Monday, February 15, 1999

Peoplehood and partition

Jonathan Kay

National Post

For several days in January, Montreal's radio stations broadcast paid advertisements featuring a certain Claude Gauthier -- a man identifying himself as a spokesman for the 50th anniversary of Quebec's fleur-de-lis. The beauty of Quebec's defining symbol, Mr. Gauthier told his listeners, is "it identifies us and brings us together as a people, regardless of our place of origin, our language or our convictions."

That was news to me, of course. Though I am a 30-year Quebec resident, I would not put the fleur-de-lis on my list of personal symbols. The Maple Leaf? Yes. The Star of Zion? Perhaps. But the fleur-de-lis? I don't think so.

On the other hand, I appreciated the gesture. Unlike Jacques Parizeau, the former premier, and many other members of Quebec's anglo- and ethno-phobic brain trust, Mr. Gauthier at least had the good manners to play the game of pretend pluralism. Under Mr. Gauthier's politely inclusive conception, the fleur-de-lis is a symbol all Quebecers can call their own -- even me.

What is most interesting, however, is that French media types have come to cite the existence of a peuple Quebecois in such an off-hand manner. This represents an important psychological victory for the province's separatists, who for years have been self-consciously citing the notion of a Quebec "people" in an effort to impart an anti-colonial moral legitimacy to their cause. Undergirding the separatist approach is the idea that, like Kosovo's ethnic Albanians or Turkey's Kurds, Quebecers are a wronged people, bound by blood, and thwarted by borders. It has proved to be an effective appeal. In fact, the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence nearly passed on its strength.

But let's ignore the separatists' motivations for a moment. On the facts, the idea of a peuple Quebecois is not entirely baseless. If a claim to peoplehood can be justified merely by reference to a common culture, a shared vernacular, and a mythologized homeland, then Quebec's francophones would seem to make at least a prima facie case. While it so happens that I do not treat the fleur-de-lis as a self-identifying symbol, there are millions of Quebecois who do -- especially in Quebec's unicultural backwaters like Jonquiere, Abitibi, Chicoutimi, and the Saguenay.

Where Montreal, the economic and demographic nucleus of Quebec, is concerned, however, things are different. The city is modern, multilingual, multicultural, Internet-savvy, federalist (mostly), and intimately entangled -- both commercially and culturally -- with other parts of North America. Montrealers define themselves primarily by employment, education, peer group, and language. Unlike their rural colleagues, their sense of self is no longer based on a romantic attachment to the land or its fruits.

In other words, if it is true that Quebec can be defined by the idea of peoplehood, then it is a province that contains two people, not one -- and the line between the two is defined as much by urban sophistication as by language. When separatists talk of a peuple Quebecois, they are mostly talking about the peuple who have not yet joined the post-industrial world -- the pure laine francophones of Quebec's hinterlands.

As a result, Montreal provokes mixed emotions among nationalists. On the one hand, they need Montreal -- because they have little desire to inherit a country stripped of its economic engine by the forces of partition. On the other hand, the heterodox attitudes of the city's inhabitants are disgusting to hardcore nationalists. To persist in their fantasy of pan-Quebec nationalism, they must evince a willful blindness to the real character of Montreal.

And here we get to the real political significance of the whole idea of a peuple Quebecois. If the separatist argument for a sovereign Quebec is predicated on the idea of peoplehood, then it contains within itself a wholly-formed argument for partition -- because, in many ways, Montreal is as culturally distinct from the rest of Quebec as the rest of Quebec is from the rest of Canada. Un peuple Quebecois? Sure, but don't forget the peuple Montrealais.