Canada Ping!
Posted on 09/19/2014 5:11:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard says Scotland's referendum was an example of the same kind of "healthy" tension that exists in Quebec's democracy, but the comparisons stop there, as federal politicians from John Baird to Stéphane Dion welcomed the defeat of Scottish independence.
"It is an example of a healthy state of tension in sub-national states in countries like U.K. or Canada between a strong feeling of identity, which I think Scots and Quebecers have in common, and at the same time the desire to belong to a larger political organization, the U.K. or Canada," Couillard said Friday.
"All comparisons after that are risky because we have far more capacity to act, far more competencies and jurisdictions than Scotland has within U.K., and we have I think chosen in Canada — wisely — the most modern way to live together, which is federalism," the premier said.
Couillard, who leads Quebec's federalist Liberal Party and won a convincing majority in Quebec's most recent election last April, said the debate Scotland's referendum had prompted among his Parti Québécois opponents was out of touch.
'If the Scots had what we have, Quebecers within Canada, they probably would be quite happy.'—Philippe Couillard
"It's a pure discussion on theoretical ambitions and 'how are we going to make a referendum?' — What about jobs? What about the economy? What about public finances? What about the kind of society we want to live in? I'm not hearing anything about that," Couillard said, adding that all the referendum talk was inspiring was infighting among various factions of Quebec's sovereignty movement.
"It's time for them to come home and work on real issues," Couillard said of PQ officials who had gone to Scotland hopeful of a result that would boost their political fortunes. Scotland voted in 'a different context'
Quebec's premier didn't see in Scotland's debate a strong parallel to the national question in Quebec.
"The [Scottish] campaign was not centred around identity or exclusion of this or that category of person from who is a Scot, who is not a Scot, as we unfortunately heard here in Quebec. It was mainly about fiscal and economic issues, which is quite a different context than what we went through, in the recent months in particular,"
In French, he talked about how important it was for Quebec to be a strong player at the federal table in Canada and his efforts since his election to build bridges with the rest of Canada.
He also reiterated his earlier statements that he'd like to pursue a way for Quebec to sign onto Canada's Constitution.
Couillard said he was cautious about commenting in a way that would appear to be interfering in the politics of another country.
"If the Scots had what we have, Quebecers within Canada, they probably would be quite happy," Couillard said.
But that doesn't mean that independence wouldn't crop up again in the politics of either country.
"The idea never dies," the premier said. "The question is not the existence or non-existence of the idea, but its capacity to become a strong political movement, and this is what is to be observed in the coming years, both in Canada and elsewhere too."
"My plan is that there will not be another referendum in Quebec. That's it. That's not my movie. That's the PQ's movie, and I won't play in their movie," Couillard said. ...
Its given Quebec a secure identity, a place in the country and has acknowledge that being Canadian is the best thing in the world to people who speak French.
They are one of Canada's two founding peoples and one should never lose awareness of their contribution to the country. A strong and united country is far better than a split and a weak country.
Separatism does not address people's real day to day concerns. Its about the politics of symbolism. But its not symbols that alone make a country, create a people and define their culture.
Couillard is exactly the kind of leader the Quebecois are blessed to have. We can only hope the Scots are as fortunate.
It is not just the language but legal customs that makes Quebec different the rest of Canada.
Quebec is a civil law code jurisdiction of course - its civil law code is based on the French civil law code.
This exists alongside the English criminal law. Different legal systems and ways of doing things can exist in the same country.
Quebec’s aspiration to nationhood is where the comparisons with Scotland stop. Quebec inside Canada has a very different arrangement given that Canada is a federation whereas the UK is not. As well in times where one questions the wisdom of joining the EU, where national identity and freedom is more and more curtailed, I believe the Scots took a moment of pause and did the right thing. Scottish independence is also a referendum on statism. Giving the reigns of power to the socialist lot from the SNP after a Yes vote is not exactly the surest path to prosperity. Maybe the free enterprise system will again take hold and the Scotts can get out of the yoke they are in. God knows that the Scotts have paid a dear price as a result over the last 70 years.
A Fascist would say that the micro-state is inherently inefficient.
Canada Ping!
Although it's my understanding that more than a few Anglophone Canadians wish Quebec would break away.
A lesson some of his friends to the south of Canada would do well to remember, especially considering that federalism was our idea in the first place.
Visited Canada recently. Easiest way to get an Ottawan to grind their teeth: “Do you speak French?”
“Je me souviens” license plates might as well be in Arabic for all the goodwill they impart.
Bonhomme Carnaval is an evil figure to many in Ontario. It’s the eyes.
The Fathers Of Confederation were horrified by the American Civil War. They corrected the defects of the American Union by reversing the distribution of powers to strengthen the federal government and for added certainty, they gave the federal government the power to appoint a lieutenant governor in every province and vested it with the power to disallow provincial laws that ran afoul of the constitution. For all their efforts to strengthen the center, Canada in reality became one of the most decentralized federations in the world.
George Etienne Cartier would disagree:
Comme le dit un vieil adage:
Rien n’est si beau que son pays;
Et de le chanter, c’est l’usage;
Le mien je chante à mes amis
L’étranger voit avec un oeil d’envie
Du Saint-Laurent le majestueux cours;
À son aspect le Canadien s’écrie:
Ô Canada! mon pays! mes amours!
In English:
As the old proverb says:
Nothing is more beautiful than one’s country;
And to sing it is the tradition;
And mine I sing to my friends
The stranger looks with an envious eye
Of the St. Lawrence the majestic course;
At its aspect the Canadian sings:
O Canada! my country! my love!
His first loyalty was to Canada. And he is remembered as one of the Fathers Of Confederation alongside John Alexander MacDonald.
I'm all for separation. The best thing that could happen is if the rest of Canada kicks quebec out. It can be towed out to sea for all anyone outside of Quebec cares. The only loss to confederation would be Quebec's thriving porn industry.
So true. But George Cartier lived & died long before the bomb-throwing era of the radicals of the 1960’s.
In 1963 I was in high school looking at news photos of defaced bilingual stop signs (Arretez/Stop). In 2012 I saw these for myself in Ottawa.
I’m Catholic & once lived in Green Bay WI. Quebecois were our kinsmen, denominationally speaking. Again, this was before the separatist movement broke out in Montreal around 1968.
“Francophone”? “Anglophone”? What were those, I asked, some kind of telephone instrument? What I did notice in Ontario was federally imposed bilingualism on everything from street signs to cereal boxes. This seemed to have produced more resentment than it did cross-cultural understanding.
Kudos! I agree with you 100%..... Je suis Canadian!
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