Canadian Polemic

There's an interesting opinion piece found at the website of La Presse, a Francophone Montreal daily - you can get it here, and my apologies if you're not bilingual. Unfortunately for you, it's only in French. I'll do my best to summarize it somewhat.

The author, Philippe Parenteau, uses the space to question the future of the sovereigntist project in Quebec. He notes that in the ten years since the 1995 referendum, the political situation in Quebec has been reasonably static. Rather than moving forward on bold new ideas for the good of all Quebeckers, he argues that the last decade has been spent instead monitoring the sovereignty movement. By focussing on that project, one that pits Anglophones against Francophones, Quebec is losing out economically and socially. The project encompasses all political debate between the left and the right, between Francophones and Anglophones, and allows for an easy dismissal of lower standards - things would be much easier if Quebec was separate.

Parenteau then points to Ontario, where the province's Francophone communities, though dispersed, are well taken care of, and where the province is more or less united. He cites the province's higher living standards, booming economy and attractiveness to young families and immigrants. Compare this to Quebec, he says, where the province is still split between 42-45% sovereigntists and 42-45% federalists. By focussing on that divisive project, Quebec is falling behind and losing out on a chance to really succeed and grow as a province. Isn't it time, he asks again, for Quebeckers to find a new grand project that can unite them?

This kind of proactivity is needed in Quebec, and I hope that these ideas can catch on. Newspapers in the rest of Canada (and around the world) tend to proclaim daily the worrisome scenario of a PQ government in Quebec City calling another referendum on sovereignty, particularly after the revelations of the Gomery Inquiry. It's certainly a valid suggestion, but I tend to agree with Parenteau when he suggests that the continuation of the sovereigntist project in Quebec only continues to divide a population that could be so much stronger together. We've also seen whiffs of this kind of thinking from such figures as former separatist Premier Lucien Bouchard, whose recent manifesto, produced alongside several other Quebec intellectuals, regarding a "Clear-Eyed Vision of Quebec" or "Pour un Quebec lucide" (found here) calls for real ideas that will actually benefit Quebeckers, and a reverse to that province's economic decline. A quote from the manifesto outlines that sentiment:

Unfortunately, at the very moment when we should be radically changing the way they view ourselves and the world around us, the slightest change to the way government functions, a bold project, the most timid call to responsibility or the smallest change to our comfortable habits is met with an angry outcry and objections or, at best, indifference. This outright rejection of change hurts Québec because it runs the risk of turning us into the republic of the status quo, a fossil from the twentieth century.

Hopefully this kind of thinking will catch on across the province, and Quebec can become economically, politically and socially strong - within Canada. Quebec's leaders should put division aside and work for unity and prosperity.