During the prelude to Canadian Confederation in the 1860s, some proposals were made to divide up Lower Canada, the current Province of Quebec, into multiple provinces, the one with the most currency being to create the Provinces of Montreal, Eastern Townships, and Quebec. [1]
After the renewed rise of the Quebec sovereignty movement in the 1990s, efforts revived to create a Province of Montreal. Roopnarine Singh of Montreal founded the Movement for the 11th Province of Montreal in that era. [2] [3] The era before and after the 1995 referendum also produced proposals to split the western Ottawa Valley region, the Eastern Townships of Quebec along the US border, and English-speaking parts of Montreal (such as the West Island and Westmount) into a Province of Montreal. [3] [4] [5] The proposal was made by the partitionist movement, which demands the right for minorities to secede from Quebec if Quebec secedes from Canada. In the wake of the referendum, prominent lawyer and then-federalist Guy Bertrand led a court fight to allow for the creation of the Province of Montreal if Quebec were to secede. [6] [7] West Virginia was used as an example to support the position in public. [8]
Lucien Bouchard is a French Canadian lawyer, diplomat and retired politician.
The Quebec Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; each of their main opponents in different eras have been generally associated with the colour blue.
Jacques Parizeau was a Canadian politician and Québécois economist who was a noted Quebec sovereigntist and the 26th premier of Quebec from September 26, 1994, to January 29, 1996.
The Quebec sovereignty movement is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the independence of Quebec from Canada. Sovereignists suggest that the people of Quebec make use of their right to self-determination – a principle that includes the possibility of choosing between integration with a third state, political association with another state or independence – so that Québécois, collectively and by democratic means, give themselves a sovereign state with its own independent constitution.
Quebec nationalism or Québécois nationalism is a feeling and a political doctrine that prioritizes cultural belonging to, the defence of the interests of, and the recognition of the political legitimacy of the Québécois nation. It has been a movement and a central issue in Quebec politics since the beginning of the 19th century. Québécois nationalism has seen several political, ideological and partisan variations and incarnations over the years.
The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should proclaim sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of offering a political and economic agreement to Canada.
The Clarity Act is legislation passed by the Parliament of Canada that established the conditions under which the Government of Canada would enter into negotiations that might lead to secession following such a vote by one of the provinces. The Clarity Bill (C-20) was tabled for first reading in the House of Commons on 13 December 1999. It was passed by the House on 15 March 2000, and by the Senate, in its final version, on 29 June 2000.
The 1980 Quebec independence referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government, which advocated secession from Canada.
There have been various movements within Canada for secession.
The constitutional history of Canada begins with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which France ceded most of New France to Great Britain. Canada was the colony along the St Lawrence River, part of present-day Ontario and Quebec. Its government underwent many structural changes over the following century. In 1867 Canada became the name of the new federal Dominion extending ultimately from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Arctic coasts. Canada obtained legislative autonomy from the United Kingdom in 1931, and had its constitution patriated in 1982. Canada's constitution includes the amalgam of constitutional law spanning this history.
The colony of Canada was a French colony within the larger territory of New France. It was claimed by France in 1535 during the second voyage of Jacques Cartier, in the name of the French king, Francis I. The colony remained a French territory until 1763, when it became a British colony known as the Province of Quebec.
Canadian nationalism seeks to promote the unity, independence, and well-being of Canada and the Canadian people. Canadian nationalism has been a significant political force since the 19th century and has typically manifested itself as seeking to advance Canada's independence from influence of the United Kingdom and the United States. Since the 1960s, most proponents of Canadian nationalism have advocated a civic nationalism due to Canada's cultural diversity that specifically has sought to equalize citizenship, especially for Québécois and French-speaking Canadians, who historically faced cultural and economic discrimination and assimilationist pressure from English Canadian-dominated governments. Canadian nationalism became an important issue during the 1988 Canadian federal election that focused on the then-proposed Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, with Canadian nationalists opposing the agreement – saying that the agreement would lead to inevitable complete assimilation and domination of Canada by the United States. During the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty that sought to determine whether Quebec would become a sovereign state or whether it would remain in Canada, Canadian nationalists and federalists supported the "no" side while Quebec nationalists largely supported the "yes" side, resulting in a razor-thin majority in favour of the "no" side that supported Quebec remaining in Canada.
The Parti 51 is a political party in the Canadian province of Quebec that was founded in the late 1980s under the leadership of Serge Talon. The party has proposed the separation of Quebec from Canada in order to seek admission to the United States as the 51st state of the American union. The party had no success in winning any seat in 1989 election to the National Assembly of Quebec, and in the spring of 1990, asked the Direction of Elections of Quebec to dissolve the party because it no longer had enough members to form an executive committee.
Anti-Quebec sentiment is a form of prejudice which is expressed toward the government, culture, and/or the francophone people of Quebec. This prejudice must be distinguished from legitimate criticism of Quebec society or the Government of Quebec, though the question of what qualifies as legitimate criticism and mere prejudice is itself controversial. Some critics argue that allegations of Quebec bashing are sometimes used to deflect legitimate criticism of Quebec society, government, or public policies.
Joseph Facal is a Canadian politician, academic, and journalist in the province of Quebec. He was a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2003 and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.
George Moffatt was a businessman and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East. Born in England, he emigrated to Lower Canada at the age of 14. He became involved in business in Montreal, including the fur trade.
Benoît Pelletier was a Canadian lawyer, academic, and politician in the province of Quebec. He was a Liberal member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1998 to 2008 and was a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Jean Charest. He was best known for promoting the concept of "asymmetric federalism" to incorporate Quebec nationalism into a decentralized Canadian federal structure.
The partition of Quebec refers to the secession of regions of the province of Quebec, rather than to partitions in a strict political sense. It is usually discussed as a possibility in the event of Quebec secession from Canada. It was not a key issue in either the 1980 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty or the 1995 Referendum on Quebec Sovereignty, but dominated the politics of national unity for about two years in the aftermath of the second referendum. Since then, the issue has occasionally resurfaced.
Pierre Bélanger is a Canadian lawyer and politician in the province of Quebec. Bélanger was a Parti Québécois (PQ) member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1992 to 1998 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Lucien Bouchard.