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Quebec sovereigntism is a political orientation calling for the attainment of sovereignty for Quebec, a province of the Canadian federation. The sovereigntists propose that Quebecers exercise their right to self-determination in order to democractically give themselves their first independent constitutional state of law.
With a sovereign state, Quebec sovereigntists believe that the people of Quebec will be better equipped to foster its own economic, social, and cultural development. Although it is primarily a political question, a great source of motivation for independence come from cultural concerns. The central cultural arguments are that a citizenship for Quebec can adequately and permanantly resolve the difficult situation of the majority's language (Quebec French), allow Quebecers to establish their nationality, preserve their cultural identity, and keep their collective memory alive.
Quebec sovereigntists are generally not in opposition to federalism as a concept, but are opposed to the present federal system of Canada and do not believe it can be reformed in a way that could answer what they see as the legitimate wish of Quebecers to govern themselves freely. The idea of sovereignty for Quebec is based on the historical and sociological evidence that Quebecers are a people and a political nation, that they have democratic control over a state of their own, but that inside the Canadian federation as it currently stands, this state does not have the constitutional powers that are necessary for the Quebec government to be the normal national government of all Quebecers. Within Canada, the national policies of Quebec clash with the national policies of the federal government. Various attempts at reforming the federal system of Canada have thus far failed due to the conflicting interests between the majority of Quebecers and the majority of Canadians. See Constitutional debate of Canada.
The sovereigntist movement of Quebec is generally considered to have started in the 1960s with the Quiet Revolution. The use of the word "sovereignty" and many of the ideas of this movement originated in the 1967 Sovereignty-Association Movement of René Lévesque. This movement ultimately gave birth to the Parti Québécois in 1968.
Sovereignty-Association (French: Souveraineté-Association) is the combination of two concepts:
It was first presented in Lévesque's political manifesto, Option Québec.
The Parti Québécois defines sovereignty as the power for a state to levy all its taxes, vote on all its laws and sign all its treaties (as mentioned in the 1980 referendum question).
The type of association between an independent Quebec and the rest of Canada was described as a monetary and customs union as well as joint political institutions to administer the relations between the two countries. The main inspiration for this project was the then emerging European Community.
The hyphen between the words "sovereignty" and "association" was often stressed by Lévesque and other PQ members, to make it clear that both were indissociable. The reason stated was that would Canada decide to boycott Quebec exports after voting for independence, the new country would have to go through difficult economic times, as the barriers to trade between Canada (including Quebec) and the USA were very high. Quebec would have been a nation of 7 million people stuck between two inpenetrable protectionnist countries. After the signing of the free trade agreement between the USA and Canada, the sovereigntists-associationists revisited their option, and the need for an association with the rest of Canada was made optional. That is, an association with Canada is still wished for, but were it to fail, sovereignty would be economically viable because Quebec can (and currently does) freely export to the US market. At the present, PQ members and outside supporters will often speak of 'sovereignty' alone.
Most in favor of independence alternate between "sovereignty" and "independence" to name the project and consider each to by synonyms. There is a group of independentists that prefer "independence" over the other term. They are often stigmatized for this choice. The use of the term "Sovereignty-Association" is a lot less frequent, but still heard (refer to the Modernization section below).
Quebec federalist nationalists think that the Quebec people should be recognized as a de facto nation by the federal government of Canada and initiate the constitutional reforms that suppose such a recognition. Their position is often so close to that of some moderate Quebec sovereigntists that many have jumped the fence both ways (notoriously former Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard and Quebec lawyer Quebec nationalism
Sovereigntism and sovereignty are terms that refer to the modern movement in favor of the political independence of Quebec. However, the roots of Quebec's desire for self-determination can be traced back as far as the Alliance Laurentienne of 1957, the writings of Lionel Groulx in the 1920s, the Francoeur Motion of 1917, the flirt of Honoré Mercier with this idea (especially in his historic speech of 1893), the Patriotes Movement of the 19th century or the dawning national identity and consciousness in the days of New France.
The Quiet Revolution of Quebec brought widespread change in the 1960s. Among many other changes, support for Quebec independence began to form and grow in some circles. The first organisation dedicated to the independence of Quebec was the Alliance Laurentienne, founded by Raymond Barbeau on January 25, 1957.
On September 10, 1960 the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale (RIN) was founded. On August 9 of the same year, the Action socialiste pour l'indépendance du Québec (ASIQ) was formed by Raoul Roy. The independence + socialism project of the ASIQ was a source of political ideas for the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). On October 31, 1962, the Comité de libération nationale and in November of the same year, the Réseau de résistance were setup. These two groups were formed by RIN members to organize non-violent but illegal actions, such as vandalism and civil disobedience. The most extremist individuals of these groups left to form the FLQ, which unlike all the other groups had made the decision to resort to violence to reach its goal of independence for Quebec. Shortly after the November 14, 1962, Quebec general election, RIN member Marcel Chaput founded the short-lived Parti républicain du Québec.
