A Nation at Last, As If It Really Matters

Earlier today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons and proposed to recognize the Quebecois as a nation within Canada. The other two federalist parties ( the Liberals and the NDP) agreed with him that the Quebecois are a nation within the Canadian state. The Bloc Quebecois, on the other hand, seemed miffed that the federalists included that pesky "within Canada" limitation on the recognition.

Supposedly this is a big thing, perhpas even historic in nature. After all, Quebec separatism is predicated on the idea that the Quebecois form a unique nation. I am not sure it really is a big thing, though.

As a citizen of what some have described as the world's first post-nation state, it seems to me that the question of nationhood is rather outdated. Canada is a country, not a nation. We are a community of communities, rather than a homogeneous enclave with a single ethnicity, a single religion, and a single culture. The same can be said for Mali, for Australia, for Costa Rica, and for France.

It is definitely the case for the modern Quebec where multilingual Montrealers speak sentences that mix French, English, and other languages with ease. Quebec is no longer the homogeneous conservative Catholic society that it was in the years before the cultural revolution. It may be true that Quebeckers identify themselves in narrower terms than most Canadians do as citizens of a province, but then again, Vancouverites take pride in their unique identity as do citizens of my own beloved Hog Town.

Recognizing Quebec as a nation is a nice way of saying "We recognize that you are special, with a unique history", but does it really mean much in practical terms? I guess we will find that out in the months and years to come. I am sure that the separatists will continue to press for independence, even though the world seems to be becoming more integrated than ever before in the empire of global capitalism.

Perhaps that makes the Quebecois the Luddites of Canada. Demands for a separate nation state may just be the last ditch gasp of a society of diehard romantics, a society in which the nation is more important than the state.