The pride for one's nation varies from region to region within Canada, as it does in most countries. The difference in Canada is the high level of nationalism felt for one’s province over one's nation. Quebec is a very good example of this. Quebec has always had a strong sense of nationalism since the founding of the state of Canada. Quebec has always been the odd one out among the provinces, being the largest majority french speaking province within Canada. The Quebec nationalist does not feel ties to France per se, but more of a tie to their own unique identity. In Canadian history “The case of Quebec illustrates how ethnicity, through powerful symbolic appeals to cultural survival, can be politicized to the extent of seriously threatening
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One of the key factors within their Quebec nationalism is the relevance of the french language. Within Western Europe as well as in Canada where “sub-state nationalism” occurs, the language is used as a key identity marker (7). The issue of language has always fuelled some unrest within Quebec, as for a long time English was considered the only real official language of Canada. Yet, when Pierre Trudeau created the Multiculturalism and the Official Languages Act within Canada, in part to try to settle Quebec political unrest with the federal government, it caused another unrest of intercultural-ism vs multiculturalism (6). A quote from Darryl Leroux's 2014 paper “Entrenching Euro-Settlerism: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Nationalism in Québec” perfectly describes the fragility of maintaining satisfied regions within a multicultural Canada as “In French-speaking Québec, it is common to think that multiculturalism was and continues to be an attempt to detach race and ethnicity (French-Canadian and/or Québécois) from language and culture (Francophone). According to this discourse, the French Canadian Québécois are treated like any other ethno-racial group in Canada, rather than what the B and B Commission refers to as a “founding race”; and multiculturalism is a primary means to depoliticize Québec’s ethno-cultural specificity and primacy. Canadian multiculturalism can then be used as a foil to mobilize any number of nationalist claims in Québec in order to counter the threats Canada is perceived as posing to Québec’s exceptionalism”.
One of the key factors within their Quebec nationalism is the relevance of the french language. Within Western Europe as well as in Canada where “sub-state nationalism” occurs, the language is used as a key identity marker (7). The issue of language has always fuelled some unrest within Quebec, as for a long time English was considered the only real official language of Canada. Yet, when Pierre Trudeau created the Multiculturalism and the Official Languages Act within Canada, in part to try to settle Quebec political unrest with the federal government, it caused another unrest of intercultural-ism vs multiculturalism (6). A quote from Darryl Leroux's 2014 paper “Entrenching Euro-Settlerism: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Nationalism in Québec” perfectly describes the fragility of maintaining satisfied regions within a multicultural Canada as “In French-speaking Québec, it is common to think that multiculturalism was and continues to be an attempt to detach race and ethnicity (French-Canadian and/or Québécois) from language and culture (Francophone). According to this discourse, the French Canadian Québécois are treated like any other ethno-racial group in Canada, rather than what the B and B Commission refers to as a “founding race”; and multiculturalism is a primary means to depoliticize Québec’s ethno-cultural specificity and primacy. Canadian multiculturalism can then be used as a foil to mobilize any number of nationalist claims in Québec in order to counter the threats Canada is perceived as posing to Québec’s exceptionalism”.