In February of 1963, the FLQ was founded by three RIN members who had met each other as part of the Réseau de résistance. They were Georges Shoeters, Raymond Villeneuve, and Gabriel Hudon.
In 1964, the RIN became a provincial political party. In 1965 the more conservative Ralliement national (RN) also became a party.
The historical context of the time was a period when many former European colonies, such as Cameroon, Congo, Senegal, Algeria, Jamaica etc., were becoming independent. Some advocates of Quebec independence naturally saw Quebec's situation in a similar light. Numerous activists were influence by the writings of Franz Fanon and Karl Marx.
In June 1967, French president Charles de Gaulle, who had granted independence to Algeria, shouted Vive le Québec libre! during a speech from the balcony of Montreal's city hall during a state visit to Canada. In doing so, he deeply offended the Canadian federal government, which reprimanded him, causing him to cut short his visit and leave the country.
Finally, in October 1967 former Liberal cabinet minister René Lévesque left that party when it refused to discuss sovereignty at a party convention. Lévesque formed the Mouvement souveraineté-association and set about uniting pro-sovereignty forces.
He achieved that goal in October 1968 when the MSA held its first (and last) national congress in Quebec City. The RN and MSA agreed to merge to form the Parti Québécois (PQ), and later that month Pierre Bourgault, leader of the RIN, dissolved his party and invited its members to join the PQ.
Jacques Parizeau joined the party on September 19, 1969, and Jérôme Proulx of the Union nationale did the same on November 11 of the same year.
In the 1970 Quebec election, the PQ elected its first seven members of the National Assembly. René Lévesque was defeated in Mont-Royal by the Liberal André Marchand.
In the 1973 election, the PQ won six seats, a net loss of one.
In the 1976 Quebec election, the PQ elected 71 candidates to the general astonishment of all of Quebec and Canada. With one of the highest voting turnouts in Quebec history, 41.4 per cent of the electorate gave their vote to the PQ. The PQ formed a majority government.
On August 26, 1977, the PQ passed two important laws: the law on the financing of political parties which prohibits contributions by corporations and unions and set a limit on individual donations and the Charter of the French Language.
On May 17, Robert Burns quit the government, telling the press he was convinced that the PQ was going to lose its referendum and fail to be re-elected afterwards.
At its seventh national convention on June 1 to 3, 1979, the sovereigntists adopted their strategy for the coming referendum. The PQ then began an aggressive effort to promote sovereignty-association by providing details of how the economic relations with the rest of Canada would include free trade between Canada and Quebec, common tariffs against imports, and a common currency. In addition, joint political institutions would be established to administer these economic arrangements.
Sovereignty-Association was proposed to the population of Quebec in the 1980 Quebec referendum. The proposal was rejected by 60 per cent of the Quebec electorate.
In September, the PQ created a national committee of anglophones and a liaison committee with ethnic minorities.
Despite having lost the referendum, the PQ was returned to power in the 1981 Quebec election with a stronger majority than in 1976, obtaining 49.2 per cent of the vote and electing 80 candidates. However, they did not hold a referendum in their second term and put sovereignty on the back burner, concentrating on their stated goal of "good government".
René Lévesque retired in 1985 (and he would die in 1987). In the 1985 Quebec election under his successor Pierre-Marc Johnson, the PQ was defeated by the Liberals.
The economic "association" part of the Sovereignty-Association concept was in some ways a forerunner of the later Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1989 and NAFTA. Perhaps for this reason, Quebec was one of the few regions within Canada where both sides of the political spectrum supported free trade with the United States.
The PQ returned to power in the 1994 Quebec election under Jacques Parizeau, this time with 44.75% of the popular vote. In the intervening years, the failures of the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord had revived support for sovereignty, which had been written off as a dead issue for much of the 1980s.
Another consequence of the failure of Meech was the formation of the Bloc Quebecois (BQ) under charismatic former Conservative cabinet minister Lucien Bouchard. For the first time, the PQ supported pro-sovereigntist forces running in federal elections; during his lifetime Lévesque had always opposed such a move.
The Union Populaire had nominated candidates in the 1979 and 1980 federal elections and the Parti nationaliste du Québec had nominated candidates in the 1984 federal election. Neither of these parties enjoyed the official support of the PQ; nor did they enjoy significant public support among Quebercers.
In the 1993 Canadian election, following the collapse of the Conservatives), the BQ elected enough MPs to become Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the House of Commons.
