Forging a True Federal Spirit: The Repudiation of the Myth of Québec’s 'Radical Difference'

RECONQUERING CANADA: QUEBEC FEDERALISTS SPEAK UP FOR CHANGE, pp. 29-74, André Pratte, ed., Douglas & MacIntyre, 2008

46 Pages Posted: 29 Jan 2011

See all articles by Jean Leclair

Jean Leclair

Université de Montréal - Faculty of Law

Date Written: April 27, 2008

Abstract

If there exists one recurrent theme in the Québec, and indeed Canadian, political universe, it has to be the centralization of powers by the Federal Government. However only in Québec is this phenomenon referred to as the implementation of a unitary, not to say imperial political regime, a regime which could lead to the complete dissolution of Québec’s cultural identity within the Canadian identity.

In the paper, the author attempts to identify the foundation on which is based this paranoid understanding of Canadian federalism (in a word: the subordination of federalism to the dictates of nationalism), and to explain why the Supreme Court’s generous interpretation of federal powers will not lead to the forecasted apocalypse (A). He also demonstrates in this first part why the legitimate exercise of its powers by the federal government is not automatically synonymous with the “defeat” of Quebec, as certain influential Québec nationalists think.

He then examines what cultivating a “federal spirit” would really mean for Quebecers (B). Keeping in mind that Quebecers twice rejected democratically the eventual separation from Canada, it behoves them, along with the rest of Canada, constructively to reflect upon the federal structure to which they are still committed. Indeed, the 1980 and 1995 referendum results should at least mean that, although not fully satisfied, Quebecers still have not entirely repudiated federalism as a political system. The author then discusses what embracing a federal spirit would actually mean to Anglo-Canadians (C).

Finally, briefly comparing the Canadian federation to its American counterpart, which has incontestably moved towards a radical centralization, the author identifies the social, economic and institutional factors which have acted, and will continue to act, in Canada, as obstacles to unbridled centralization of federal powers (D).

Keywords: Federalism, Canada, Quebec, methodological nationalism, Supreme court of Canada, judicial review, Tocqueville, federal spirit, federal theory, United States

Suggested Citation

Leclair, Jean, Forging a True Federal Spirit: The Repudiation of the Myth of Québec’s 'Radical Difference' (April 27, 2008). RECONQUERING CANADA: QUEBEC FEDERALISTS SPEAK UP FOR CHANGE, pp. 29-74, André Pratte, ed., Douglas & MacIntyre, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1749486

Jean Leclair (Contact Author)

Université de Montréal - Faculty of Law ( email )

Montreal, Quebec H3C 3J7
Canada
514.343.7487 (Phone)
514.343.2199 (Fax)

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