Keywords Lower Canada & Quebec

The Late 19th Century
For a long time, writers concerned with Québec's development characterized it as a traditional society, largely closed to the changes occurring elsewhere in North America, and described Québec as a peasant society, emphasizing its stability, arguing that at bottom its characteristics changed little between the 18th and mid-20th centuries. In the 1960s, however, new historical research began to show that Québec was a much more complex society, constantly evolving and with phases of apparent stability between periods of rapid transformation. Québec participated in the major developments that characterized the Atlantic world between 1815 and 1930: large-scale population movements and increasing industrialization and urbanization, in which respects the second half of the 19th century was a pivotal period.

Demographic Changes
This can be seen first by looking at developments in demography. The ethnic composition of Québec's population changed significantly over the 19th century. Heavy immigration to Québec from the British Isles occurred between 1815 and 1860; in 1867 a quarter of Québec's 1.2 million people traced their roots to the British Isles (mostly to Ireland) while three-quarters were of French origin. Around 1870, however, this large wave of immigration ended.

Meanwhile, French Canadians were also increasing rapidly in number because of their high birth rate. In Québec's older rural areas they soon became too numerous and farmers' children had to look for jobs elsewhere. A French Canadian who wanted to be a farmer had to go to a distant colonization zone in Québec where the soil was typically poor and living conditions were difficult. The colonist was isolated and the deficiencies of his marginal farm forced him to work in the forest as a lumberjack to make ends meet. Few rural Quebeckers were attracted by the new colonization regions, and most, regarding even the long hours of factory work as preferable to the life of a colonist, went to urban areas instead.

The textile mills of New England needed cheap and plentiful labour, which they found in the Québec countryside. In the late 19th century immigration to the US became a mass movement (see FRANCO-AMERICANS); it is estimated that between 1850 and 1930, almost a million French Canadians left Québec for American destinations. The rural population surplus also stimulated the emergence of industries in Québec itself. This was one of numerous reasons for the growth of industry in Québec, others being the expansion of the Canadian domestic market, railway construction and the Canadian government's economic policies - especially the protective tariff of 1879 (see NATIONAL POLICY).

Industrialization
Industrialization in Québec during this period occurred in two stages. The first, in the mid-19th century, was concentrated primarily in Montréal. That city's industrial structure was also strengthened in the second stage, in the 1880s, but during this period industry grew in many small and mid-sized cities and towns as well, especially Québec City and the urban centres of the Eastern Townships.

Industrialization in Québec was based mainly on light manufacturing, employing plentiful, underpaid labour and producing goods for immediate consumption, such as shoes, textiles and food. There was also some heavy industry, linked mostly to the transportation sector and concentrated in Montréal.

Industrialization increased the process of urbanization, and by the end of the 19th century a third of all Quebeckers lived in cities and towns. The most significant urban and industrial growth took place in Montréal, where half of Québec's industrial production was concentrated and almost a quarter of all Quebeckers lived in 1901.

Nevertheless, the majority of Québec's population was still in rural areas, where subsistence was beginning to yield to more commercial forms of agriculture. The farmers were weaned from their traditional attachment to grain cultivation and started to concentrate on dairy farming and the production of more specialized, market-oriented commodities. This change took place slowly, and its pace varied widely from region to region.

As a result of the period's economic growth, a new bourgeoisie emerged. Unlike the bourgeoisie of the previous period, whose interests were purely commercial, this class also invested in transportation, the financial sector and industrial corporations. It was drawn overwhelmingly from the English and Scottish groups, and was concentrated in Montréal, Canada's leading economic centre. It controlled the major economic institutions that operated Canada-wide, such as the powerful BANK OF MONTREAL (founded 1817). French Canadians were almost completely absent from the upper level of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, however, there arose a class of French-speaking businessmen with a much more local or regional economic base. They actively exercised a share of political power in Québec and established specifically French-speaking institutions, eg, banks, business periodicals and chambers of commerce.

Industrialization also led to the formation of a working class. In Montréal, Québec City and the smaller industrial centres, Quebeckers who had left farms to become workers lived under difficult conditions: low wages, long working hours, poor housing conditions, a high death rate and widespread seasonal unemployment. French-Canadian workers had the fewest skills and had to be satisfied with the lowest-paying jobs. This was especially true of women, whose numbers were increasing in the textile, clothing, shoe and tobacco industries. The growing importance of the working class was confirmed by the rise of the labour movement in the 1880s and 1890s (see WORKING-CLASS HISTORY). The trade union movement quickly became dominated by 2 American organizations, the KNIGHTS OF LABOR and the American Federation of Labor, which established affiliates in Canada. During this period, only a small proportion of Québec's workers - primarily the most highly skilled ones - belonged to these unions.

