PQ Convention: Quebec Consititution, Citizenship and Referendum

By 2016, will Quebec be independent?


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PQ program aims to 'take back control'

Graeme Hamilton, National Post · Apr. 18, 2011 | Last Updated: Apr. 18, 2011 4:06 AM ET

MONTREAL . Confident it will win the next provincial election, the Parti Québécois adopted a political program Sunday designed to provoke the federal government and pave the way for a winning sovereignty referendum.

PQ leader Pauline Marois said that if elected premier she would lead a "sovereigntist government" that would enact its own Constitution, create Quebec citizenship and recover a broad range of powers from Ottawa -all before a referendum is held.

Fresh from the 93.1% confidence vote she received from party members Saturday, Ms. Marois said Ottawa would be judged harshly if it resisted Quebec's demands for more power. "We are offering Quebecers a chance to take back control -control of our democracy, of our economy, of our state, control of what we are," she said.

"And for federalists who hoped that our will to build a country was going to fade after our convention, know that we leave here more determined, more united, stronger and more convinced than ever."

The confidence vote solidifies Ms. Marois' grip on the party, as made clear when she personally intervened on the convention floor Sunday to help overturn a proposal to outlaw English on commercial signs. Delegates had approved the measure in the morning, but they flip-flopped after Ms. Marois pleaded that it was not the time to begin a new court battle over language. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that the ban on English signs initially contained in Bill 101, Quebec's language law, was unconstitutional.

Still, the party is not shying away from other linguistic battles. Delegates overwhelmingly supported a proposal to extend Bill 101's restrictions to the province's post-secondary colleges or CEGEPs, meaning francophones and the children of immigrants would be barred from attending English-language colleges.

"This proposal is an indication of our determination, of our desire to re-establish a balance to ensure that French is the official language of Quebec, and that it will become again the common language of all Quebecers," said Pierre Curzi, the party's language critic.

Polls have shown the move is opposed by a majority of Quebecers, and even former premier Jacques Parizeau, a hero to the PQ's language hawks, has said it goes too far because it eliminates adults' freedom of choice. Students typically attend CEGEP for two years, starting when they are 17.

Delegates also voted to make French "the priority language" before all courts and tribunals in Quebec, including those under federal jurisdiction, and to beef up the province's language police. In addition to adding language inspectors, a PQ government would mandate them to investigate whether anglophone hospitals and municipalities serve enough anglophones to continue operating in English.

Another controversial proposal, which Ms. Marois initially opposed but later accepted, would commit a PQ government to spending public funds on the promotion of sovereignty.

Taken as a whole, the PQ program, with its goal of acquiring "ever more powers," is a blueprint for getting under the skin of the rest of Canada. And Ms. Marois did not hide the fact that a rejection of the demands would be ammunition for an eventual referendum.

"It will demonstrate that it is impossible to change the current system to have a true recognition of Quebec's difference," she told a news conference. "It is another way to show how sovereignty is necessary for our identity, for our language and even for the development of our cultural, economic and social programs."

The program commits a PQ government to ending federal "interference" in the areas of education, culture, social programs and health care. It would demand from Ottawa new powers and control over budgets in such fields as language, environment, culture, economic and regional development and immigration.

It would invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Canadian Charter's protection of rights and freedoms. It would also demand to negotiate and sign international treaties touching any area of provincial jurisdiction.

A PQ government would adopt a Quebec constitution, including a new provincial Charter requiring courts to interpret rights and freedoms in light of "the fundamental values of the Quebec nation." A new secularism charter would bar public servants from wearing such conspicuous religious symbols as the hijab and yarmulke.

The overwhelming support for Ms. Marois -the highest ever for a PQ leader -should end speculation that she will be replaced as leader by Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois.

Although her party enjoys a comfortable lead over the governing Liberals in opinion polls, Ms. Marois' personal popularity has lagged behind. A Léger Marketing poll published Saturday in Le Devoir showed the PQ in line to win a majority were an election to be held now. The party was at 38% versus 31% for Premier Jean Charest's Liberals. But the same poll found that about one-third of sovereigntists are not convinced Ms. Marois is the best person to lead Quebec to independence.

Mr. Duceppe addressed the delegates Sunday morning, congratulating Ms. Marois and describing her as "the future first female Premier of Quebec."

He told reporters that the PQ's support for Ms. Marois shows the sovereignty movement is unified.

ghamilton@nationalpost.com

So your thoughts on their plans? Do you think it will succeed?
 
Force them all to speak English and convert to some kind of Protestantism. Prob' solved.

All us westerners should start speaking French. That would make them far, far angrier.
 
All us westerners should start speaking French. That would make them far, far angrier.

Especially when we brutally slaughter the pronunciation
 
Indeed, that would be the idea.
 
The Québécois already slaughter the pronunciation of French themselves.
 
I continue to doubt it will ever be worth the cost for Quebec to go independent. Being unequal (that is, having an advantage) in a relationship with Canada is a better way to maintain Quebecois culture, language and standard of living.

Though if they ever do go, I will laugh when tens of billions of dollars in Hydro Quebec investments stay in Canada.

To answer the poll question: no. Hasn't support for the idea actually waned since the 1995 referendum?

It has. Though if you were to add those in favour of leaving, and those who want greater autonomy for Quebec while staying in Canada, that'd be a majority position.
 
I continue to doubt it will ever be worth the cost for Quebec to go independent. Being unequal (that is, having an advantage) in a relationship with Canada is a better way to maintain Quebecois culture, language and standard of living.

Quebec gets an AWESOME deal being in Canada and I never really understood why so many Quebecois want their own country. What sort of a thing would they gain by leaving and what would they NOT lose?

