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It Takes Two to...Divorce and Remarry
- Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 12, Number 3, July 1977
- pp. 24-32
- Article
- Additional Information
It Takes Two to...Divorce and Remarry* DANIEL LATOUCHE Four months after the November 15th election the Canadian federation has once more found itself a niche on the banks of the unthinkable. Things would never be the same was the unanimous verdict after the PQ victory. Four months later the main danger lies not so much in the changes that have already or will eventually come 1 about than in those traditional mental habits and stereotyped reactions that have managed to survive the great shock of November. Things look pretty much the same now as they did six months ago and there lies the danger. . Of course the situation is somewhat more uncomfortable this time than during previous "crises". It is not so much that we have moved closer to the brink, but that the crevice is wider and deeper. It used to be that Canadians would look forward in time for solutions and Quebecoisl backward for comfort. The roles have been inverted and it is now the Quebecois who have a host of solutions to choose from. Survivance has switched sides. Canadians now talk of the survival of Canada in the same way as traditional French Canadian thinkers thought of la survivance de la race fram;aise en Amerique. For French Canada, the Church was presented as the best defender of the nation. Today Canadians seem willing to accord the same role to the federal structure. Autres temps, autres moeurs, but the same defensive reflexes. But as they look to the past, Canadians will find it to be irrelevant while the Quebecois will find the future rich in possibilities but short on practicalities. In fact since November, both groups have been condemned to live in a continuous present which has finally caught up with all of us. We are no longer a country with a great past and an even greater future. We are stuck with a present from which there is no escape. Apparently the Quebecois are adjusting to this new situation with less pain than their fellow Canadians. Few· in Quebec, except of course in the anglophone 24 business community, are in a real hurry to find and implement definite solutions, probably because an uncertain future provides Quebecois with more leverage in future negotiations. Neither of the two major parties in Quebec has any interest in moving too soon. The PQ has a program and a leader but no clear idea on how it wants the referendum organized, while the Quebec Liberals have made up their minds on the referendum but have no leader and no program. For the PQ, the date of the referendum depends to some extent on the kind of leader chosen by the Liberals while the latter wait for the debate on the referendum to start before choosing a leader. As for the Union nationale, it needs the time in order to build up its claim as a middle-of-the-road alternative. The difference in reaction between Quebec and Canada is easy to understand. This is the first time since the American invasions of two centuries ago that there is a serious threat to the Canadian "space". The whole idea of Canada is based on the control of the northern portion of North America. A mare usque ad mare is the official motto of the country. Canada has always been space-oriented while Quebec, having lost control over its space ' in 1760, has been more time-oriented (La survivance , Je me souviens). For the Quebecois, Time - which was first a refuge - has become an ally in the struggle to recover control over this space. For Canada time is the enemy. The fact that Quebecois and Canadians are not in the same mental time-zone (were they ever?) renders more pressing than ever the need - not for dialogue, we have had too much dialogue in the past - but for both groups to at least try to communicate to one another their respective monologues. We do not have the time or the conceptual blocks to theorize about the present situation. The debate has already started. What we need is a set of rules on how to conduct this debate. The number of people proposing...