Quebec’s Long-Simmering Separatism Issue Boils Again

Quebec separatism, the issue that Canada has never quite resolved, is heating up anew.

An election in the French-speaking province in September confirmed the persistence of a 40% minority wishing to pull out of the federation, and by most interpretations a majority for separation soon may be found.

Most English-speaking politicians have railed against separation, but they no longer are unanimous in their willingness to compromise to keep the thorny Quebecois in the federation.

Canada officially became a bilingual country 30 years ago, a move that was intended to disarm the Quebec separatists. It did not. Premier Rene Levesque agitated for 10 years until, in a 1980 referendum, the province said no to his formula for sovereignty.

Power shifted from Levesque’s Parti Quebecois to the province’s Liberal Party, which narrowly won the election there in September. But while Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa avowedly is a federalist, he has indicated that he will follow the electorate rather than lead it on the separatist question.

Labor leader Gerard Docquier has made this prediction about his native province: “I have always said it will not be the Parti Quebecois” that pulls Quebec out of Canada, “it will be the Liberals.”

His point, and that of other commentators, is that the separatist movement now embraces an upbeat, French-speaking entrepreneurial class. The image of bomb-throwing Parti Quebecois socialists has blurred. The once-dominant English business class in Montreal has been cast as radical with its rear-guard campaign to keep English on the city’s street signs.

Among the English-speaking national majority, a perception is spreading that if Quebec does separate, it will be an amicable divorce, with the province’s economic relationship to the federation enduring.

As Allan Fotheringham of Maclean’s weekly news magazine wrote, “If Quebec walked out, you wouldn’t need a passport to make it to Montreal’s restaurants. The Edmonton Oilers will still be playing the Canadiens for the Stanley Cup.”

Ex-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s efforts to resolve the Quebec issue constitutionally culminated in June, 1988, with a meeting of the federation’s 10 premiers at Meech Lake on the Ontario-Quebec border. In what was described as a historic accord, they provided assurances for the maintenance of Quebec’s “distinctiveness.”

All 10 premiers agreed and went home to seek ratification within two years. But while Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said recently, “We simply cannot afford not to carry through to a successful conclusion the process initiated by Meech Lake,” most politicians and journalists consulted agreed with Fotheringham that “Meech Lake is dead.”

New Brunswick and Manitoba provinces have failed to ratify the 1988 accord, and another provincial leader has indicated that he may seek a rollback. Bourassa has made clear that this would be unacceptable.

The stage is set for a failure to meet the June deadline for ratification of the accords, and a threatened pullout of Quebec ministers from the federal Cabinet. Then, the question would be how Quebec’s premier--and electorate--will respond to an issue that keeps coming back unresolved.