at its apogee (1750)

But in 1754

• A war between Britain and France began over the control of North America

Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759)

Within four years, nearly all of France's possessions in eastern North America would be ceded to Great Britain

French Surrender at Montreal 1760

France Surrenders to England (Québec)

New France at its apogee (1750)

New France after the Treaty of Paris (1763)

After the Conquest

• The British tried to assimilate the 65,000 Canadiens into their own system (that did not work)

• Quebec Act (1774) = concessions on language, religion, territory and legal systems

Quebec before Quebec Act (1763)

Quebec after the Quebec Act (1774)

Constitutional Act (1791)

1837-1838 rebellions

Louis-Joseph Papineau

Patriots Flag

Durham Report (1839)• Recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be united into one province, which would give British Canadians a slight advantage in population

• Encouraged immigration to Canada from Britain, to overwhelm the existing numbers of French Canadians and hopefully assimilate them into British cultureLord Durham (1792-1840)

Canada after Act of Union (1840)

But assimilation failed again

• Between 1840 and 1940, « La survivance » (survival) became the dominant ideology among French Canadians

– The idea that the nation would survive foremost through its culture, mainly religion, language, tradition and the remembrance of the things past;

– The « revenge of the cradle »: the Catholic Church encouraged French-Canadian families to have as many children as possible

In the meantime, British North America Act is adopted (1867)Canada becomes what it is today

And within the 1867 arrangement

• French Canadians were given a powerful political tool to guarantee the preservation of their language and culture

• The Provincial Government of Québec / Québec State

Most Québec leaders hesitated from using this tool aggressively

Maurice Duplessis (Leader of Union Nationale)Premier of Québec 1936-1939; 1944-1959

Jean Lesage (Leader of Liberal Party of Québec)

- Premier of Québec 1960-1966

- Was pragmatic and inspired by keynesian theories of the 1940s and 1950s

Lesage’s vision:

• « the Quebec State is the collective lever of the French-Canadian community »

• « Québécois have only one power institution: their government. And they now want to use this institution to build a new era to which they could not formerly aspire »

It was the Quiet Revolution

• a period of rapid change in Quebec as institutions and attitudes were swept away, transforming state, economy, family, and society

– New role for the Québec state– A New Economic Consciousness– A New International Role for Quebec– The Secularization of Quebec Society

Some wanted to go a step further

René LévesquePremier of Quebec

(1976-1985)

- Founder of the Parti Québécois

- An icon of the separatist movement

- Pierre Trudeau’s political opponent (Trudeau was Prime Minister of Canada between 1968 and 1979; and 1980 and 1984)

Bill 101 (passed in 1977)

• Law in the province of Québec defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Québec and framing fundamental language rights of all Quebecers

May 20, 1980Referendum on sovereigny-association

The Question:« The Government of Quebec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations; this agreement would enable Quebec to acquire the exclusive power to make its laws, levy its taxes and establish relations abroad — in other words, sovereignty — and at the same time to maintain with Canada an economic association including a common currency; any change in political status resulting from these negotiations will only be implemented with popular approval through another referendum; on these terms, do you give the Government of Quebec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Quebec and Canada? »

Referendum#1:1980

2nd attempt1995 referendum (Oct. 30)

« Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Québec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995? »

Referendum #2:

1995

A short description of the population of Québec

A diverse population

The two most important cities

Québec city

Montréal

Québec city

• Provincial capital of Québec

• Turned 400 last year!

• Pop.: 491,142 (city); 728,924 (metro)

• 95% speak French at home; 1% English

Québec’s ramparts

North America’s European City?

Montreal

• Largest city in Québec (2nd in Canada after Toronto)

• Pop.: 1,854,442 (city); 3,635,571 (metro)

• 70% speak French at home; 19% English (more than 40 ethnic communities)

A bilingual / bicultural city

• 60% of the pop. speak both English and French (compared with 17% in Canada)

Montreal’s proximity to the U.S.

• an hour from Plattsburgh, NY

• an hour and a half from Burlington, VT

• 3 and a half hours from Albany, NY

• 5 hours from Boston, MA

• 6 hours from NYC

So what does it mean to be Québécois? Is Québec:

• An extension of France?

• A Canadian province like the others?

• A « distinct society »?

• A country in the making?

• An americanized francophone society?

According to Yvan Lamonde (1996):

• This formula is helpful to understand what Québec is: 2

Q + Fr + GB + (USA) - R

Quebec’s history and identity (Q) are made up of less France (F) than we believe, more Great Britain (GB) than we want to admit, a much larger American influence than we think, and much less imput from Rome (R) and the clergy than thought

A quick overview of Québec politics

Our political parties

• Federal Parties (in Ottawa)

• Provincial Parties (in Québec)

2008 Canadian (Federal) Elections

Separatist BQ is strong in Quebec

2008 Results in Quebec

2008 Quebec (Provincial) Elections

Ongoing debate in our politics

• What road ahead for separatists?

Public Support for Quebec independence(June 2009 Angus-Reid Survey)

34% support independence

54% oppose

74% think it is very unlikely or not at all likely to ever occur

28% want outright independence

30% want more autonomy from Canada

32% are content to have Quebec remain a province of Canada

Concluding thoughts

Thank you!

gagnon.frederick@uqam.ca