How much money would they have to spend to set up their own national institutions - not to mention new currency, the renaming of the Montreal Canadians to the Montreal Quebecians, and so forth? It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile venture to me and I don't get why so many people support it.
 
It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile venture to me and I don't get why so many people support it.

Same here. I'm not Canadian (close, but not quite) and I'm not familiar with the specifics of this issue, but this just seems highly unlikely. It probably sounds good in speeches and rallies, but does it really add up in practical terms?

Honestly - and no offense intended - every time I read articles about this movement in Quebec, the language towards the rest of Canada sounds pretty offensive, harping on the "difference" in Quebec - they don't go quite so far as saying "superiority," but it seems the implication is there. It's like there's this ever-present resentment towards the rest of Canada for not being Quebec. :)

How do the rest of you Canadians view this kind of thing? Are Quebecois really as arrogant toward the rest of the country as it sometimes appears?
 
Same here. I'm not Canadian (close, but not quite) and I'm not familiar with the specifics of this issue, but this just seems highly unlikely. It probably sounds good in speeches and rallies, but does it really add up in practical terms?

Honestly - and no offense intended - every time I read articles about this movement in Quebec, the language towards the rest of Canada sounds pretty offensive, harping on the "difference" in Quebec - they don't go quite so far as saying "superiority," but it seems the implication is there. It's like there's this ever-present resentment towards the rest of Canada for not being Quebec. :)

How do the rest of you Canadians view this kind of thing? Are Quebecois really as arrogant toward the rest of the country as it sometimes appears?

I know a couple people who live in Quebec and they don't view the rest of Canada with any sort of contempt at all. Mind you, a couple of those people do NOT have french as their first language (although they speak it) and the rest of them are fairly young and liberal-minded.

There would be huge problems for Canada if Quebec separated. One that immediately comes to mind is the splitting of the country in two. Would the atlantic provinces eventually separate as well?
 
By 2016? No it won't happen. This is what I think of course, not what I want ;). The only reason the PQ might win the next election is because the Liberals are drowning in corruption scandals and have lost all credibility. Even then, they still got a slim chance of keeping power, their base is solid and that people here are so fed up of politics that they might not bother to vote (I'm one of them).

The 93% approval is more a sign of how low the leadership have sunk than anything else. The fact that a bland, uncharismatic woman who never had anything interesting to say is the unchallenged leader of the sovereignist movement is quite deppressing.

Because, like it or not, nearly every québécois that have french as their native tongue don't view themself as canadian, even those who don't favor separation. My parents have voted liberal all their life, my father was a personnal friend of Robert Bourassa, but not once did he view the ROC as anything else than a foreign country. I know that some american are like that, texans for example, but when, for example, september 11 happen, they were all americans. If something like that happen in Toronto, québécois would react the same as if it would happen in New York or Paris.

Right now, politicians don't have credibility here so none of them can convince the population to follow them for something important like independance. In 10 years however, things could change, but not in 5 I'm afraid.
 
I can see Palestine and Quebec having chairs next to each other in the UN.:mischief:
 
Because, like it or not, nearly every québécois that have french as their native tongue don't view themself as canadian, even those who don't favor separation.

That's a huge shame. We're all Canadians, we should hold hands and sing kumbaya and crap. :scan:

Heck, English is my THIRD language and I view myself as a Canadian. Get with the times, dear francophone Canadians.
 
That's a huge shame. We're all Canadians, we should hold hands and sing kumbaya and crap. :scan:

Heck, English is my THIRD language and I view myself as a Canadian. Get with the times, dear francophone Canadians.

It might be worth pointing out that there is a huge throng of francophones outside of Québec who view themselves as Canadians before they view themselves as French Canadian.

Personally, my geo-political identity follows:

Ottawan > Ontarian > Central Canadian > French Canadian > Canadian



Besides, wondering why Québec wants to split even though it probably makes more sense for them to stay is not entirely unlike wondering why your ex-girlfriend left you in order to "find herself": it doesn't make an awful lot of sense, it throws your life into chaos for a few years, and at the end of the day, it isn't clear that it was the best way to go for either of you. But there it is: eventually, you're both in new relationships and you realize that it probably wasn't the best decision in the world, but you can't re-write the past. Québec will call Canada, drunk, when her boyfriend's out of town, Canada will write embarrassingly long emails which he'll never send but constantly allude to, they'll both wish they could meet up one last time in order to put the whole freaking thing behind them once and for all.

You know, the usual.
 
As a French Canadian, I don't buy this.

As Bill3000 remarked, I specifically mention québécois and not french canadian. I also said "nearly" because, of course, they are indeed a very small minority that think otherwhise. Just to be sure however, are you from Québec or another province?
 
So where do the Quebecois get this zany idea that they're somehow stuck in a foreign country? Is there some aspect to Quebec's history that leads them to believe that they're being held prisoner by the big mean Canadians? Was Quebec a free, thriving nation at some point until the Canadians moved in, slaughtered the natives, and colonized the country? I don't get it. :confused:
 
It has. Though if you were to add those in favour of leaving, and those who want greater autonomy for Quebec while staying in Canada, that'd be a majority position.
I would note that the referendum in 1980 and 1995 were not actually "Do you want Quebec to be independent" or anything like that. 1980 referred to sovereignty-association and 1995 referred to an "agreement" (between sovereignty leaders, not for Federal Government) which would have maintained most of Quebec's benefits from being in Canada while not doing anything for the rest of the country (they would get an equal say in the Bank of Canada, no border controls, etc).
The phrase that bests describes this I have seen was "Independence everywhere but the wallet".

How much money would they have to spend to set up their own national institutions - not to mention new currency, the renaming of the Montreal Canadians to the Montreal Quebecians, and so forth? It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile venture to me and I don't get why so many people support it.
Except they think they will get to keep all the Canadian ones.
 
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