The Influence Of The1967World Exdo Montreal On The French Canadians Of Quebec

The1967World Expo Montreal, Canada achieved an unprecedented success. Sixty-two countries participated in this world-wide event and attempted to improve their international prestiges via a multitude of elaborately organized presentations, in which France invested more than the others. Two of the biggest Francophone areas, France going through a high-speed economic development during the Thirty Glorious years, and Quebec with its so-called Quiet Revolution initiated by the Liberals, took full advantage of this opportunity to approach each other for a second time. The former sought to restore the once-interrupted intimate connection with French Canadians in Quebec, while the latter tried to draw support from the former so that it was able to acquire more power and privileges from the federal government to preserve the distinctiveness of its culture.Charles de Gaulle, president of France, visited Montreal during the Expo’67and delivered a speech on the balcony of the city hall, at the end of which the well-known and controversial slogan "Long live a Free Quebec!" was put forward. The bilateral relationship between France and Canada was thus intensified. Besides, the claims for independence were heard more frequently in Quebec and therefore, the contradiction between Quebec government and the federal government of Canada became acute.During the three years after Expo, Daniel Johnson, newly-elected prime minister of Quebec, organized a government of separatists while the Parti Quebecois advocates a national sovereignty for Quebec involving secession of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishing a sovereign state. The separatism had been thriving until the early1970s when Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of the federal government adopted "carrot and the stick" policies. The turmoil which the province of Quebec and the whole Canada started from1967.Based on a comprehensive analysis and research, this paper gets the conclusion that the French participation in the Expo’67and the efforts paid to underline the Franco-Quebec relations served as a stimulus to the resurrection of separatism, while the visit and speech of French President Charles de Gaulle was the blasting fuse which helped with the confirmation of the identities of French Canadians and infuriated their British counterparts and thus aggravated the intense situation. Simply put, the World Expo’67Montreal facilitated the intervention of France, which encouraged the advocation of succession of the province of Quebec from Canada and thus should be regarded as an unfavorable factor to an ideal solution to the Quebec issue.