National Identification in English Canada: Implications for Québec Independence

National Identification in English Canada: Implications for Quebec Independence R.A. YOUNG In 1972, when the research reported in this paper was undertaken, it seemed very important to understand how English Canadians conceived of their country. At that time, Quebec independence appeared possible and potentially desirable, but no reasonable person could fully endorse it, were the inevitable reaction to be repression more severe than that which Quebeckers may sense within the federation. This reaction would be shaped, largely, by English Canadians' sense of national identification.1 The question was whether Quebec independence was conceivable for English Canada.2 Such mass attitudinal factors are rarely critical in the operation and study of federations. Reference is generally made to them in theories as underlying or residual factors, while the more accessible institutional, political and social characteristics are relied upon to explain the dynamics of federal states.3 When federations are first forming and when they are disintegrating, attitudinal factors (or 'political culture[s] ') are granted considerably more theoretical weight.4 In 1977, with an independentist government in place in Quebec, English Canadian national identification is still important. The nature and distribution of the attitudes reported here may set the bounds of what political elites can fruitfully propose in reaction to the event. Moreover, with an understanding of the way the components of English Canadian attitudes fit together, one may predict public response to bargaining stances and to new events and so attempt to promote a supportive climate of opinion and avoid creating a disruptive one. Despite the fact that the attitudes analyzed here were isolated some time ago, they are still essentially valid, I believe, for much effort was taken to ensure that the research would turn up fundamental attitudes which change only Journal ofCanadian Studies under the impact of great events or over the course of many years. I. Methodology (i) The notion of national identification necessarily entails nothing more than two elements, the self and the country, which are inter-related. As such, it implies neither consensus nor loyalty, but only a relation in which we can speak of the meaning of the social object for the subjects. When such meanings are common to a group of subjects, they are social meanings with the influence of currency: they do not merely reflect the object but actually help constitute it as people act and interact with expectations based on these meanings.5 Hence, such meanings do not inhere in the subject or the social object, but in the field between them. The structure of this field is an attitude - an enduring framework which shapes and accommodates new information and which underlies and structures isolated opinions.6 For the most part, individuals will be unconscious of the attitudes they share and they must be inferred by the observer from behaviour or expressed opinions. The behaviour of 'beingin -Canada' is too diffuse to permit inference, so .subjects were interviewed. Two considerations were paramount. In case no single attitude was uniformly shared, it was necessary to contact a sample of sufficient size and diversity to isolate different attitudes and perhaps to estimate their distribution. On the other hand, since the analysis would involve an induction from the subjects' comments and opinions to the deeper attitudes which inform them, it was essential that the subjects' own concepts be free to emerge. Only then could inference proceed from a base uncontaminated by research or interviewer effects.7 The second consideration predominated, as it is useless to estimate reliably the distribution of invalid attitudes.s Accordingly, no hypotheses were framed in advance , no formal questionnaire was used and the interviewer was not identified as such. Instead subjects were contacted by a curious stranger wherever people can meet and talk - in trains, bus stations, private cars, exhibitions, laundromats , restaurants, bars, union halls, malls, and 69 parks.9 Once rapport was established and the respondent speaking freely - and most people will say a great deal to an attentive listener - the 'questionnaire' consisted of short comments, encouraging grunts and the occasional probing question. With the respondent unconstrained, ·not only can his concepts and opinions emerge, but the researcher can estimate the actual importance of the topic for him and, through...