Quebec

From Free Talk Live

Quebec is a French-speaking province in Canada, most notable for its long-standing secession movement. Its boundaries are adjacent to Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and New York, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Newfoundland and New Brunswick.

Power structure

The governing body of the province is called L'Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly), and the current prime minister is Jean Charest of the Liberal Party of Quebec.

Ironically, Jean Charest is a former MP of the federal Conservatives, and earned his prominence fighting against Quebec separatism in the 1995 Referendum. He got elected running on a conservative agenda, namely by promising to reduce the size of the state (the most taxed state in North America).

But since Quebec is heavily socialized, and its workforce is heavily unionized, his work is constantly fought against by every pressure group in the province, making any progress totally impossible.

Secession movement

The Secession movement in Quebec centers around the concept of distinct society. The people of Quebec originated from France, with many settlers coming from the Normandy region. What is now the province of Quebec was seized by England in a war with France. The French speaking Quebecois were severed from France, and England sought to control Quebec as part of the Empire. Quebec was one of the original provinces in the Canadian Confederation when it was formed.

With the birth of the modern Secession movement in the middle of the last century also came a large scale Marxist growth. Marxism was so readily accepted because the blue collar workers were generally French speakers, whereas the factory owners were predominantly minority English speakers. At the time the system did favor minority English rule, much like Apharteid in South Africa.