More On Quebec Nationalism and Secessionism

I can once again outsource follow-up commentary to Jacob Levy, whose views and experiences are similar to my own (although mine might be more intense since I was there during the last referendum. You might think that teaching Canadian politics would present few challenges other than keeping students awake, but mine got into a fistfight in the library elevator. And his are expressed in much better prose.) After some good stuff about the desirability of “normal politics” in Quebec, Jacob commented in the earlier thread:

I’ve been amazed at how much my basic indifference to Quebec secession (two liberal democracies or one, what’s the difference?) has transformed into (stereotypical anglophone) antipathy toward the PQ since I moved to Montreal. It’s not out of any affection for the territorial integrity of Canada: I really don’t care about that as such. And it’s not about a defense of the Montreal anglophones even though I’m now one of them– I moved to another country, and perceive myself to have moved to a French-speaking country, deliberately moved to the Plateau in order to make the most of that move. I wanted to move to Montreal, regardless of whether that was in Canada or not. I just have the wrong upbringing to care about the Canada-shaped object on a map. Being an anglophone minority in a French-speaking society (independent or not) is what I signed up for.

But I do have real annoyance at the victimhood-and-bad-faith tales that I see the PQ using. The indivisibility-of-Quebec argument above all annoys the hell out of me– my interest in indigenous rights is a lot older than my move to Montreal, and makes it very hard for me to be cheery about people who tell a straightforwardly hypocritical story about their own right to self-determination and the lack of same among the First Nations. As a secondary matter I genuinely perceive the PQ to be relevantly similar to the Jacobin laicite’ tradition in France on matters of multiculturalism and minority religions. It somehow turns out that most of the ostensible hostility to religion falls on the shoulders of conservative Jews and Muslims, with very little falling on the giant cross looming over the city, or all the Christian holidays. And as a tertiary matter, while it’s ordinary rent-seeking, I’m more than a little shocked at the ‘fiscal imbalance’ narrative as a justification for secession. Upshot: after nine months I’ve become utterly disgusted with the PQ and happy to see them lose. I’d have been very unhappy to see the ADQ win the election, but am pretty pleased with the outcome we got.

Right. The argument about Quebec’s indivisibility really gives away the ethnic nationalist show (although, of course, many individual proponents of secession are liberal progressives.) I have no particular attachment to arbitrary national boundaries, but the current post-Quiet Revolution secessionist movement is premised on all kinds of bad faith. And not only is the fiscal imbalance argument the kind of dishonesty people will recognize from the American south (Quebec is actually gets a net fiscal gain from the federal government), it’s a fundamental part of many “sovereignty-association” schemes, which seem to involve Quebec retaining all powers except those that involve the ability of the federal government to transfer money to Quebec. There just aren’t any arguments about why secession is necessary that work without ethnic nationalism.

In response to Matt, I would say that the kind of social democracy advocated by the PQ is only half-appealing, particularly given the much different political context than the U.S. (even in Alberta, you can’t run against the fundamentals of single-payer.) The Quebec left supports the robuset European welfare model that I support, but also some elements of European dirigisme that I’m more more skeptical about. I will concede, though, that Dumont is pretty awful.

UPDATE: John dissents.