This period was marked politically by the domination of the Conservative Party which, except for brief intervals, held power in both Ottawa and Québec. After the death of George-Étienne CARTIER in 1873, the party was gradually eroded by quarrels between its ULTRAMONTANE and moderate wings. Between 1867 and 1897 Québec had 10 premiers: 8 Conservatives, including P.J.O. CHAUVEAU (1867-73) and J.A. CHAPLEAU (1879-82), and 2 Liberals, one of whom was Honoré MERCIER (1887-91).

The Roman Catholic Church (see CATHOLICISM) was a powerful social force. It controlled the public education system, and through its network of parishes and religious associations it exercised tight control over people's morals. The rapid numerical growth of the clergy and religious communities, starting in the mid-19th century, was evidence of the church's vitality and its power in society. Nevertheless the church was not ubiquitous and all-powerful. Despite its success in the social and cultural spheres, it was less effective in the political and economic realms. The clergy did not have the power to stop industrialization or immigration to the US. And although the clergy did try to dominate Québec's politicians, to the point of supporting the formation of a Catholic party in 1871, it was unable to control government institutions. Many priests were openly hostile to the Liberal Party, but the Liberals, under federal leader Wilfrid LAURIER and provincial leader Honoré Mercier, followed a strategy of softening their radicalism and increased their support among the population.

Although rural life was still a major feature of late 19th-century Québec, the province's social and economic development was parallel to that of other parts of North America that were becoming industrialized. There were still significant differences of language and culture between Québec and the rest of the continent. In addition, French Canadians were not masters of Québec's economic development; they occupied a secondary economic position and were much more likely to be workers than employers.

1896-1930
In the first 30 years of the 20th century, Québec experienced strong economic growth, and the pace of change that had marked the previous period quickened. Industrialization and urbanization continued: by WWI half the population lived in cities and towns, and this proportion grew to 60% by 1931.

Bourassa, Henri
Founder of Le Devoir and opponent of Canadian involvement in foreign military adventures, Bourassa inspired the growth of a vigorous nationalism in Québec (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-27360/Henri Bourassa Coll).

At the same time the Québec countryside was being changed by a new kind of industrialization based on the exploitation of natural resources. Industries linked to hydroelectric and forest resources (pulp and paper, aluminum, chemicals) developed quickly in former colonization zones, such as the St Maurice Valley and the Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean region. Emigration to the US slowed, although it remained substantial until the 1930s.

As concentration in the industrial and banking sectors increased early in the century, economic power increasingly became centralized in the hands of a few Montréal capitalists, almost all of them English Canadian; the French-Canadian bourgeoisie was reduced to a marginal position and increasingly limited to local institutions and traditional sectors. However, it maintained a strong political presence, especially at the provincial level.

But the vast majority of French Canadians could choose only farming or factory work. The situation of Québec farmers improved as the trend towards specialization and market orientation continued up to WWI. In the 1920s Québec farmers tended to come out of their traditional isolation and join together in associations and co-operatives (see UNITED FARMERS OF QUEBEC; CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT).

In the cities and towns, French-Canadian workers had to compete with a new wave of immigrants who came increasingly from continental Europe. The largest ethnic group that was neither French nor British consisted of eastern European Jews, and Italians were a distant second. In the second half of the 19th century, the proportion of French Canadians in Québec's population had increased from 75% to 80%, and it remained at this level through the early part of the 20th century. The proportion represented by the British group, however, declined to 15% by 1931, while people of neither French nor British origin accounted for almost 6%. At the same time, ethnic diversity was a phenomenon that was increasingly limited to the Island of Montréal, where people of French origin represented approximately 60% of the population.

As they had in the late 19th century, French-Canadian politicians and businessmen strongly supported Québec's industrial development. The provincial Liberal Party, in power from 1897 to 1936, was solidly behind big business and the entry of American capital in the new resource-based industries. Premiers F.G. MARCHAND (1897- 1900), S.N. PARENT (1900-05), Jean-Lomer GOUIN (1905-20) and L.A. TASCHEREAU (1920-36) all pursued programs of modernization. However, a group of intellectuals and members of the liberal professions, led in turn by Henri BOURASSA and Abbé Lionel GROULX and calling themselves nationalists, reacted by trying to resist rapid industrialization, and especially the sale of natural resources to foreigners.