Parizeau promptly called a new referendum. The 1995 referendum question differed from the 1980 question in that the negotiation of an association with Canada was now optional.
This time, the Yes camp lost in a very close vote, by less than one percent. As in the previous referendum, the English-speaking (anglophone) minority in Quebec overwhelmingly (about 90%) rejected sovereignty, and support for sovereignty was also weak among allophones in immigrant communities and first-generation descendants, while by contrast almost 60 per cent of francophones of all origins voted Yes (82 per cent of Quebecers are francophone).
In an ill-considered outburst, Premier Jacques Parizeau attributed the defeat of the resolution to money and the ethnic vote.
The PQ won re-election in the 1998 Quebec election, which was almost a "clone" of the previous 1994 election in terms of number of seats won by each side. However, public support for sovereignty remained too low for the PQ to consider holding a second referendum during their second term. Meanwhile, the federal government passed the Clarity Act to try to prevent any future referendum from succeeding.
In the 2003 Quebec election, the PQ lost power to the Parti libéral du Québec. However, in early 2004 the Liberal government of Jean Charest had proved to be somewhat unpopular, and that, combined with the federal Liberal Party sponsorship scandal contributed to a resurgence of the BQ. In the 2004 federal elections, the Bloc Quebecois won a resounding victory with 54 MPs, compeared to 33 previously.
While opponents of sovereignty were pleased with their referendum victories, most recognized that there are still deep divides within Quebec and problems with the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
In 1999, the government of Canada, inspired by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Stéphane Dion, passed Bill C-20 (also known as the Clarity Act), a law that, amongst other things, intended to forbid Quebec City from proposing association with independence in another eventual consultation, a move seen by all parties at the time represented in the National Assembly of Quebec (the PQ, PLQ and ADQ) as a rather paternalist intrusion into Quebec's right to self-determination. It remains to this day but is widely considered by sovereigntists as indefensible on the internationnal stage and thus inapplicable.
"Sovereignty-Association" is nowadays more often referred to simply as "sovereignty". However, in the 1995 Quebec referendum, which was narrowly rejected, the notion of some form of economic association with the rest of Canada was still envisaged (continuing use of the Canadian dollar, for example). It remains a part of the Parti Québécois program and is tied to national independence in the minds of most Quebecers. This part of the PQ program has always been controversial.
In 2003, the PQ launched the Saison des idées (Season of ideas) which is a public consultation aiming to gather the opinions of Quebecers on its sovereignty project. The new program and the revised sovereignty project will be adopted at the 2005 Congress.
Although one cannot generalize, natural allies of sovereignty tend to be found in labor unions, the artistic community, the younger generations, and the political left. Opponents are often found in the economic community, the older generations, and the political right.
There are, of course, quite a few exceptions. Notable examples include: the Conservative but Nationalist Action Démocratique du Québec supporting the OUI ("Yes") side in 1995 (their stance on the issue is now vague), the Progressive-Conservative Party of Canada building links with the sovereigntists in the 1980s and well-known federalist artists Jean-Louis Roux (an actor, once destined to become the representative of Queen Elizabeth II as Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, a plan foiled by controversy) and René-Daniel Dubois (playwright and harsh critic of sovereigntism, although self-proclaimed neutral).
The option fails at gathering substantial support support among Quebec anglophones and anglicized allophones. About 60% of francophones of all ethnic origins voted Yes in 1995, and with the exception of some support from the Haitian, Latino, and Arabic communities, most non-francophones massively voted No (see Demolinguistics of Quebec).
In France, although openness and support is found in both sides of the political spectrum, the French "right" has been warmer to sovereigntists (like President Charles De Gaulle, who shouted his support of independence to Montreal in 1967) than the French "left" (like nationalism-distrustful President François Mitterrand, who notoriously snubbed Lévesque at their first meeting in the 1970s).
This is a paradoxal phenomenon, for the Parti Québécois and most sovereigntists are to the political left. French politicians are sympathetic to Quebec for cultural and historical reasons, but the secessionist movement is often negatively perceived because France was built as one indivisible republic. The idea that France is "one nation, one country" is very solidly anchored in the political culture of France (and many other coutries). A lot of French political parties would be in contradiction with themselves if they officially supported Quebec nationalism, but continued to reject Corsican, Breton, and Basque nationalisms. Michel Rocard (who became Prime Minister of the French Republic) has been one of the French Socialists that broke that so-called rule the most (that of the French left being less open), maintaining a close and warm relationship with Quebec sovereigntists.
Soveregnists also have relationships around the world with other Social Democrat, Civic Nationalist and/or Independentist organizations like in Catalonia or in Scotland (for example: in 2000, Alex Salmond, then leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), wrote a speech to be read to the audience of the PQ National Council in which he spoke of the PQ a as brother party of the SNP).
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