Reform And Separation

The historical period from the late 1960s to 80s was a period of special significance in Quebec history.The establishment of the Party Quebecois in 1968 meant the rise of the Quebec separatist political movement; in 1980 the incumbent Party Quebecois planned and chaired the the referendum on Quebec separation for the first time, and in 1985 announced to postpone the pursuit of separatism indefinitely, which signified the fall of the first wave of the Quebec separatist political movement. During this period, the year 1976 saw the Party Quebecois coming to power, and 1981 being reelected. In the nine years of power, the Party Quebecois implemented in Quebec a wide range of reforms in the political, economic, cultural and social fields, which brought about profound effects and changes in Quebec society. "Quebec Model" called by the Canadian academic circle took shape during this period. Rene Levesque,who entered the political arena in the early 1960s and worked as a Quebec Liberal Party Cabinet Minister, founded the Party Quebecois. From then on he, using the party as tool, began his dual pursuits both as a reformist and separatist,until1985, when Levesque himself renounced the pursuit of separatist, resigned from the Party Quebecois leader position and retired from politics. The section of Quebec history from the late 1960s to the middle 80s was marked deeply Levesque's footprints.Domestic academic research in Quebec are mostly confined to panoramic descriptions of Quebec separatism, which sparsely involve the period in which Levesque controlled the Party Quebecois. Likewise, overseas scholars also treated in their works the Party Quebecois led by Levesque as part of the Quebec separatist movement, and a few monograghs about the period pay more attention to the leading figures and the daily operation of the party than its progrom and policies, let alone a theoretical analysis. This dissertation focuses on the the Party Quebecois from 1968 to 1985, when it was founded and led by Levesque, tries to make a a theoretical analysis of its progrom and policies and reach a reasonal conclusion.There is no denying that the Party Quebecois existed first as a typical separatist political party, but in reality, at least in the period from to 1985, the Party Quebecois also acted as a reformist political party. Levesque, once a active participant and promoter of the sixties reforms called "Quiet Revolution", founded the the Party Quebecois in order to continue and deepen the reforms of the sixties after the failure of the Quiet Revolution. In its first campaigns for Quebec general elections, especially in 1973, the party vigorously publicized the separatist program, but with a disappointing result. In 1976, the party put more emphasis on its reformist program---"good governance" and finally won the general election. After it took power, the Party Quebecois launched a series of iniatives of nationalit and social democratist natures in political, economic, social and cultural fields, through fiscal expenditures and legislative interventions. The wide range iniatives were vigorously implemented and so remarkedly effective. Faced with financial crisis and economic difficulties in early 80s, the reelected Party Quebecois had to seek new governing strategies an practiced a shift from "state nationalism" to " market nationalism" and from "welfare-type" social democracy to "participation-type" social democracy. The transformation proved to be quite realistic and necessary.As the two wings of the Quebecois party's program, separatism and reformistm recorded a counter-balance process. During late 60s and early 70s, the party sang high tone of separatism, claim that support for the Party Quebecois was to support Quebec independence, and the party would declare independence as soon as it came to power in Quebec. The 1970 campaigning centred Levesque's separatist proposal—"sovereignty-association", and in 1973 campaigning the party reaffirmed that the party would declare independence in Quebec if it came to power, and tried to demonstrate the economic viability and superiority of Quebec independence. The Quebec Liberal Party, of course, tried to prove the contrary. As a result, most Quebec voters were polarized on the possible separation. During the period from 1976-80, the separatist party increasingly emphasized reformism and marginalized its separatist claim. Levesque introduced a referendum on Quebec separation, which was adopted in the 1974 convention. For the 1976 Quebec election, the Party Quebecois campaigned round two themes:the reformism-Quebec's "good governance" and "adulterated" separatist pursuit-the referendum on the Quebec's future. The party won the election. Shortly after it took over power and solved pressing problems, the party was committed to the implementation of "good governance."In the first two and a half years of governance, the Party Quebecois resolutely implemented a series of reformist measures, indeed "leaving a mark of social democracy" in Quebec society. In the meantime, however, the Party Quebecois hardly launched a public debate on sovereignty. Even though there were discussions about the separatist program within the Party Quebecois, the result was to weaken the separatist claim.In October 1978 Levesque advanced in the Quebec Parliament-the National Assembly "hyphen" approach, which meant the acquisition of political sovereignty of Quebec would depend not only on the wishes of the electorate but also on the outcome of negotiations with the other provinces. A broad framework of sovereignty--association was not officially released until June 1979,and the Quebec referendum on separation delayed until the end of the first term of the Party Quebecois in 1980. Between 1980 and1985, the separatist claim was no longer publicly referred to by the Party Quebecois. While Levesque continued to seek special status for Quebec in the inter-governmantal relations with the Canadian federal government,he acted as an ordinary province premier. In the meantime, the party had to deal with the financial crisis and economic recession in the 1980s. After the 1980 referendum, Levesque stated that the Party Quebecois would respects public opinion and accept the result.In the 1981 Quebec election the party kept far away from the separatist topic, and even avoided talking about the federal government's plan to patriate the Canadian constitution unilaterally. Having beenre-elected, Levesque reaffirmed that Quebec would join the negotiations on the patriation of the constitution as