The nationalists' opposition to large-scale industrialization received considerable support from the Catholic clergy, which was alarmed at the massive rural exodus and the rapid urbanization of the population. However, the clergy was not rejecting outright a process over which it had no control; instead, it developed a new strategy of establishing organizations to make it possible to dominate the new economic and social order from within. For example, the clergy promoted the establishment of Catholic unions, which were especially active in Québec's smaller industrial towns. However, these new unions largely failed to take root in Montréal, and, despite clerical support, only a quarter of all unionized workers in Québec belonged to Catholic unions in the late 1920s, the great majority remaining with the big US-based international unions.

Liberal and Traditionalist Ideologies
Throughout the period, 2 opposing conceptions of Québec society confronted each other. The first, which can be called the liberal ideology, was upheld by businessmen and most politicians. Emphasizing economic growth and the idea of progress, it placed a high value on the individual and free enterprise. Its representatives believed that the well-being of the nation would flow from the individual progress of its members, and that economic growth was the only road Québec could take. Since they took the position that individual progress would lead to collective progress, they also believed that better education was the path to an improved economic situation. At the same time, they favoured modernizing Québec's economic and social structures.

Opposed to the liberal ideology was the deeply traditionalist clerical-nationalist ideology, which suggested that the French-Canadian collectivity would achieve national well-being by withdrawing into itself and returning to rural life and traditional French-Canadian and Catholic values. Upheld by nationalist intellectuals and many clergymen, this ideology was opposed to almost everything foreign. It was forcefully expressed in a number of publications and in sermons and speeches. It was much more explicit and more fully articulated than was the liberal ideology, and hence historians and sociologists long maintained that it was Québec's dominant ideology. However, the real situation was much more complex. Despite the resistance of clerical-nationalist ideologues, industrialization continued and increasing numbers of Quebeckers left their farms to live in cities and towns. A return to traditional rural society was a dream that did not come true.

Socialist ideological currents were very important in Europe at the time, but they occupied only a marginal position in Québec. Some representatives of the labour movement became involved in politics through the Parti ouvrier, but they were closer in their thinking to the British Labour Party than to European socialists.

The rise of Québec nationalism, moreover, posed the question of Québec's place in Confederation. While Laurier was prime minister, French Canadians felt that they held some power. In fact, they witnessed the reduction of their educational and linguistic rights throughout various parts of the country, despite the vigorous battles fought by the nationalists. The nationalists' real political setback, however, the election of a Conservative government to Ottawa in 1911 - and especially the CONSCRIPTION crisis of 1917 - served to highlight the isolation of Québec, which henceforth bound its fortunes to those of the Liberal Party.

1930-45
The GREAT DEPRESSION of the 1930s appeared to be a partial vindication of the clergy and the nationalist intellectuals who had long been predicting that the liberal model of society would fail. The area of Québec most seriously affected was Montréal. Because Montréal was Canada's leading port, it suffered substantial unemployment when international trade and Canadian exports collapsed. In addition, its industries were hurt as a result of decreased domestic consumption. Montréal teemed with tens of thousands of unemployed people living on public assistance.

All over Canada, traditional solutions based largely on private charity proved inadequate to cope with the Depression. Governments had to intervene. Provincial governments were overwhelmed and appealed to Ottawa, which participated financially in assisting the unemployed. This intervention by the federal government in social policy led to a rethinking of Canadian federalism in the form of the Rowell-Sirois Commission. It also marked the beginning of a long process of centralization favouring the federal government, which had a considerable impact on Québec.

WWII, during which Ottawa intervened extensively in economic management, played a determining role in this respect. During the Depression and the war, the idea of more systematic government intervention, based on Keynesian economic policies, was gradually accepted. In a federal system such as Canada's, however, such a development raised a fundamental question: which level of government should be in charge of the regulatory instruments that were established? In general, English Canadians came to believe that this was properly the responsibility of the federal government, which should provide for equality of opportunity from coast to coast.

By contrast, most French-speaking political thinkers and politicians in Québec were opposed to concentrating power in Ottawa's hands in this way, on the grounds that it threatened the autonomy that French Canadians had gained through the existence of a provincial government over which they had majority control. The question seemed especially complicated in Québec's case because most Québec representatives in Ottawa, the Liberals who were in power from 1935 to 1957, supported federal centralization. During the war the federal government could impose its own solution, but once the war was over the issue reappeared, as vexatious as ever. As a result, the recent history of Québec - and of Canada as a whole - has been marked by federal-provincial struggles.

In the economic disorder brought about by the Depression, there were many challenges to the prevailing political and social system. Although communist and socialist groups grew substantially in Canada during the 1930s, they had little success in recruiting French Canadians, among whom left-wing traditions were very weak. In Québec, only immigrants and English-speaking intellectuals in Montréal were attracted to these groups. Among French Canadians, nationalist and traditionalist movements enjoyed new popularity instead, and new groups emphasizing nationalism and corporatism (such as the ACTION LIBÉRALE NATIONALE and, later, theBLOC POPULAIRE CANADIEN) had considerable success at the ballot box.

