Contemporary Quebec Nationalism - Essay Example

Contemporary Quebec Nationalism s Contemporary Quebec Nationalism Introduction There has been tension between the Canada and the Quebec in the past few decades. Although there has been a political rhetoric stressing the difference in interests between the two, it has not called for violence. Nationalism is the dominating ideology in Quebec’s. The partisan activism has promoted the knowledge of the Quebecs uniqueness in Canada. Some of the Quebec’s wanted more sovereignty while others wanted a separate state independent from the rest of Canada (Charland, 1987).

The Roman Catholic Church defined the character of French-Canadian nationalism from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. The church attempted to prevent the congregation from social changes that were taken to be dangerous to the maintenance of faith and the position of the church in Quebec. The Quite Revolution in the 1960s is viewed as the turning point of the Quebec’s after the victory of the liberal party in the provincial elections (Behiels, (1985). The Quebec undertook the rapid change in course that were required to become a complete, modern and outward looking.

The traditional political, cultural and social institutions came under attack. In the 1950s, the Duplessis regime manifested itself. The Quite Revolution terminated the traditional nationalism’s grip on the assembly of social and political institutions. The end of this nationalism was viewed as the entry of Quebec into modernity. There was a rise of neo-nationalism incorporating statism, democracy, and modernity. The leader of Quebec Liberal party Jean Lasage presented Quebec as the "political expression of French Canada” (Behiels, 1985).

The French-Canadian identity was found in the homeland as well as in the political climate, which enabled them to promote their interests. Among the main achievements of Quite Revolution, the health insurance plan and the education system should be noted. In 1966, Daniel Johnson won the election as head of Union Nationale. He followed the same steps as those of Lasage but in different terms. He prepared the way of eliminating preferred reference of ethnicity as the major element when defining nationalism.

Johnson preferred the sociological definition of the nation to ratify that the two countries exist in Canada. The nation duality did not depend on the ethnic origin but the culture of citizens. The liberation of the French-Canadian nation was enabled through the appropriation of the state. Rene Levesque founded the "movement souverainete-association” that later became "Parti Quebecois”. In 1967, (Rocher, 2002) Lévesque advanced a thesis that remained unchanged over years. The English Canada looked to simplify, rationalize and centralize powers to central government.

The Quebec, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction. The nationalism that characterized the Quiet Revolution was on the basis of the dynamism of state action. In conclusion, nationalism has been sustained by the will to preserve and affirm the collectivity of the nation. Since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has developed a nationalist ideology making the state of Quebec one of the major elements of identification of social, economic and political promotion of Francophone. Economically, francophones have been able to implement a network of financial, industrial and service businesses with the state’s support.

References Behiels, M. D. (1985). Prelude to Quebecs Quiet Revolution: Liberalism vs Neo-Nationalism, 1945-60. McGill-Queens Press-MQUP. Rocher, F. (2002). The evolving parameters of Quebec nationalism. International Journal on Multicultural Societies, 4(1), 74-96. Charland, M. (1987). Constitutive rhetoric: The case of the Peuple Quebecois. Quarterly journal of Speech, 73(2), 133-150.