Québec the nation

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cleverly forced the hand of the other political parties with his motion recognizing that the Quebecers form a nation within a united Canada. Both the Liberals, who were internally divided on the issue, and the Bloc Québecois, whose separatist mission would would only end with a dis-united Canada, have agreed to support the motion. This appears nothing less than a political triumph for the Harper, and goes to show that the Conservatives, unlike the Liberals, are not afraid to take bold steps on key issues.

Motion or no motion, the reality is that the people of Québec already consider themselves disctinct from other Canadians in terms of their roots, culture, history and language. There is nothing new there. The problem everyone seems to be having is with the word 'nation.' Does it simply mean a distinct group of people with a common history who share ethnic and cultural values, or could it imply having an inherent right to self-determination and the other 'S' word - sovereignty? Lysiane Gagnon writes in the Globe and Mail:

"Apart from its meaning as a 'sovereign country,' the word 'nation' designates a people bound by history, language and territory. In this sense, the "nation" that is referred to is the French-Canadian nation, formed by the descendants of the French colonizers of 'Nouvelle France;' even though the vast majority is concentrated in Quebec, the actual territory of this nation is Canada at large. Provinces are not nations because they all are multicultural, including Quebec."

That is indeed true. Canada already recognizes the aboriginal peoples of this land as the First Nations, without any notion of sovereignty, nominal or actual, attached to that label. Besides, sovereignty itself is proving to be more and more a superfluous, almost ceremonial concept. We live in a time where people, materials, money, information, and almost everything else moves and affects changes regardless of borders and labels of sovereignty. FTAs, TNCs, the environment (and the pollutants it moves around), all regularly operate in ignorance of any notion of sovereignty.

As for nationhood, there can be multiple nations within a state, without allusion to territorial boundaries. The 'Quebecer nation' would not be limited to the province of Québec, but wherever there happen to be Quebecers in Canada. There are already multiple 'nations' in Canada - Greek, Trinidadian, Chinese, Indian and many others.

Harper's motion is thus both simple wordplay and at the same time a crafty statement on sovereignty and national unity. Liberal leadership candidate Stéphane Dion captured this subtlety well when he said, "We could certainly find a definition of the word 'nation' that respects the reality of Quebec. The error isn't there. The mistake is to make these semantic debates the centrepiece of a national unity strategy."

Will Québec the nation within Canada eventually lead to Québec the country outside Canada, or will it take the wind out of the separatist sail for good - it may be too early to tell. I'm sure the people of Québec and in the rest of Canada have other, more pressing issues to worry about in their everyday lives.