What an emotionally charged thread this has been. From reading all the posts here, it appears it boils down to emotions and a dose of ego. I would assert the Seven Year War isn't quite over.
Quebec wants to be a nation well my question is this: How do the Natives feel about having their land and their people hyjacked by the French after all this is their land isn't it? We won the war did we not, and English Canada and the Natives fought together so why are we handing Quebec over to the French. What makes up the majority in Quebec? French, or English combined with Natives, Metis, and immigrants and who decides which group will compile said Nation?
Emotions and ego are certainly part of the equation but I don't think you can reduce it to that. Political independance is a serious issue and it's what's behind this whole debate. This recognition of the Quebec nation may only be symbolic (and the result of crazy politics) but it is also one more step forward for the political independance of the Québecois...
So, in other words, the perfect solution would be to let Quebec be independent, but in an association with Canada so that Quebec can still receive some monies from Ottawa. Is that about the gist of what you're saying here?
Return? What do you mean, return? That wouldn't be returning something to the provinces that they used to have, they never had it. And in what conceivable sense would that be a perfect solution anyway? A national government with no power to govern or tax can't function. You're prescribing the dissolution of the whole country.No. The perfect solution would be to dissolve most of Ottawa's powers and return the bulk of it (Including Taxation) to the provinces. But alas, Anglo's like Ottawa as it is. So the only option is simply leaving.
A staff member from the Prime Minister's Office told CBC that, "at the end of the day, some issues are more important than one person."
House passes motion recognizing Québécois as nation
Last Updated: Monday, November 27, 2006 | 8:51 PM ET
CBC News
The House of Commons has overwhelmingly passed a motion recognizing Québécois as a nation within Canada.
Conservatives, most Liberal MPs, the NDP and the Bloc voted 266 to 16 in support of the controversial motion, which earlier in the day had prompted the resignation of Michael Chong as intergovernmental affairs minister.
Fifteen Liberal MPs voted against the motion, along with Independent MP Garth Turner.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had introduced the surprise motion on Nov. 22, raising the ante on a Bloc Québécois motion that sought to declare Quebecers a nation without reference to Canada.
The motion states: "That this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada."
The prime minister has said he is using the word nation in a "cultural-sociological" rather than in a legal sense.
The nationhood idea has preoccupied Ottawa since the Bloc proposed a motion calling on the House to recognize Quebecers as a nation and Harper made a counter-proposal to define Québécois as a nation within Canada.Stephen Harper votes for a motion recognizing Québécois as a nation. ![]()
(CBC) Over the following two days, the Bloc first amended its motion to say that they are a nation "currently within Canada" — leaving the door open to independence — and then declared its support for the government motion.
Liberal leadership hopefuls Gerard Kennedy, who doesn't have a seat in Parliament, and Ken Dryden announced on Monday that they opposed the motion.
Dryden and leadership candidate Joe Volpe voted against the motion.
Chong had said he would abstain from voting because the motion "implies the recognition of ethnicity.
"I do not believe in an ethnic nationalism. I believe in a civic nationalism."