Canada is one of the most unique and diversified countries in the world. It consists of ten provinces and two territories. All parts of Canada are interesting and contain important details to them, however, Quebec’s political situation is the most controvercial of all. In all other parts of Canada, the main spoken language is english and it creates no problem amongst its settlers in each province.
In Quebec, the situation differs. There is twenty four percent of a french population in all of canada, and this population resides mainly in Quebec. this creates a issue between the French and the English settlers because the English want the spoken language to stay english, but the majority french population want it to be french. Due to the minority of french speakers in all of canada, french is at a minority. In Quebec, their is a french majority of settlers and because of that, the french are taking their dominating situation and trying to create a french country on its own seperated from the rest of Canada. The follwing essay will include the history of the politocal situation in Quebec.
The situation of Quebec can be best explained as the evolution of two nations. This conflict goes back two hundred years ago to the English conquest. Both Britain and France established colonies in Northern America in the seventeenth century. In seventeen hundred and fifty nine, British forces had a victory led by general Wolfe and this ended French colonialism in Northern America, yet problems persisted because the French still resided in these areas. New France stayed part of the British Empire and they lived within their own laws and language and were aloud to practice Catholicism.
Due to being placed as a minority, the French refused to assimilate and thus, problems began. During the American Revolutionary war, thousands of English speaking people came to these British colonies and this made Quebec an English speaking province. In order to seperate the English form the French, upper and lower Canada was created. English dominance was marked, and the French were mainly farners. In eighteen hundred and thirty seven, a rebellion took place to make French assimilate into English society, but the French at the same time wanted independence from Canada and did not like that idea at all. The rebellion failed.
During the confederation, federal systems were introduced in eighteen hundred and sixty seven, and this isolated Quebec from the rest of canada. Quebec had bilingualism instituted, however, French speakers were forced to use the english language and the English didn’t have to use the French language. French schools and other institutions becane vital for French speakers. In the nineteen hundreds, Quebec was sixty percent rural and by nineteen hundred and thirty one, it was sixty three percent urbanized. This created a bigger problem for the French because all the jobs went mainly to the English speakers.
By nineteen hundred and sixty, French speakers were the most poorly paid workers and their standards of living were the lowest too. The French had to learn the english language in order to survive living in Quebec, and the english could pretty much ignore the French because they didn’t need them. It was the Quiet Revolution in nineteen hundred and sixty that transformed the lives of French speakers. The changes that occured, redefined the role of the Government. The state became the instrument for change.
Things like health, welfare and education became a concern for Quebec. This marked the end to the anglophone control of the important segments of the economy. In nineteen hundred and seventy, a huge transformation occured, Parti Quebecois came to rise. The French felt the only way they had to control their destiny was to create a notion that Quebec should seperate from the rest of Canada.
A man named Rene Levesque created the Parti Quebecois wanting liberation. He created the notion for sovereignty association sayong Quebec will still have close ties to Canada, yet be a seperate nation. Before the election of which party was to be in power, parti Quebecois decided that if they were elected, they would create a referendum in which people will have to chose to either agree to seperation or not. In nineteen seventy six, Parti Quebecois was elected as Government of Quebec and this drew attention not only around Canada, but the United States as well. There was a referendum in nineteen hundred and eighty, but the idea of seperation was rejected anf the loss was three to two. In nineteen hundred and eighty five, Parti Quebecois was defeated and replaced by Robert Bourassa.
With this new Government, the french prospered more economically and in all other areas of life. Slowly, the Francophones began to take over the Anglophone dominance. In nineteen hundred and ninety five, there was yet again another referendum that took place in October. The measure was defeated yet again, however, it was a close call.
English won fifty point six percent to forty nine point four percent French. Today the problem still stands, however, peope are still reviewing what really did happen in the last referendum and people are looking at the pros and cons against Quebec ever really It is unfortunate and true that the French population of Canada are at a minority and in the past have been treated poorly and unfairly. The fact of the matter is, no matter how much French canada wants to be equal and have independence, the situation is unlikely and many people, including other Francophones see that too. Not only was there much debate over whether there was fraud concerning the votes taken during the election of nineteen hundred and ninety five, but there are also many issues at stake. For instance, there are the Indians and their Canadian citzenship to think about.
If Canada were to seperate, the indians would have no where to turn to for support, because the rest of Canada would no longer want to help them out since Quebec will be independent form them. There would also be military problems considering that the military is federal and part of Canada as a whole but if Quebec would seperate, there would be a very small and insufficent army. If there were to be a civil war then what military force would come to help? There would also be no more medicare system for all persons residing in Quebec and how would people who were on welfare be able to pay fpr operations or all other medical emergencies that may persist. The employment rate would drop considerably and many business’s would go bankrupt.
Overall, this plan for seperation may give the French a chance to prove themsleves that they can fend for themsleves, but it seems as thought hey are not thinking of all the negative impacts that come along with this package of Bibliography:
