Nations

The Prime Minister is going to table a motion in the House of Commons which answers these two questions:

“The real question is straightforward: Do Quebeckers form a nation within a united Canada? The answer is yes.

Do Quebeckers form an independent nation from Canada? The answer is no and it will always be no!” citynews

No doubt this will cause a certain degree of consternation in BQ ranks as it takes a bit of the wind from the sails of their motion which simply declared Quebec a nation.

Harper has pretty much adopted Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff’s current position on Quebec’s nationhood: call it a nation and then maintain that this does not actually mean anything. Most of the Quebec Liberals going to the convention are lined up to support a motion which would affirm that “Quebec is a nation within Canada” but begs the question as to what, if any, rights or privileges this confers or which other nations maybe tucked within Canada’s ample bosom.

Justin Trudeau weighed into the debate back in October channeling Pierre,

“Unfortunately, some people these days are wrapped up in this idea of nation for Quebec, which stands against everything my father ever believed,” (ctv via the national post)

As Justin is not actually on the ballot for the leadership his views of his father’s views don’t count but they do open the door for a candidate to question what has now become not only Liberal but also Conservative orthodoxy.

Stephane Dion seems the only Liberal leadership candidate willing to suggest there might be one or two small difficulties in a rush to embrace Quebec’s claim of nationality. (I have cut a little here for clarity…follow the link for the full interview.)

Solomon: So, is Quebec a nation?

Dion: I have no difficulty to find a definition of the word ‘nation’ that may fit Quebec reality. I have no difficulties to find definitions of the word ‘nation’ that will show that there are many nations in Quebec, or only one nation in Canada. It depends on the definition you choose. But, if you want to put that in the constitution then you need to be very, very, very precise….

It’s only one nation? All the Aboriginals are one nation, or 600 nations? The Acadians — I go each year to La Fete Nationale, a national holiday. Are they a nation the same way that Quebeckers are a nation? Anglo-Quebeckers — can they claim to be a nation? Newfoundlanders — they were, some decades ago. Maybe if we ask them now the question they say why are we not to be a nation too? So, second question: what is the significance of these recognitions? Is it purely symbolic or that it means more powers, privileges and public money to the people that are nations? If you compare with people that are less than a nation do we want to go there? If we want to go there, let’s start to have a clear map of what we have to do before we start the debate. evan solomon, cbc

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of “one Canada” nor a direct refutation of the “Quebec is a nation” trope; rather a rather academic, indeed bloodless, response Ignatieff’s proposition.

Now, there is little doubt that Iggy reads the data out of Quebec rather cleverly and the “nation” trope is red meat to soft seperatists and assorted Liberal nationalists. Dion’s academic finger exercises in definition dicing and constitutional logic chopping are not cutting it.

Dion, or any of the other candidates might do a little better if they looked up what Iggy says a political nation is,

“As a political doctrine, nationalism is the belief that the world’s peoples are divided into nations, and that each of these nations has the right of self-determination, either as self-governing units within existing nation states or as nation states of their own” ( Blood and Belonging, 1993)

More than a few Liberal delegates, weaned on Trudeau’s hardcore anti-nationalism, are going to have trouble endorsing “Quebec is a nation”. Especially if, as if in prescient answer to Dion’s questions, Ignatieff’s evocation of the political consequences of nationhood is part of one or more candidate’s campaigns. And Justin may be just the guy to bring it front and center.

Could be an interesting convention.

Written by jay on November 23rd, 2006 with 2 comments.
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