Their success was short-lived, however, as the ideological effervescence of the 1930s was calmed by the war. In Québec the war was synonymous with a return to prosperity and full employment. Quebeckers actually profited from the war - although they were reluctant to pay the price for their new prosperity. Thousands of French Canadians joined the Canadian Army to fight in Europe, but in its culture and operation the Canadian Army was a profoundly anglophone institution and held little attraction for French-speaking Quebeckers. Nationalist leaders portrayed the war as something foreign that did not concern French Canadians, so that intense resistance to Canadian military participation in Europe, and especially to conscription, developed in Québec.

In 1942 Ottawa held a Canada-wide plebiscite on the question of conscription. An overwhelming majority of Quebeckers voted against compulsory military service, whereas a majority of English Canadians in the other provinces voted in favour of it; a deep national cleavage ensued.

The war also had highly significant long-term social consequences, which manifested themselves both concretely and in attitudes. Quebeckers who served in Europe came into contact with different cultures and ways of life. Thousands of women worked in factories as part of the war production system, and even though many returned to traditional family life after the war, this exposure had long-term effects. But the impact of the war was probably felt most strongly by rural Quebeckers. They were increasingly integrated into the industrial capitalist economy, as many of them left the countryside to work in factories while others introduced changes that made their farms much more productive. Meanwhile, war propaganda, the increasing availability of radio and improved communications all tended to bring rural Quebeckers into the broad current of modernization that had been felt in Québec for several decades but had not reached all parts of the province in equal measure.

The Duplessis Era, 1945-60
After the war Québec entered another period of rapid economic growth. This was conspicuous in the natural resource sector, where it was stimulated by American demand. Its most spectacular manifestation was the opening up of the North Shore of the St Lawrence and the far north of the province, Nouveau Québec, to mining development. But growth was also visible in the manufacturing and service sectors. Québec underwent a new wave of urbanization, its standard of living improved substantially, and Quebeckers had greater access to the consumer society. Rural exodus speeded up and by 1960 farmers were a small minority of Québec's economically active population.

Québec's population grew substantially. The number of births increased and remained at a high level until the early 1960s. Immigration, which had almost stopped in the 1930s and during the war, resumed. The many newcomers came from the British Isles as before, but also - and in greater numbers - from southern Europe, especially Italy. Montréal became even more cosmopolitan, and by 1961 Italian Quebeckers constituted the largest ethnic group of neither French nor British origin.

Economic growth also had significant social effects. It brought about the rise of a new middle class made up of highly skilled workers, executives, managers and teachers. This group increasingly favoured a modernization of the social and political structures of Québec, in which traditionalism and social control by the church played too large a role. The gap between socioeconomic reality and the needs of the population on the one hand, and the traditionalism that characterized Québec's institutions and structures on the other, was increasingly evident.

Throughout the postwar period the Québec government was dominated by the UNION NATIONALE Party under Maurice DUPLESSIS. Maintained in power by Québec's most traditional elements, political corruption and an outdated electoral map, Duplessis ran a conservative, narrow-minded government with a traditionalist vision of society. While the need for a wide range of reforms was even more strongly felt, the Union Nationale effectively delayed them.

The Duplessis government used Québec nationalism to justify its policies. Its nationalism was traditionalist and conservative, emphasizing the classic themes of religion, language and the rural character of French Canada. It resisted the federal government in the name of provincial autonomy. At the same time, the federal government represented a new and reform-oriented brand of liberalism which attracted many young French-Canadian intellectuals, who described this period as the era of the "Great Darkness." Moreover, the federal government was led by a French Canadian, Louis ST. LAURENT, who had strong backing from the Québec electorate. Thus, much of that electorate simultaneously supported 2 first ministers of opposing orientations.

The Duplessis period was especially difficult for the trade union movement, which came into conflict with the anti-union policies of the government. A number of strikes, especially the ASBESTOS STRIKE of 1949, had wide repercussions. There were also changes within the unions themselves: the Catholic unions became more secular and radical (see CONFEDERATION OF NATIONAL TRADE UNIONS; UNION CENTRALS, QUÉBEC), and the merger of the 2 American trade union congresses, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (see AFL-CIO), led to a similar reorganization among Québec affiliates.