an ordinary Canadian province. In 1985 Levesque,as the leader of the the PartyQuebecois and Quebec premier,announced formally that the party abandoned the separatist pursuit. In the meantime, the Party Quebecois government,in response to the financial crisis and economic downturn, implemented some practical and sensible adjustments to the existing stradegies, and explored more iniatives. Their efforts had effective results, the financial crisis being eased to some extent, "concerted action"resulting in rather successful programs.For the period when the Party Quebecois was controlled by Levesque, separatism emerged from the reformist trend, and declined to a great degree as the result of reform achievements.The Party Quebecois,as a typical separatist political party, was born in the wake of the failure of the Quiet Revolution. Levesque,once a participant and promoter of the Quiet Revolution, attributed its failure to both the lack of resolute aspirations on the part of the Liberal Party and the inadequacy of power and resources on the part of Quebec government. With the creation of the Party Quebecois, Levesque attempted to mobilize popular support of separation and exert pressure on the Canadian federal authorities to in order to get enough power and resources to complete the reformist goals with.When the Party Quebecois's reformist initiatives bore satisfactory fruits and the 60s' reformist goals were basically achieved, the popular support for the separatist program collapsed concequently. The Pary Quebecois government introduced lots of political, economic, cultural and social iniatives, which resulted in great changes to Quebec. In the 80s, the weakening trend of the French culture since the post-war time was contained and reversed, French groups achieved "self-affirmation," Quebec attained ed economic autonomy and a considerable degree of and modernization. With the basic realization of the 60s' reformist objectives, the claim of sovereignty seemed unnecessary and even uncertainty. The Party Quebecois'failure in the 1980 referendum was largely a reverse reflection of its reformist effectiveness. So it can be said that the rise and fall of the Quebec's separatist enterprise came accordingly with the failure or success of its reformist iniatives. It must be mentioned that coincident with the first wave of Quebec separatism the Canadian federalism recordered improvement and self-perfection. From the constitutional point of view, the 1982 Constitution is more complete and uniform than the 1867,accordingly contributes more to Canadian national identity; from the perspective of the Canadian federal and local intergovernmental relationships, federal authorities tend to decentralize in powers and resources,further taking into account the expansion of government functions and other special needs of local government in the process of modernization; as for the federal Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau personally, his strategy of Quebec experienced a remarkable transition from the rigid and suppressive reaction in the early 1970s to the later compromises and dialogue with the Party Quebecois. Although the improvement and self-perfection of the Canadian federalism resulted to a greater degree from Quebec separatist pressure, it eventually contributed to the collapse of the Quebec separatist rationality.Levesque, the founder and head of the Party Quebecois from 1968 to 1985, left a deep imprint in Quebec as well as in Canadian history. He integrated the scattered forces of Quebec separatism into a large-scale political movement, and was the forst to lead a separatist party to power in Quebec. The party expressed the resention and alienation as well as aspirations of the French majority in Quebec, through legal and democratic channels, promoted the dialogue and consultation between French and Enuglish groups, between the federal authorities and local governments so as to get rid of ethnic hostility and alienation and conflicts between central and local governments.Although Levesque quitted politics in the mid-80s, but the Quebec separatist political movements he created loomed large again in the 1990s. The Party Quebecois remains an unignorable political force in Quebec's and Canada's political arena.What is equally important is Levesque promoted great changes in Quebec through political, economic, social and cultural reformist initiatives. Levesque not only created a new type of political party, but also turned the practice of his party into law-legislation on political parties' financing. The legislation, whose aim was to sever the gray alliance between political circle and business communityand is the most progressive and severe in the western democracies, has indeed quite pured Quebec's political climate and remains valid as one of fine political legacies.The Levesque government took many initiatives of economic nationalist nature, including legislation on the French language, government purchasing priorities and concessions of electricity price, regrouping of financial institutions in Quebec to make them in favor of French enterprises, even nationalizing of enterprises critical to people's livelihood the or national dignity. As a result, a powerful French Canadian business group appeared, which not only gradually took over the Anglo-economic control of Quebec, but also increasingly involved in Canada and the world market competition and cooperation. French Quebecers achieved "economic patriation." In fact, the Party Quebecois government's legislation on the French language had multi-folded effects: the legislation not only reversed the weakening trend of the French culture since the Second World War, but effectively gave Quebec a French face, making Quebec a land of French culture in North America. Thanks to the legislation and the programs to popularize French, French Canadians' native language turned dominant language,their income eventually caught up and even exceeded their English counterparts. French Quebecers were no longer of inferior socio-economic status, they became a economic and social majority. The French majority achieved "self-affirmation."The Levesque government introduced Automobile Insurance Act, which was of the most humanitarian care, still welcomed today. Concerted action, initiated in his first term and pursued vigorously in the 80s, not only contributed greatly to ensure social stability and harmony but indeed bore some fruitful results and attained some relatively successful experience,which had bee adopted till the end of the 20th century.