Position Paper Intro Assignment
Greyson Armstrong
Although it has morphed and changed over the years, the debate between federalists and sovereignists remains a heated topic with many perspectives and sides weighing in on the issue. This source is a quote from the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, in the year 1967 about the issue of whether or not the province of Quebec should be considered a nation within the nation state of Canada. Trudeau takes an anti-Quebec nationalist approach onto the issue with his statement that declaring Quebec to be its own nation would be a “hoax” to the citizens of Quebec and Canada, and that if it was declared its own nation that it would bring about the destruction of Canada as a country. His federalistic approach holds prospects of a type of Canadian nationalism that sees Quebec not as a small player in Canada but as a major one, …show more content…
Trudeau rejects the idea that sovereignists at the time, and currently still, wish to achieve, autonomy for Quebec. His timing of the quote during the “Quiet Revolution”, in which Quebecois nationalism was rapidly growing, would've been a clear message to the French Canadians living in Quebec that the Trudeau government at that time was unwilling to subject itself to the notion of an asymmetrical federal system between the provincial government of Quebec and the federal government of Canada. This itself is also ironic as later during the “Quiet Revolution” asymmetrical federalism and a growth in provincial power would be granted to Quebec under the Trudeau government. Trudeau’s stance is directly opposite to the “father” of the “Quiet Revolution”, Jean Lesage, and his perspective what Quebec deserves to be. The perspective in this source should be dismissed because in hindsight and in light of current provincial and federal standings, the granting of asymmetrical federalism and the identification of Quebec as a nation under the Harper government
Greyson Armstrong
Although it has morphed and changed over the years, the debate between federalists and sovereignists remains a heated topic with many perspectives and sides weighing in on the issue. This source is a quote from the Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, in the year 1967 about the issue of whether or not the province of Quebec should be considered a nation within the nation state of Canada. Trudeau takes an anti-Quebec nationalist approach onto the issue with his statement that declaring Quebec to be its own nation would be a “hoax” to the citizens of Quebec and Canada, and that if it was declared its own nation that it would bring about the destruction of Canada as a country. His federalistic approach holds prospects of a type of Canadian nationalism that sees Quebec not as a small player in Canada but as a major one, …show more content…
Trudeau rejects the idea that sovereignists at the time, and currently still, wish to achieve, autonomy for Quebec. His timing of the quote during the “Quiet Revolution”, in which Quebecois nationalism was rapidly growing, would've been a clear message to the French Canadians living in Quebec that the Trudeau government at that time was unwilling to subject itself to the notion of an asymmetrical federal system between the provincial government of Quebec and the federal government of Canada. This itself is also ironic as later during the “Quiet Revolution” asymmetrical federalism and a growth in provincial power would be granted to Quebec under the Trudeau government. Trudeau’s stance is directly opposite to the “father” of the “Quiet Revolution”, Jean Lesage, and his perspective what Quebec deserves to be. The perspective in this source should be dismissed because in hindsight and in light of current provincial and federal standings, the granting of asymmetrical federalism and the identification of Quebec as a nation under the Harper government