Why does Quebec have nationalism and independence?

Quebec plays an important role in Canada. Quebec, located in the east, is the largest province in Canada and the only province with French as the designated language. Quebec's call for independence did not suddenly break out, but had historical and political origins.

As early as 1608, the French established the first permanent colony here. After 100 years, French immigrants went to Quebec, and France relied on these immigrants to control the whole Canada centered on Quebec. From 1756 to 1763, Britain and France fought for ten years. After the defeat, France was forced to cede Canada to Britain. However, the French are unwilling to lose control of Quebec, and use their close economic and cultural ties with Quebec to continuously expand their influence. Although Quebec is an inseparable part of Canada, it is quite different from other regions in history, language, culture and tradition. French residents in Quebec account for about 59%, British residents account for about 900 semicolons, and the other 32% are bilingual. Due to different cultural backgrounds and historical ties, there has always been a contradiction between the French and the British. The French in Quebec, in particular, have been unable to accept the Canadian Constitution with a strong colonial color and inherit the British political system, and have long tried to leave Canada and establish an independent country.

In the 1960 s, a quiet revolution took place in Quebec, and Quebec's national consciousness began to awaken. Many people think that Canada's Constitution was formulated by the British Parliament in 1876, which was neither adopted through democratic discussion nor considered the feelings of ethnic minorities. It completely excluded the interests of Quebec, which accounted for one third of Canada's population at that time, and had no political sovereignty. Therefore, the Bloc Quebecois Party, founded in 1968, openly raised the issue of independence, and its platform clearly stipulated that it would gain political sovereignty. 1970, the Quebec Party kidnapped the British Trade Representative and Quebec Labor Minister one after another, and coerced the government to allow Quebec to become independent. In the end, the violence gradually subsided under the suppression of the Canadian government, but the country suffered huge losses. 1976, the Quebec Party won an absolute majority of seats in the provincial assembly (7 10 seats) and became the ruling party of Quebec.

After the Quebec Party became the ruling party in Quebec, it further sought political independence. 1979 10 formally put forward a new equal partnership between Quebec and the Canadian Federation, that is, Quebec is politically independent but economically integrated with Canada, including monetary, interest rate and trade integration programs. 1980, Quebec held the first referendum on this "sovereignty-integration" scheme, and 40.44% people supported the proposal and 59.56% people opposed it. Quebec's first independence movement ended in failure.

However, Quebec still hates the Canadian Constitution because it does not take into account the interests and feelings of the Quebec people. /kloc-The Canadian Constitution adopted in the 1980s only has the signatures of nine other federal provinces except Quebec, and the place left for Quebec to sign is still blank. Therefore, most people of French descent in Quebec believe that the former constitutional rights were in the British Parliament, and now the constitution is not signed by Quebec, but decided by nine British provinces. Quebec has always been outside the political rights of Canada.

For more than 20 years, Quebec has held numerous negotiations with the federal government and other provinces to amend the constitution, but all failed, because every time the federal government or one of the ten provinces disagreed, the negotiations would be declared a failure. The Federal Supreme Court passed the constitutional bill in 1982, and determined that the addition and amendment of the constitution must be supported by two-thirds of the provinces. The second referendum in Quebec was held in 1995. As a result, the two factions were evenly matched, with 49.42% in favor and 50.55% against, and the Federalist narrowly won. Canada temporarily avoided division, but the separatists vowed to continue the struggle for independence.

The Federal Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that a province has no right to unilaterally secede from the Federation, and neither the federal constitution nor international law allows Quebec to unilaterally secede from the Federation. In order to effectively implement the Supreme Court's judgment, the National Assembly passed a clear law in 2000, which severely restricted a province's "referendum on independence", making it impossible for it to achieve referendum independence. If a province wants to hold a referendum on independence, it must first clearly explain its intention of independence in words, and cannot use vague words to reduce people's understanding of the consequences of independence. In addition, a simple majority vote in favor of independence is not enough, and an absolute majority vote is needed. Only Congress has the right to decide whether the words are clear and whether the affirmative votes are absolute majority. Even if these two conditions are met, it is necessary to obtain two-thirds consent in the negotiations between the federal government and the provinces before independence. Quebec independence seems to be an impossible proposition.

There is no doubt that the Quebec independence movement has had a far-reaching impact on Canadian and Quebec society. From 1976, when the Quebec Party became the ruling party of Quebec, to 1980, during the first referendum, nearly100000 British people moved out of Montreal, and many British enterprises moved to Anhe at the same time, which had a great impact on Quebec's economy. However, apart from what can be seen on the surface, the Quebec independence movement promoted the democratic life of Canadian society to a great extent, and gave birth to the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the federal multicultural policy. Even more because of Quebec, Canada does not dare to follow Britain and the United States easily when dealing with international affairs, especially trying to avoid participating in the war launched by the two countries, because once Canada enters the war, it will easily become the best reason for Quebec's separation.