Is Quebec becoming two nations? It was multicultural Montreal that tipped the scales
Levesque, Charles W
Is Quebec Becoming Two Nations? Not only did the October 30 referendum fail to resolve the question of the viabili-ty of the Canadian confederation, but, more ominously, it evidenced a severely...
...CHARLES W. LEVESQUE Charles W. Levesque, an attorney from Chicago, ob-wrrcd the referendum in Quebec...
...Such statements will not draw anglophone and allophone voters to the sovereignty cause...
...The deep ethnic and geographic cleavages in Quebec revealed by the referendum- the public statements by the leaders of the sovereignty movement and the passion engendered by the campaign-insure that the struggle to resolve Quebec's place in Canada will continue, and that it will bo marked by divisiveness, rancor, and bitterness...
...For Quebec sovereignisls there is a cruel irony in the fact that Montreal, the world's window to Quebec culture and the stage on which Queheckers present themselves to the world, has emerged .is the stumbling block to sovereignty...
...parts of the Eastern townships close to New England (an area with a history of anglophone settlements...
...The result was that the will of the majority community was elec-torally stalemated by the greater cohesion of the minority community...
...Only three regions of the vast province voted against sovereignty: the Ontario border area (home of thousands of federal civil servants employed in nearby Ottawa...
...Rather, they assure that sovereignty will remain a francophone aspiration that, if achieved, will be over the unified opposition of Quebec's minority communities who will certainly chafe under such a development and most likely also challenge its legitimacy...
...Quebec is now composed of two populations with opposite and conflicting aspirations and perspectives...
...The division of Quebec, however, is not merely ethnic...
...The minority anglophone and allnphone (those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English) voted in even greater proportions against sovereignty...
...Francophones, 80 percent of Quebec's population, voted by a significant margin, 60 percent, in favor of sovereignty...
...The vote illustrated just how far apart francophone and nonfrancophone Quebec have grown...
...Parizeau argued, lay in greater ethnic solidarity, mobilizing 63 to 64 percent of the francophone population to opt for sovereignty...
...It was big, multicultural, international Montreal, home to the vast majority of Quebec's immigrants, that provided the margin of victory for the federalist cause...
...Premier Jacques Parizeau blamed the sovereignists' loss on big business and the "ethnic vote," and he declared that the referendum had not really been lost because more than (SO percent of francophones had backed sovereignty...
...The way to future victory...
...On election night, sovereignty leaders exploited feelings of francophone isolation and victimization...
...It is also increasingly geographic...
...These deep divisions between English and French communities, between the metropolis and the regions, will make achieving a consensus on resolving Quebec's place in \orth America elusive...
...and the island of Montreal...
...Moreover, they are not concerns easily addressed by constitutional tinkering...
...Not only did the October 30 referendum fail to resolve the question of the viabili-ty of the Canadian confederation, but, more ominously, it evidenced a severely divided Quebec...
...The potential tor frustration and anger in the majority francophone community is enormous as., apparently, is the temptation to play on these feelings to advance political agendas...
Vol. 122 • December 1995 • No. 21
