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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
La fin du mouvement souverainiste?
(Excuse this long introduction to an important news story...)
I have never bought into the argument that the Québec separatist movement is dying and I never will. Every few years someone puts forward the thesis -- and they are always proven wrong. People said it would die after the 2000 federal election, when the Chrétien Liberals increased their Québec seat count and Bloc went down. People are saying it again with the Harper Tories poised to make gains in the province at the expense of the Bloc.
In my view, the French-Canadian drive for independent statehood will always be with us in some form. The popularity of the idea ebbs and flows, but this debate is too ingrained in the Québec consciousness to ever totally disappear.
That said, there's no reason separatism cannot be reduced to a fringe movement that isn't taken seriously by a vast majority of the population. The push for Québec "sovereignty" has become all about ideology and economics, one that seeks to create a European-style socialist state in the heart of North America.
Ideologies can be discredited over time. Communism, fascism, Nazism, etc... are all frowned upon today and are not taken seriously by anyone. (And before someone posts it in comments -- NO, I am not comparing Quebec separatism to those movements. I am simply saying ideologies can fall out of favour.)
So, what's the point of this? It is to say that I have never seen such clear-cut evidence of the decline of Québec separatism as I have today, with the announcement by Parti Québécois stalwart Jean-Pierre Charbonneau and others of a new group which seeks to have a province-wide consultation with Québécers about the province's future:
Mr. Charbonneau and two other PQ MNAs, Daniel Turp and Jonathan Valois, are among a group of individuals who say that the PQ alone does not hold the answer to Quebec's political future.
The discussion group, which calls itself Québec-Plus Démocratie, includes the founding leader of the Action Démocratique du Québec party, Jean Allaire, members of the Green Party, the newly formed, left-wing Québec-Solidaire Party, a union leader and even ultra-federalist, human-rights lawyer Julius Grey.
The PQ members deny they are breaking with the party line that calls for a referendum "as soon as possible" if the PQ forms the next government. Mr. Charbonneau said a "vast and profound exercise of participatory democracy" was part of the party platform, and that PQ Leader André Boisclair was consulted and supported the idea.
Now, the money quote from Charbonneau:
"If a consensus emerges that shows that we would lose a referendum on sovereignty, then the party will have to draw its conclusions," Mr. Charbonneau said. "André Boisclair, as well as the leaders before him, has said that holding another losing referendum is out of the question. We must follow public opinion and follow what people will tell us during this vast public debate."
The launch of this group is stunning, and I'm surprised it isn't creating more of a buzz. It is essentially a tacit avowal by die-hard separatists of the impossibility of winning a referendum anytime soon. Coming from people as deeply-rooted in the independentist cause as J-P Charbonneau, Daniel Turp and Jonathan Valois, that is quite something. (One could cricitize the fundamental premise of the group --that Québec is presently at an impasse within Canada -- given the strides being made under the Harper Conservatives, but that's another discussion.)
So, do these people still want to make a country of Québec? The PQers in the group do, of course. But is it also true they have realized it would be better to take anything they can get rather than continuing to fight a losing battle for full-blown nationhood? Looks to me like yes.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:36 AM
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