Separatist movement in Quebec
The separatist movement in Quebec is a political and cultural initiative driven primarily by the French-speaking Québécois, aiming to achieve political independence for the province from Canada. The roots of this movement gained significant traction during the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s when the Liberal Party, under Jean Lesage, initiated major reforms that fostered a sense of nationalism among Québécois. This period marked a shift from a conservative, agrarian society toward a more modern, secular, and confident identity that emphasized the importance of preserving the French language and culture.
The movement has had its ups and downs, including two significant referendums in 1980 and 1995, both of which resulted in losses for the separatist cause. Despite these setbacks, the desire for sovereignty has remained strong, leading to the formation of the Parti Québécois and other sovereignist parties, which have tried to mobilize support, particularly among younger voters. In recent years, the landscape has shifted, with the Parti Québécois facing challenges in maintaining its popularity and relevance in a changing political climate. As of the mid-2020s, new leadership has sought to rejuvenate support through modern outreach strategies, including social media engagement. This ongoing struggle reflects a complex interplay of cultural pride, economic concerns, and the quest for political identity within Quebec.
Separatist movement in Quebec
SIGNIFICANCE: The efforts of French-speaking Québécois to gain independence for their province build a sense of nationalism within Quebec but create a rift between English- and French-speaking Canadians.
In 1960, Canada’s Liberal Party, led by Jean Lesage, won a narrow victory in Quebec’s provincial election. Once in power, the Liberals initiated a period of considerable reform and unintentionally unleashed nationalist forces that would bring the issue of sovereignty for Quebec to the forefront. For much of the period between 1944 and 1960, this province, where 85 percent of the people spoke French, had been under the control of Maurice Duplessis and his Union Nationale Party. The Duplessis regime was marked by political corruption and ruthless intimidation of opponents. A powerful combination of political bosses, the Roman Catholic Church, and big business successfully suppressed trade unions, radical organizations, and any liberating ideas that challenged the established conservative order. Intellectuals later labeled this era the Great Darkness. Anglo-Canadians and the United States controlled the economy, while most French-speaking Québécois were relegated to a subservient status within their homeland. While the province became increasingly urban, industrial, and secular, Duplessis still defended the values of a rural, religious, traditional-minded people. In short, Quebec’s institutions had become outmoded and no longer conformed to social and economic reality.
Lesage’s Reforms
Although Georges-Émile Lapalme was the intellectual inspiration behind the Liberal program, it was the pragmatic and energetic Jean Lesage who, as premier, instituted the reforms that were to transform Quebec completely. His cabinet introduced numerous electoral reforms, which included reducing the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, attacking political corruption and patronage, and providing for better representation of urban areas, previously dramatically underrepresented. Social welfare programs were created, expanded, and better funded, particularly in the crucial areas of health care and old age pensions. The labor code was modernized; many workers were empowered to form trade unions, bargain collectively, and strike under limited conditions. Quebec’s educational system, previously dominated by a rigid Catholicism that emphasized classical education, was completely revamped. The government created a modern, secular school system and put in motion plans to create a new University of Quebec and a number of regional colleges. This new educational system was now capable of producing the elites needed to run a modern state, well skilled in the fields of science, technology, and business.
In the crucial economic sector, the state became the engine responsible for economic expansion. Under René Lévesque, minister of hydraulic resources, private power companies were nationalized, creating the giant corporation Hydro-Québec, which provided superior service and reasonable rates to the entire province. The government established the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement, which held government pension funds and provided capital to help Quebec industries. Within the growing public sector, the government systematically inserted an increasing number of French-speaking Québécois into positions of authority. In all its decisions, the government attempted to ensure that jobs, profits, and raw materials stayed within the province to benefit the people of Quebec rather than foreign interests. Their motto was Maître chez nous (“masters of our own house”).
The Quiet Revolution
The Liberals won reelection easily in 1962 but were upset in the election of 1966; the Union Nationale returned to power, thus ending one of the most dynamic periods in Quebec’s history. The Liberal achievement has been labeled the Quiet Revolution, a revolution that was accomplished not by bloody insurrection in the streets, but rather by changes within the confines of government agencies, business offices, and school classrooms. Perhaps the real revolution was a change in values, attitude, and mentality. Québécois emerged from this period confident, self-assertive, and taking immense pride in their accomplishments. It was inevitable that unleashing such forces would ultimately lead the Québécois to question the constitutional relationship with the rest of Canada, if they were to preserve their French language and unique Québécois culture.
Some, like the radical youth who joined the Front de Libération du Québec, employed violence to achieve Quebec’s separation from Canada. The vast majority, like Lévesque, took the democratic path. Lévesque had been a popular leader of the Liberal government, an immensely gifted statesman who was both a crafty politician and a profound thinker. Now freed of government responsibility, he came to the conclusion that Quebec must be sovereign in the political sphere, although he desired to retain a close economic association with the rest of Canada. After the Liberal Party rejected his sovereignist ideas at its 1967 conference, Lévesque quit the party in order to found a new movement. Further galvanizing sovereignist sentiment that year was the visit of the French president, Charles de Gaulle, to Quebec. On July 24, in Montreal, de Gaulle issued his famous cry, Vive le Québec libre! (Long live a free Quebec!), thereby suggesting that Quebec’s sovereignists had a powerful international ally in France.
There already were two small sovereignist parties on the scene, the Rassemblement pour L’Indépendance Nationale (Union for National Independence, or RIN), a left-wing party, and the Ralliement Nationale (National Rally, or RN), which tended to be conservative. Together, these two parties had won almost 9 percent of the vote in the previous election. In November 1967, Lévesque founded the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association (MSA), committed to promoting political sovereignty for Quebec and economic association with Canada. The RIN and RN began to discuss the prospect of merger with Lévesque’s new movement, and within a year they, in effect, merged with the MSA. The larger Quebec trade unions also showed keen interest in this project.
The year 1968 was decisive. In January, Lévesque published his best-selling book, Option Québec, which promoted the idea of sovereignty association. In April, the MSA voted to become a provincial political party. The first convention was held in Quebec City from October 11 to 14, and delegates adopted the name of Parti Québécois (PQ). The party’s program was more radical than its leaders would have preferred, giving the PQ a decided left-of-center orientation on social and economic issues and an even more aggressive stance against the Canadian government than PQ’s leaders thought wise. Commentators across Canada were impressed by the quality of the party’s debates, and many Anglo-Canadians found Lévesque a fresh and fascinating figure, honest, passionate, and flamboyant.
The new party generated much enthusiasm and grew quickly. It attracted teachers, students, trade unionists, civil servants, liberal priests, and the new business elites. By the following spring, public opinion polls showed that 26 percent of the electorate would vote for the PQ. The party was particularly successful with Québécois youth. At its second convention in October 1969, approximately two-thirds of the delegates were younger than thirty-five. The party received a further boost when Jacques Parizeau, a highly respected economist, announced his intention to run as a PQ candidate, legitimizing the party’s contention that separation was economically feasible.
Thus, the 1960s saw the emergence of a new Quebec nationalism that differed sharply from that of the past. The old nationalism was defensive and insular, suspicious of the state and the city, believing that both were the enemy of a simple, religious, agrarian folk. This nationalism had valued traditionalism, Catholicism, and even race. It had sprung from feelings of inferiority and a ferocious desire to preserve the past. The new nationalism of the 1960s was confident and assertive. Liberal, secular, and reformist, it revolved more around language and economics than race or religion. It embraced modernity, recognized the crucial importance of a technological society, and viewed the state as a benevolent partner in creating a just and affluent society. This nationalism was to be a prominent feature of the sovereignist movement in the decades to come.
The Struggle to Separate
In a 1980 referendum, the proposal for Quebec to secede from Canada was rejected by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent. Fifteen years later, a second referendum was narrowly defeated. Despite those setbacks, the separatist movement remained strong in Quebec.
By 2011, some PQ politicians, including Parizeau's wife Lisette Lapointe, were disillusioned with the party, which they saw as having strayed from its founding vision. Under the leadership of Jean-Martin Aussant, they formed a new leftist sovereignist party, Option Nationale, which is seen as appealing to young people. Two years later, Aussant resigned from politics and Sol Zanetti took the reins. While it failed to gain a provincial seat in the 2012 election, Option Nationale took the most votes of any of the province's alternative parties in 2014.
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the PQ experienced brief losses of party status and decreased popularity. In 2022, the PQ only held three elected seats, the lowest in its history. However, the PQs’s leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, elected in 2020, began to raise the group’s popularity in the mid-2020s with his presence on TikTok appearing to appeal to younger voters.
Bibliography
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