English and French Canadians have had one of the most complicated and intriguing relationships throughout all of history. Even though they share the prosperous country of Canada, they could not be more divided as a nation. Factors such as language, culture and political beliefs have separated these two vast majority of Canadians for a very long time. Throughout the last century, French-English relations have slightly improved over time, yet there is still an unstable peace between the two peoples. This will be clearly demonstrated throughout this essay, which will explore three critical time periods that changed French-English relations in Canada. Between the years 1914 and 1929, relations amongst the English and the French are shown to be very unstable and unpleasant, due to the events which occurred in that timeframe. Later on between the years 1930 and 1945, relations improved slightly because much was learned from the previous time period. In the years after, the unstable peace and division between French and English Canada, even to this day, was established.
In the years between 1914 and 1929, relations between French and English Canada were shown to be very unpleasant, due to events which occurred throughout the time frame. To begin with, the conscription crisis of 1917 brought upon hostility and division between French and English Canada. The conscription crisis occurred when the federal government of Canada, as well as Canada’s Prime minister at the time, Sir Robert
The focus of this investigation will be “To what extend did the conflict between cultures and all they contain (languages, traditions, races) fuel the formation of the Canadian Confederation?” and will analyze how the different cultures, races, languages, and traditions fueled the formation of the Canadian confederation. There are a variety of reasons why the Canadian confederation formed, but I believe the conflict between the different cultures in Canada was a very large cause in the formation of the Confederation. I will research the specific conflicts in culture that were occurring in Canada pre-Confederation. How these conflicts affected the current government and life in Canada. Why Canadian leaders saw these conflicts as a reason to
The French empire had a slow start in starting their expansion in the New World (Brands 20). It first started out with Giovanni da Verrazzano, then a failed attempt with Jacques Cartier in 1524, and finally a successful journey was made in 1608 by Samuel de Chaplain (Brands 20 & PowerPoint). With the cold weather, it was hard for the French who established themselves in Quebec (founded by Chaplain) to find enough animals with thick furs to supply the demand of furs. Instead of isolating, and eliminating the Native Americans like the English did, the French took a different approach. The French saw Native Americans as allies, starting the trading business of
Firstly, the Conscription Crisis of 1942 provoked conflict between the French and English Canadians, but also changed Canadian identity positively during the 1940s. Ever since World War ll began and Canada joined the war the French Canadians highly opposed to the idea of conscription; “[...]English-Canadians, who were mostly in favour of conscription, and French-Canadians, who were strongly opposed.” To begin with, the prime minister of Canada at the time, Mackenzie King had acknowledged the great disagreement the French Canadians had against conscription and made a promise to the nation: “King’s government [...] had promised the nation, and particularly Quebec, that it would not send any conscripts to serve overseas.” The last thing that King wanted to do was to impose conscription especially when Quebec strongly believed in anti-conscription: “The Quebec ministers kept a strong vigil over King's anti-conscription predisposition, reminding him of the terrible divisiveness of the World War 1
Though the separatist movements came very close to achieving their goal, the steady actions of PM Chrétian show a change in attitude towards French Canadians in within the country. The fact that Chrétian managed to succeed in keeping Quebec from separating further proves that the perspective of cultural differences in Canada started to develop for the better. The language rights within Canada add depth to the sincere maturity and growth that Canada has experienced in the years after WWII. Some direct impacts were the immediate enactments of French policies within the federal government, and indirectly the language rights reduced tension within all of Canada and mainly Quebec. Over the years, language rights have helped the country learn to blend itself back into a bilingual nation of acceptance and diversity. Canada, during the years after WWII, managed to stop the cultural bond between the French and the English from further deteriorating and helped to repair previous bruises by accepting Quebec’s ideas and beliefs, by enacting language rights, and through Chrétian’s active attendance to maintaining the balance between French and English
Some Canadians think that our history with everyone, including the French was all peaceful and perfect. It must have been all “rainbows and butterflies” and life could not have been bad. Although the French is fine with the English now, back in the period of 1914 to 2000, relations were strained. It was as if the French wanted to fight against the English for what the French wanted. French-English relations in Canada over the past century were controversial over conscription, the October Crisis, and the 1992 and 1995 Referendum.
