What Are The Disagreements Between Quebec And Canada

Today, with the Liberal Party of Quebec’s new leader, Philippe Couillard, showing his intentions to finally sign the Constitution, the relationship between Canada and Quebec has never been better. However, this relationship did not just seemingly appear out of nowhere; rather, Canada and Quebec have had their fair share of disagreements. These quarrels helped to shape their relationship into what it is now. Ultimately, most of these disagreements were caused by the differing views on the education system and the French Canadians, the importance of the English and French language, and the provincial status of Quebec.

Quebec and Canada have had many disagreements, as Quebec has been through some rough times. In 1912, the Ontario Premier issued

Every French-speaking member of parliament was opposed to the idea of conscription; however, all the English-speaking members of Parliament supported it. When the Military Service Act that Borden had created went into effect on August 29, 1917, the eight English-speaking provinces publicly supported Borden’s move toward conscription, nevertheless, the province of Quebec opposed it. On the French side, Quebec nationalist Henri Bourassa spoke out, claiming that “the enemies of the French language, of French civilization in Canada are not the Boches [the Germans]…but the English-Canadian anglicizers” (para. 15, Durflinger). The tensions between the two languages escalated further when the Constitution Act of 1982 was brought into play. The constitution came with The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that minority language rights would be protected. Consequently, this put an end to Bill 101 by protecting the right to speak English within Quebec. Even though the Charter guarantees all minority language rights, including the French language rights in the rest

From referendums to wanting to be a “distinct society”, the province of Quebec really wanted it all. But the English Canadians noticed that if Quebec was allowed to become a “distinct society”, that the French Canadians would have a higher status and more power over the rest of the provinces. This later became known as the Meech Lake Accord, which was an attempt to amend the constitution by strengthening the powers of all the provinces. However, the Meech Lake Accord had also tried to declare Quebec as a “distinct society”. Unfortunately, the previous Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, came out of retirement just to fight against the Accord. Furthermore, after Trudeau spoke out against the Accord, many English Canadians grew uncomfortable with the fact that Quebec would be a “distinct society”, fearing that it would give Quebec special status in the Confederation. The failure of the Meech Lake Accord eventually led to the Charlottetown Accord, where PM Brian Mulroney tried to obtain Quebec’s consent to sign the Constitution Act of 1982. Mulroney had gathered enough formal support from the federal government and the other 10 provinces to pass the Charlottetown Accord as a constitutional amendment but decided to put it up to a national referendum instead. The outcome came to 54.3% of votes opposed to the Charlottetown Accord, meaning that it was not passed as a