Maitres Chez Nous: Overview of Literature on the Quiet Revolution and French Canadian Identity
“Why should nine provinces be made to change their attitudes and their way of life for the sake of one?” -Solange Chaput Rolland
“I wonder if we are to be impressed with your tradition of literary censorship, or your educational systemâÂ?¦I cannot honestly say I believe that we need your resources. You have lots of iron ore here, but so have we (Ontario) and so has much of the rest of Canada” -Douglas Fischer
The parliamentary elections of 1960 in Quebec swept away the lingering conservatism of the World War II era and brought with it the rapid onset of the welfare state. Jean Lesage and the Liberal Party sought to get rid of what they considered the public’s dangerous attachment to nationalist thought by returning to the values of democracy and individual liberty instilled by the British North America Act of 1867. In doing this, Lesage and the new government took part in what analysts now call the “Quiet Revolution”, an upheaval of several decades of stagnant government dedicated to the purpose of maintaining isolation and nationalism during the World Wars. The Quiet Revolution is certainly not an anomaly in the history of Canadian politics; in fact, it fits well into the cycle of upheaval and settlement that has created the modern confederation that is called Canada.
Quebec has failed to secede from the rest of its federated provinces despite great agitation since the British North America Act of 1867, even going back in a different form to the Treaty of Paris in 1763. My contention as to the failure of Quebec to gain independence from Canada is threefold. First, while Quebec is the byproduct of two centuries of anti-statist Catholicism, Anglicization swept away much of this discontent with the welfare state by the 1960s. As well, the welfare state created by the Quiet Revolution, along with the concessions of Ontario and other provinces to many of Quebec’s demands, has rendered secession an unnecessary step toward freedom for French Canadians. Finally, French Canadians in Quebec and other provinces have begun to consider themselves Canadian in their traditions and culture. The literature of French Canadian identity is important to understand because many of the developments of the pre- and present-Quiet Revolution involved intellectual involvement.
Three schools of thought prevail in recent literature on the issue of secession in Quebec. Writers like Stephane Dion and those who utilize public opinion polls and political resources analyze the failure of secession as a failure to find sufficient reason to leave a well-established democracy. Dion’s analyses look at the formation of organizations with brief successes along with the limited referenda successes of the Quebecois secessionists in order to show not only the failure of secession but also why it cannot be successful under current conditions.
In contrast, writers like Dominique Clift and Sheila Arnopoulos show a more positive outlook from the perspective of French Canadians. Clift and Arnopoulos present secession and sovereignty-association as having made headway inside the economic and political system rather than extralegal methods of achieving autonomy. These authors seem to prescribe maintenance of moderate political approaches in achieving the goal of sovereignty association and, later, independence from the other Canadian provinces. The reason that such a solution may work is that nationalism and antinationalism at their most extreme are insufficient at both explaining Canadian politics and providing solutions to problems of political identity.
The third group that has participated in this dialogue is those who have actually participated in the secession movement, either as a proponent or an opponent. The proponents, including Pierre Vallieres and the writers of Our Generation, use strong language to get across the true nature of their movement to leave Canada and also to shake their fellow French Canadians from their perceived lethargy. In the more moderate position of this group is Marcel Chaput, who does advocate for Quebec’s independence but through a renewed Confederation, one that is true to the purpose of maintaining provincial sovereignty. Finally, there are writers like Guy Bertrand who actually had a hand in creating groups like the Parti Quebecois (PQ) but have turned the corner and do not see the purpose or the efficacy of secession. In this group would include writers like Joseph Carens and W. Stewart Wallace, who have covered the 20th century from the perspective of Anglophonic political values.