question on Quebec nationalism in 1980. In looking to establish the long term effects of how
It is a well known fact that through Canadian history, English and French Canadians did not get along very well. French and English Canadians had many differences throughout history, and as time got closer to the 21st century, situations between these two groups of people got worse and worse. Their main differences, as seen in the visual component of my CPT, were usually around times of war, when conscription was a very big topic. However, we cannot forget the post World War II situations that caused Canada to change forever. Therefore, the top three events that really caused transformations in relations of French and English Canadians were the conscription crisis of 1917, the Union Nationale of the 1930s, and the Official Languages Act of
Once the Military Service Act was put in place, the problems began that made the Conscription Crisis of 1917 so significant. Almost immediately Quebec anti-conscription riots broke out all over Montreal. The province of Quebec was totally opposing the fact of serving in World War One. The fact that forcing young men to fight and die was thought to be an outrage in Quebec. Never minding the fact that the Canadian Corps was nearly in Complete English. During the riots nearly forty percent of the Québécois conscripted men did not report for their duty in the war. The views French-Canadian's between the majorities of the English Canadian's were basically utterly opposed to each other causing the relations between the two the lowest ever within Canadian history. In both the elections of 1917 and 1921 seventy percent of the Quebec Population voted liberal for the loss of trust from the conservatives due to this event. "The 1917 Election was the most bitter in Canadian history, viciously fought on both sides"- said
Nationalism is an important aspect of national pride and identity for countries around the world. For example, Canada takes pride in its cultural identity, one that is claimed to be different from other ‘Western’ more ‘industrialized’ nations, such as countries in Europe, and the United States. Even though Canada currently has a national identity that differs greatly from that of other more established countries, history has dictated the way in which a particular national identity exists today. In Canada, Samuel De Champlain and the French established colonies that created a cultural clash between the French Europeans, and First-Nations Canadians within the country. However, this notion of French Canadian Nationalism isn’t necessarily embraced by all of the Canadian Population. This paper seeks to analyze important pieces of Canadian History that have contributed to a broken concept of what constitutes Canadian nationalism, with an emphasis on how historic events prevent and affect coherent Canadian Nationalism in modern society. Through the analysis of the notions and histories associated with ‘First-Nations Nationalism’, ‘Quebecois Nationalism’, and a broader ‘Anti-American’ identity embraced by many Canadians, this paper seeks to locate common ground within the culturally diverse Canadian population in order to progress toward a singular coherent
In Canadian history, nationalism and sovereignty tend to be common themes prevalent since Confederation. A well-known example of this in Quebec was during the Quiet Revolution which strengthened the need for change through Premier Lesage’s reforms and in turn, developed a strong sense of nationalism in Quebec. In contrast to beliefs that the rapid modernization of the Quiet Revolution had a positive impact on Quebec, it rather had a negative impact on Quebec and its citizens and identity. The three consequences which arose in Quebec as a result of the revolution are the encouragement of separatism, the elimination of traditional values and roles and the establishment of powerful bureaucratic control. Quebec’s attempt to be more like the
Due to the bitter rivalries of their mother countries, the two sides also had a strong feels of animosity against one another. This animosity was furthered when the French surrendered New France. This cession of French territory to the British occurred after the French and Indian Wars of the mid 18th century; specifically after the treaty of Paris in February 20th of 1763. The essential annexation brought about much anger within the French. This was illustrated during the highlights of the Patriote movement (the rebellions of 1837 and 1838) and the secession of New France to become British. These events, along with prior rivalry with Britain and its colonies brought forth a substantial amount of Francophone nationalism. Though the rebellion was also caused by famine and poverty on some level, it was the strong French nationalism was the spark that brought about Canada’s first “civil war.”
This is when the Quiet revolution began, and “Quebec’s cultural renaissance”(4) took place(4). This renaissance was “celebrated through, novels, poetry, art, dance, and movies”(4). This time period was when the french peoples of Canada began celebrating and expressing their culture. The french canadians moved from just existing as french to showing off why they thought their culture was so unique. During this time they hosted the 1976 summer Olympics as they tried to become an international city(2). As Quebec expressed their culture so intensely they soon wanted to separate themselves from the rest of Canada. Despite the diverse culture, in 1995 the people of Quebec voted no to a “sovereignty referendum”(4, pg.175). Over the last twenty years Canada as a whole has recognized the uniqueness and the benefits of being a bilingual
The 1950s and 1960s were widely recognized as the second “Golden Age” after the 1920s. However, it is questioned whether it really was a period of growth and stability for all the citizens of Canada. Many French Canadians have brought up the question about if their rights and needs were properly recognized by Canada during this time period. The needs of French Canadians were met to an extent by Canada in the 1950s and 1960s because of the inclusion of their culture, the economic standing of French Canadians, and the unification of Canada as a country.
In the midst of the October Crisis Pierre Trudeau handled the time of terrorism well. In this essay one will see how Trudeau handled the crisis excellently by examining the first domestic use of the War Measures Act which led to improvements on the Act, ensuring that Quebec did not become its own independent country, and how Canada stood behind and supported Quebec and Pierre Trudeau through the acts of violence led by the FLQ.
It is no secret that French-English relations in Canada have been strained in the past and still are – albeit to a lesser extent.