Quebec Nationalism 2
The question of whether Quebec will secede from Canada to become an independent nation has been a hot topic in the country for several years now. It dates back to the abortive rebellions of 1837-38. In 1980, a referendum to secede was rejected by a 60-40 margin. Since then though, the numbers of Quebeckers that want to become sovereign has significantly increased. There is so many questions of what will happen if this does happen. In this paper I plan to take a deeper look at this situation and try to figure out what it would actually be like if Quebec was its own country. The premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard has been attempting to separate from Canada for quite sometime. If he had it his way this topic would be old news by now. His main problem is the Federalist, English speaking citizens of his province. They have been very vocal on their stance to stay apart of Canada. They have sent around several resolutions stating this. It all started in Allumette Island East, which has a population of 458. It has since spread to municipalities along the borders with Ontario and the United States, and in the Montreal area. Unfortunately this means very little considering the fact that these municipalities only represent
Quebec has 24 percent of the total population of Canada, and 25 percent of its Gross National Product. The majority of Quebec's population is of French descent and language. It reaches approximately 83 percent of the entire province. About 60 percent of the French voted for secession in the 1995 referendum, at a remarkably high turn out, 94 percent of the total electorate. The majority of Canadians do not want Quebec to leave. However, many feel that Quebec is the spoiled child of the confederation. Would Canada be able to keep together if Quebec were to secede? If Quebec secedes, how would the international community react? It will be interesting to see if the United States would accept Quebec's secession, or would they wait to see Canada's reaction? If Quebec wanted to enter the NAFTA Trade Agreement several of their economic practices could be called in to question by the United States. It is thought that if Quebec were to use the Canadien dollar it would only be for the short term. Eventually they would be better off with there own currency. Jeffrey Simpson feels that Quebec would suffer for some ten years or so from separation, but he personally felt that Quebec could become a viable economic state. So far in this paper we have seen the effect that the secession of Quebec has had on the economy. Now we are gonna take a deeper look at why exactly they so desperately want to secede from Canada. The main fear in Canada is that the separation of Quebec will lead to a domino effect in the country, which could result in a bunch of small countries. This could eventually lead to North America unraveling. Ironically, both the Quebec government and the Canadien government in Ottawa feel that even if Quebec were to secede the rest of Canada will remain united. Several outsiders feel that the secession of Quebec would be good for Canada. This is because of all the money that is spent on bilingualization and transferred needlessly from rich province to poor province in an effort to keep Quebec inside the confederation that after separation both Quebec and English-speaking Canada would be better off, financially and otherwise.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Parti Quebecois, Quebec Constitutional, Canadians Quebec, English-speaking Canada, National Product, United Nations, , French Canadians, Quebec Law, Canada People, secede canada, quebec secede, secession quebec, quebec lucien bouchard, international community, parti quebecois, premier quebec, canadien dollar, quebec lucien, distinct society, quebec secede canada, secede canada independent, premier quebec lucien, separation quebec,
Approximate Word count = 1798
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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