Oldal 201 [201]
MAITRES CHEZ QUI?...
may as well have included all of Québec’s inhabitants, French or otherwise.”
As Toupin’s article implies, the newly elected Premiere wanted to create a more
open version of La belle province so as not to alienate the anglophones and
immigrants present within Québec’s society.” Lévesque’s projet de construction
nationale would naturally require these groups’ approval and participation.”
Whereas Lévesque lamented English and immigrant minorities’ ability to
“increase their rights at the expense of [Québec’s] French majority” in 1968, the
elected Lévesque came to accept these minorities and their diversifying effect
on the province.” “A Québécois is anyone who lives in Québec” wrote Lévesque
in a 1977 op-ed for the Globe and Mail.” Oui, a book published by the PQ in
1980 in order to advocate for a sovereign Québec, affirmed that “Quebecois’ self¬
assurance is doubled by their openness to others.””°
The claims made by Lévesque between 1976-1980, especially when
contrasted to those made before the PQ’s ascension to power, indicate a clear
discursive shift. Whilst the PQ of the 1960s and early 1970s presented Québec’s
francophones as battling colonial injustices, a newly governing PQ accepted
and seemingly celebrated the internal diversity brought about by Québec’s
anglophone and immigrant communities. Despite the PQ’s obvious change
in strategy, insensitivity toward Québec’s Indigenous population appears to
have remained: they were continuously disregarded, even when diversity was
brought to the forefront by the PQ. Indeed, studies have shown that, even as
the party’s referendum approached during the spring of 1980, the province’s
Indigenous inhabitants never became a salient talking-point.”” As such, when
seeking to create a new nation state, Lévesque and the PQ perpetuated notions
of Indigenous non-existence just as they had done prior to 1976. As will be
argued below, these perpetuations may be responsible for creating a cultural
geography estranged from the concept of Indigenous territorial sovereignty.
Toupin, La politique identitaire, 106.
7 Toupin’s text emphasizes that Lévesque generally understood Québec as having a caractère
frangais above all. The politician did, however (and by Toupin’s own admission), present an
openness to the various collectivities which inhabited Québec. As per Toupin, Lévesque’s
deeply rooted democratic ideals made sovereignty a tender offered to all those who inhabited
the province’s territory (Toupin, La politique identitaire, 106-108).
73 Toupin, La politique identitaire, 106-108.
#° Original text: “D'un autre côté, est-ce qu’on doit leur [les anglophones] laisser le droit de
continuer indéfiniment, par assimilation, à augmenter leurs forces aux dépens de la société
majoritaire que nous [les francophones] sommes?” Extracted from: Toupin, La politique
identitaire, 101.
75 Extracted from: Anctil, René Lévesque, 178-201.
7 Original text: “À mesure que les Québécois sont devenus plus sûrs d'eux-mêmes, la continuité
interne s’est doublée d’une volonté d'ouverture aux autres, plus apparente aujourd’hui que
jamais dans le passé.” Extracted from: Toupin, La politique identitaire, 107.
77 André H. Caron — Chantal Mayrand — David E. Payne, Limagerie politique 4 la télévision:
les derniers jours de la campagne référendaire, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 16 (3)
(1983), 483.
+ 199 +