Quebec's political future

...The old clerical elite, which imposed a dour Catholicism on the population (the subject of many a contemporary novel) preserved Quebec's separateness, albeit at the expense of her economic and social development...

...In 1980, it sponsored a referendum designed to grant the provincial government a mandate to negotiate "sovereignty-association" (political independence and economic cooperation) with Ottawa, but only 40 percent of the voters were in favor...

...liberalism, with its emphasis on individual rights, served as a solvent for the structures of the old regime...

...The divergences between ideologues and pragmatists could ultimately threaten the unity of the party...

...There must inevitably be tensions between the ideologues and the pragmatists within the P.Q...

...It is widely held that the younger generation is far less politicized than the generation of thirty-forty-year-olds...

...Another reason is that many of those who desire a "renewed federalism" have more confidence in the P.Q.'s ability to negotiate such a solution than in that of the Liberal Party, although "renewed federalism" is the slogan of the Liberals...

...But such logic has not prevented other nationalist parties from doing so elsewhere (e.g...

...A third unstated reason is perhaps the fear that if they succeeded, they would destroy the Liberal party, whose strength is now based almost exclusively in Quebec and Ontario, and thereby reduce French influence in Ottawa...

...The Quebeckers have never forgiven the English-dominated Conservative party for having foisted conscription on them in 1917...

...The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s was a cultural breakthrough which occurred very rapidly because the economic infrastructure of a modern society had already been laid and because the pillars of the old order had already begun to collapse...

...Perhaps more significant is the belief that they would lose...

...In English Canada, there are two major parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, and a strong third party, the New Democrats, a labor party...

...The most obvious reply is that it would be illogical for a party dedicated to Quebec independence to hold seats in a federal parliament...

...This would bring the Conservatives to power, which would seem to make sense, since these same people claim that they would rather deal with Joe Clark than with Trudeau...

...It is hard to imagine any worthwhile negotiations taking place between Trudeau and Levesque...

...Indeed, the former's efforts to "repatriate" the Constitution (the British North America Act of 1867 remains the Canadian constitution and its repatriation requires the assent of the British parliament) on his own terms has united eight of the ten provinces in opposition...

...the Parti Quebecois would run on the platform of sovereignty-association, and would consider an electoral victory as a mandate for initiating such negotiations...

...Scottish nationalists in the English parliament...

...Unless it finds a new sense of purpose, it could follow the Union Nationale to the dustbin of history...

...They have previously hesitated to put all their eggs in one basket...

...it could be an acceptable marriage of convenience, if Quebec could get cultural autonomy and the west some satisfaction over control of energy deposits...

...was the result of two almost contradictory yet related sentiments: the old conservative fear of being engulfed in an English-speaking (and modern) civilization, and a new feeling that Quebec was a modern nation and had the capacity to be its own master...

...This, together with Trudeau's rather cavalier decision to take a safari in Africa while the Canadian dollar plummeted, has undermined his popularity, a decline reflected in a Toronto by-election of August 17, where one of his closest proteges, Jim Coutts, was defeated in what was allegedly the safest riding in Ontario...

...Nothing is more obvious than the difference between the Quebec of 1959 and that of 1981...

...The growth of the B.Q...

...Many people think that the Levesque government is capable and honest...

...Nevertheless, the Parti Quebecois experiences the quandary of being dedicated to radical change and at the same time being a party of government unable to bring about such change...

...Quebeckers have always attempted to accomplish their goals through both the provincial and federal governments...

...If, as many Parti Quebecois members really believe, Trudeau is their real enemy, why doesn't the Parti Quebecois run its own candidates for federal parliament...

...The question may best be approached by examining some of the contradictions which confuse the political situation...

...The very success of Quebec's assertion of its special identity tends to undercut the argument that without independence Quebec cannot survive as a cultural identity, since the arguments for independence are more cultural than economic (it is said that Quebec can survive independence economically), more affective than concrete...

...Nevertheless, the electorate returned the P.Q...

...The process began under the Liberal government of Jean Lesage in 1960...

...Trudeau's plan was perhaps prompted by his promise during the referendum campaign to offer the basis of a new federalism...

...does likewise under the banner of independence...

...Thus the same voters elect two bitter rivals, Trudeau and Levesque...

...But unless such discussion does take place, the desire for independence in Quebec will rise, and no one should question the ability of Quebeckers to succeed in running their own state.g their own state...

...The Quebec population is obviously ambivalent...

...there were no non-denominational schools until the 1960s...

...This would provide one way out of the impasse, but it might do so by plunging the party back into opposition...

...there is no evidence that they are now ready to do otherwise...

...After five years of government, the Parti Quebecois suffers the usual fate of parties of opposition which become parties of government...

...Contrary to expectations, the Parti Quebecois won the provincial elections of 1976...

...Thus, there is some talk among the left about the creation of a social-democratic party, but it is hard to tell how serious the talk is...

...with an enormous majority in this year's provincial elections...

...One reason may have nothing to do with ideology...

...In Quebec, however, the last two are mere phantoms (on August 17, in a by-election, Roch LaSalle was reelected as the sole Conservative from the province, and not because he was a Conservative...

...So at least in this respect, Rene Levesque represents the continuity of Quebec politics, rather than an aberration...

...What does this bode for the future of Quebec-Canadian relations...

...Just as European Christian-Democratic parties group different and sometimes conflicting classes and interest groups under the banner of religion, the P.Q...

...One reply to Trudeau was the creation of the Parti Quebecois, which defended the concept of independence...

...To borrow an expression from Trotsky, Quebec has telescoped several stages of development in one generation...

...THE SECOND great irony of Quebec politics is that the same voters who elect the Parti Quebecois against the provincial Liberal party also vote nearly to a man for the Liberal party on the federal level...

...They are busy bringing suits before the Canadian Supreme Court and in buttonholing the backbenchers in Westminister...

...Indeed, the last provincial election was a disaster for the Liberals, most of whose support came this time from the English-speaking minority and old people...

...Once in power, it can't please everyone...

...Those thirty years old received their education in confessional schools...

...Perhaps only the departure of Trudeau will permit serious discussion about a new federalism...

...That same liberal vision was shared on a national level by Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, who worked for a bilingual Canada and a strong central government...

...People recall how their farmhouses received electricity one day in the early 1950s, and television the next...

...This makes it possible that unless independence comes soon, it will never come...

...One solution that has been frequently mentioned recently is holding the next provincial elections as referendal elections, i.e...

...Federalism, to be sure, is not a romantic ideal in Canada...

...But Quebeckers hesitated before this model, the more so because their once high population growth had radically declined, and they constituted only a small minority of the entire population...

...This makes any solution of the Liberal-Parti Quebecois struggle unlikely...

...Moreover, even if the Parti Quebecois won the election, Ottawa could refuse to negotiate on the grounds that the party had evaded its former pledge not to negotiate unless it had won a referendum...

...This is so much the case that it is easy to ignore the continuities...

...Unfortunately, the repatriation issue is tangential to the real problem, and has merely injected a host of legal technicalities and a great deal of bad feeling into Canadian politics...

...Yet, in their own way, all of Quebec's leaders have attempted to maintain Quebec's separate identity as a French-speaking nation on an English-speaking continent...

...Even the symbol of the old days, Maurice Duplessis, who dominated the province from the 1940s until his death in 1959, asserted Quebec's rights against the claims of the federal government...

...Why does the electorate return the Parti Quebecois, yet refuse to endorse its guiding principle, independence...

...Rene Levesque has promised not to hold another referendum during this term of office...