From the Oxford dictionary:
nation
noun a large body of people united by common descent, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory.
Seriously, the word defines Quebec. Argue that it doesn't.
I can't, because it does, that's the point. That isn't the only definition of nation in the Oxford dictionary, nor is it the most commonly understood meaning of the word. Look up state, you'll find it uses the word as a synonym for nation. As I posted previously, no unambiguous definition of nation is possible. Harper's motion, as clearly indicated by his speech around it, uses it as a cultural, linguistic, and sociological term for the Québécois, which is what that definition points to as well, but I'd bet heavily that most people hearing the word nation think of an independent sovereign country. It's too slippery a word to use so casually. And how long do you think it'll be after that motion passes before some Bloc Head claims that Parliament declared Quebec to be a nation, conveniently dropping off the last four words of it and substituting the word Quebec for the word Québécois? They've been that dishonest before. This issue has dominated the national political agenda my whole adult life, I even remember engaging in a debate about it in high school in 1966, and I'm fed up with it.
I believe no final resolution is possible until Quebec has all the advantages of being a Canadian province and all the advantages of being a sovereign state, with Canada paying for both. I thought briefly that we had a resolution with the Victoria Charter in 1971, until the same Quebec government that had negotiated it and agreed to it reneged on it to appease the militant nationalists at home. That government was afraid of its own people, perhaps with good reason, it was hopelessly incompetent. I thought maybe the Meech Lake Accord was it, until I actually read the document and saw what a horrible balkanization of the federation it'd produce. I thought maybe the patriation of the constitution might do it, until Quebec refused to get on board because it didn't get everything it wanted. Neither did anyone else, but like a petulant child Quebec stood aside feeling sorry for itself. Lucien Bouchard later spun those into a terribly twisted tale of betrayal and backstabbing, which Trudeau pretty thoroughly skewered, but the mythology of betrayal is still promoted by Quebec politicians as if it were true.
I did some research on it this morning to verify my memory, and it's clear that Quebec has had special status since long before Canada became Canada. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded New France to Britain as part of the settlement of the so-called French and Indian War between Britain and France for control of North America. Britain's Quebec Act of 1774 granted certain privileges to the Roman Catholic church, guaranteed the continued use of French, and the French civil code rather than British Common Law, in the colony. Very special status indeed for an 18th century British colony. The Act also, and I didn't know this, extended the boundaries of Quebec to include parts of what are now Ontario and the American states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which were all British-controlled lands at the time. Wanna try to get that territory back on separation? Quebec's had special status for over 230 years, increasingly so in the last 50 years or so, and it's never been enough. It will never be enough until Canada bows down to Quebec on all things and grants it whatever it wants, and pays for it all.
I believe Bear and I, and everyone who's agreed with us, are still right: this is gonna hurt, and it's gonna get ugly and stupid. It always has before. That's not to say I don't believe Quebec is different and special in a way no other province is. Obviously it *is*, you need only walk across the bridge from Ottawa to Hull, as I've done a dozen times to visit the Canadian Museum of Civilization, to spot that. I'd immediately agree it's entitled to cherish and preserve its language and culture. But not to the detriment of the rest of us.
Bottom line: you Quebecers, face the facts. Without the Quebec Act of 1774, and subsequent acts and analyses like Lord Durham's report, the Act of Union, the British North America Act, and sundry other things that clearly recognized your special status, which were really quite extraordinarily liberal for their time, your language and culture would be in about the same state as is the French language and culture in Louisiana. Be grateful, defend yourselves certainly, but don't push the limits so unreasonably. You can't have everything you want. None of us can. You're more secure within Canada than you would be alone against the world, because Canadian law protects you. Appreciate what you have, and quit complaining about the trivial things you don't have.
