Monday, May 9, 2011

Quebec looks at Catalunya

Catalan nationalism has often looked in the mirror of French-speaking province of Quebec. Quebec cleared the road. With language laws. Or the desire for a referendum autoderminación. Not anymore. Quebec nationalism, that in the referendum of 1995 was less than 60,000 votes for independence, is depressed.

There is no prospect of another referendum on independence while not govern in the province. Electoral support is uncertain. "If you looked at Catalunya before Quebec, Quebec is now looking to Catalonia," said a week ago, on the sunny terrace of a cafe in the neighborhood anglophone Westmount, Montreal, Prof.

Alain-G. Gagnon. Gagnon has studied cases and Quebec Catalan, Spanish and Canadian. Is learning Catalan. "Now Catalonia is carrying the torch. If Catalunya moved here would have a new momentum, "he said. The next day, May 2, nationalism suffered one of the worst defeats in its history. The Bloc Quebecois, the sovereign's representative in the House of Commons won only four seats in federal elections.

In 2008 he won 49. It is foolhardy to conclude that Quebec wants nothing to the sovereign. In the upcoming provincial elections, everything can change. But the sink overflowing forecasts. "There is a sense of fatigue," said Jack Jedwab days before, executive director of the Association of Canadian Studies, based in Montreal.

"The marriage lasts 145 years. Is there love in the family? No. But not all marriages must be love. There is also a practical, comfortable, convenient. " Chantal Hébert speaks at the French kiss-essay chronicles the love affair between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper conservative, and Quebec nationalism, "the death of identity politics." After 1995, Hébert writes, "the majority of Quebecers support longer believed that sovereignty was essential to ensure the future of the French language in North America." The historian Eric Bédard is nationalist and conservative.

A rare bird: in Quebec nationalism has been associated with the left. Bédard fear is that, as happened on Monday, left-right axis finish replacing the sovereign-federalism axis. Gagnon noted a "peripheralization" of Quebec. Until recently, it was the political and economic center of Canada.

The prime ministers today were forged Quebec Canada. The displacement of the center of gravity Canadian west has been paralleled by a decrease in the weight of Quebec. Added to this is what nationalists considered a permanent erosion of their powers, and misunderstanding on the part of other Canadians.

"Quebec is part of Canada. Point. In the past they were abused. Not anymore. And not survive alone, "he said before a meeting of the Liberal Party in Toronto, Charles Guidaitis, an activist of 61 years. Gudaitis's opinion is not exceptional. Sovereigntists claiming, among other things, full powers on immigration and, for example, that three of the nine Supreme Court justices come from Quebec.

Harper, who on Monday won an absolute majority, prompted after coming to power in 2006 the recognition of Quebec as a nation. And Quebec has invited the Canadian delegation at UNESCO. During the campaign, the candidates spoke French during part of the rallies, but were in Anglophone Canada.

This country, which has the respect of minorities in their genes, is a test. As he wrote many years the intellectual Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal Party's defeated candidate in the last election, "whether federalism can not work in Canada, can not function anywhere else."

No comments:

Post a Comment