Canada: America’s Neighbor to the North - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 365

Figure 25.2. Jacques Cartier Square, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, around 1900
WHY ARE THE PEOPLE OF QUEBEC (THE QUEBECOIS) CALLED
UNMELTABLE ETHNICS?
The reference is to what Quebecois refuse to be: people who accept inclusion in an
American-style melting pot. The people of Quebec fiercely guard their separate identity. It
is an identity undergirded by a 250-year-old fear, the fear of cultural extinction. In 1977 the
government of Quebec enacted a language law requiring that all commercial enterprises in
the province operate in French. And language police are alert to stores and shops that give
precedence to English names over their French equivalents.
Far more important are the referenda whereby the Province of Quebec has voted on its
future—whether or not to withdraw from Canada to establish an independent nation. The
most recent referendum in 1995 kept Quebec in Canada by the slimmest margin, with 49.3
percent voting for independence, and 50.7 percent rejecting it. The issue is far from dead,
and the leading organized proponent of independence, the Parti Quebecois, is a powerful
presence in the Parliament of Quebec. Its demand for independence is a constant presence
in Canadian politics and a threat to Canadian unity. Whether the threat is real or superficial
is difficult to say. Public figures in Canada's western provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan)
sometimes say, “We're tired of blackmail. If they want out, let 'em go!”