The
Québécois nation motion was a
parliamentary motion tabled by
Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 and approved by the
Canadian House of Commons on Monday, November 27, 2006. The English motion read:
and, in
French, read:
- "Que cette Chambre reconnaisse que les Québécoises et les Québécois forment une nation au sein d'un Canada uni."
Historical background
The debate about Québécois nationhood centres on the question of the status of the province of
Quebec and its primarily
French-speaking population. During the
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the term
Québécois largely replaced
French Canadian as an expression of cultural and nationalist identity as
French Canadians asserted themselves culturally. The modern Québécois identity is secular and based on a
social democratic ideal of the Quebec State promoting Quebec French culture and language in the arts, education, and business within the
province. Politically, this resulted in a movement towards more provincial autonomy. Quebec federalists in the
Liberal Party of Quebec argued for more autonomy within Canada, while
Quebec sovereignists, mostly within the
Parti Québécois, argued for outright independence from Canada. Quebec nationalists increasingly referred to provincial institutions as being "national", changing the name of the
provincial Legislative Assembly to
National Assembly in 1968, for example.
In response, the
Liberal Party of Canada under Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau advocated an increased role for French-speaking Canadians in the federal government through a policy of
Official Bilingualism, a federal presence in social programs that sought to create a unified
Canadian identity that resisted demands for more provincial autonomy, and a new constitution based on individual rights that would sever the remaining colonial ties to Britain. This alienated many Quebec nationalists who demanded legal, constitutional recognition of the collective cultural identity in Quebec.
The conflict culminated in the Parti Québécois government of
René Lévesque holding a
province-wide referendum on
Sovereignty-Association in 1980 that proposed that Quebec would assume all federal powers while maintaining economic links to Canada; it was rejected by 60% of Quebecers. Prime Minister Trudeau subsequently pushed through the amendment of the constitution with the
Canada Act, 1982. This was done with the approval of the other provincial governments, but not the government of Quebec.
In 1987, the
Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney negotiated the
Meech Lake Accord with the federalist of government of
Robert Bourassa. It recognized Quebec as a "
distinct society" within Canada. All provinces originally agreed, but
Manitoba and
Newfoundland failed to ratify the accord when Liberal governments came to power amid vocal criticism of the accord from Pierre Trudeau.
First Nation groups and the populist
Reform Party in
Western Canada also opposed the accord, arguing that their cultural and regional grievances were being ignored.
The failure of the Meech Lake Accord generated a backlash in Quebec. Support for sovereignty soared to above 60%, and the sovereigntist
Bloc Québécois formed under disaffected Progressive Conservative Cabinet Minister
Lucien Bouchard. The Bloc has represented the majority of Quebec in the federal Parliament since the
1993 federal election. However, the federal Liberal Party of Jean Chrétien won power that year by sweeping
Ontario and picking up votes in all provinces. They advocated the status-quo on constitutional issues. The conservative Reform Party under
Preston Manning displaced the Progressive Conservatives in the Western provinces, and advocate a constitutional reform that would recognize all provinces as equal, opposing special legal status for Quebec. The Progressive Conservative were reduced to two seats. A
Parti Québécois government held
another referendum on sovereignty and a "partnership" with Canada in 1995 and lose by only a few thousand votes. A major theme of popular sovereignist leader Lucien Bouchard the referendum was that
English Canada did not recognize the
Quebec people in the constitution, depicting it as an English Canadian humiliation of French Quebec.
Following the referendum, support for Quebec sovereignty decreased. The Parti Québécois government renewed the push for recognition as a nation through symbolic motions that gained the support of all parties in the National Assembly. They affirmed the right to determine the independent status of Quebec. They also renamed the area around
Quebec City the
Capitale nationale (national capital) region and rename provincial parks
Parcs nationaux (national parks). In opposition in October 2003, a Parti Québécois motion was unanimously adopted in the
National Assembly of Quebec in 2003 that recognized the Quebec people as "forming a nation".
Evolution of motion
Debate over federal government recognition of a Quebec nation was triggered during the leadership race for the
Liberal Party of Canada during a September 10, 2006 leadership debate in Quebec City. Leading candidate and political scientist
Michael Ignatieff mused that Quebec should be recognized as a nation in the Canadian constitution.When the Quebec wing of the federal Liberals adopted a similar resolution on October 21, 2006 many Liberals began questioning Ignatieff's judgement. In his 1992 book "Blood and Belonging", Ignatieff had championed the cause of
civic nationalism based on "a community of equal, rights-bearing citizens, united in patriotic attachment to a shared set of political practices and values." Now he was endorsing "a nation, with a language, history, culture and territory that marks them out as a separate people," which sounded to many like
ethnic nationalism..
Justin Trudeau, son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, criticized Ignatieff for lacking political judgement.
Sensing political division in his political opposition, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe scheduled a motion in the House of Commons for November 23, 2006, similar to the 2003 Parti Québécois resolution passed unanimously by the National Assembly in Quebec. It too would recognize "Quebecers as a nation". He knew that the motion would probably be rejected, but argued he could use this to show that English Canadians once again did not recognize the identity of French-speaking Quebecers. If the motion did pass, he could use it to make claims on Quebec sovereignty..
Liberal leadership candidate (and eventual winner)
Stéphane Dion moved to reconcile positions within the Liberal party, circulating a draft of a resolution that would change the wording of the resolution..
On November 22, 2006, the
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper tabled the
Québécois nation motion the day before the Bloc Québécois resolution came to a vote. The English version changed the word
Quebecer to
Québécois and added "within a united Canada" at the end of the Bloc motion. Dion said that this resolution was similar to the one he had circulated several days earlier. The Bloc Québécois members originally rejected this motion as overly partisan and federalist, but supported the motion the following day..
Vote in the House of Commons
The House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to pass the motion. The motion passed by a margin of 266 to 16. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, but two were not filled at the time. Of the rest, 282 MPs voted on the motion, 21 were absent for various reasons, and three chose to abstain. MPs then voted down the Bloc Québécois motion.
Members of the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois all voted for the motion.
Conservative members were ordered by the Prime Minister not to oppose the motion or be expelled from the caucus. Many of his MP's had deep reservations about the motion, but only six members of his caucus were absent, all from
Western Canada. Harper's Intergovernmental Affairs minister
Michael Chong resigned from his position and abstained from voting, arguing that this motion was too ambiguous and had the potential of recognizing ethnic nationalism in Canada.
Liberals were the most divided on the issue and comprised 15 of the 16 votes against the motion. Liberal MP
Ken Dryden summarized the view of many of these dissenters, maintaining that it was a game of semantics that cheapened issues of national identity.
Popular support
A survey of 1,500 Canadians by
Leger Marketing for the Association of Canadian studies in November, 2006 showed that Canadians were deeply divided on this issue. When asked if Quebecers are a nation, only 48 per cent of Canadians agreed, 47 per cent disagreed, with 33 per cent strongly disagreeing; 78 per cent of French-speaking Quebecers agreed that Quebecers are a nation, next to 38 per cent of English-speakers. As well, 78 per cent of 1,000 Quebecers polled thought that Quebecers should be recognized as a nation. Among French native speaking Quebecers the support was at 96%