The Quiet Revolution and After
Some of Québec society's institutions - especially the educational system, the social services and the administrative arm of the provincial government - were increasingly ill suited to the postwar world. When Duplessis died in 1959, it was the signal for the start of a new era, known as the QUIET REVOLUTION, which lasted roughly from 1960 to 1966. The political and ideological heritage of the Duplessis era was liquidated with a speed that indicated how little it corresponded to contemporary socioeconomic realities.

Lévesque, René
Lévesque founded the Parti Québécois, whose main objective was Québec sovereignty (Canapress).

But the 1960s and 1970s also evidenced the persistence of long-term trends in the development of Québec society. The effects of industrialization, urbanization and the growth of the service sector, all of which had been in process for a long time, were then fully felt. Other trends continued: a rising standard of living, the emergence of a new middle class and new elites, and a higher level of education.

While postwar prosperity brought benefits to Francophones, it also made them see much more clearly the extent of ethnic discrimination. In the workplace, French Canadians were limited to subordinate jobs, while in Montréal department stores and the public arena in general their language held second place to English.

A new form of nationalism emerged. Unlike Duplessis's nationalism, it was essentially reformist and demanded a change in Québec's position in Confederation. This new nationalism manifested itself in a number of different tendencies. There were the Liberals, who favoured greater autonomy for Québec but remained federalists; the independence movement, which grew in size and credibility during the 1960s; and the socialists, working within a newly strong trade union movement and in intellectual circles, who wanted to go beyond reformism.

Major struggles for power took place in Québec in the 1960s and 1970s between old and new elites and between Francophones and Anglophones. Especially noteworthy were battles over language, the economy and politics.

The struggle on the language front was aimed at having French, the language of the majority, fully recognized as Québec's primary language. One major objective was to integrate Quebeckers of neither French nor British origin into the French-speaking majority, and this engagement was fought on the battleground of the language of education. The goal of making Québec French was achieved in stages, and at each stage it encountered resistance from non-francophone groups.

In the late 1960s the language struggle was fought in the streets, but it later found its way into Québec's National Assembly and, more generally, into the forum of public debate. Three language laws were passed by 3 different provincial governments between 1969 and 1977. Step by step, these pieces of legislation increased the pressure in favour of French, widened its recognition as Québec's official language and made its use compulsory. The third of these laws, known as BILL 101 or the Charter of the French Language, went well beyond the educational field. It was aimed not only at bringing more children into French schools but also at making Québec a more francophone society, and dealt with corporations, professional services, public signs, etc. By 1980 French was spoken and recognized everywhere in the province. The Anglophones, nevertheless, retained their own institutions and their language rights as is guaranteed by the constitution.

Another struggle was over the question of economic power. One government objective was to introduce changes into the workplace so that French Canadians would have better jobs and career opportunities in the private sector. Another goal was to support and assist French-Canadian businessmen and the companies they owned so that they would grow and gain a larger share of the market. A third aim was to have large Canadian and international corporations which operated in the province take Québec's specific needs increasingly into account. And a final objective was to make the Québec government a major partner with private enterprise in Québec's economic development. In the 1960s and 1970s French Canadians made considerable economic progress.

The growth of new French-Canadian financial groups was significant, as was the increasing intervention of the Québec government in the economy through such publicly owned corporations as HYDRO-QUÉBEC and the CAISSE DE DÉPOT ET PLACEMENT. These successes, however, were counterbalanced by the weakening of Québec's economic position as the country's economic centre of gravity moved westward. Toronto replaced Montréal as Canada's metropolis and many companies moved their head offices or manufacturing operations to Ontario.

The third struggle was over political power within Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there were continuing attempts to increase Québec's influence in Confederation and to revamp the division of powers between the 2 levels of government. The Québec government's goal was to stem the tide of federal centralization and to make itself the government with primary responsibility for French Canadians. The debate over the Constitution was clearly one of the major themes of the 1960s and 1970s. It was marked by provocative statements and battles over protocol and appearance, and also by discussions, negotiations and federal-provincial conferences. Québec's firm self-assertion during the Quiet Revolution was followed by a period of federal resistance to the provinces' desire to increase their autonomy; the new federal stance became explicit when P.E. TRUDEAU came to power in Ottawa in 1968.

This long political conflict even had some violent episodes with the Front de libération du Québec and the OCTOBER CRISIS of 1970. It was nevertheless fought through the legal democratic system. It mobilized much of Québec's energy for 2 decades and culminated in 2 defeats for Québec: advocates of independence were the losers in the 1980 QUÉBEC REFERENDUM, and the adoption of the new Canadian Constitution in 1982 represented a defeat for those who supported a stronger Québec within Confederation. The political struggle led only to increased federal centralization and the confirmation of Québec's minority status in Confederation. In 1987 the MEECH LAKE ACCORD (see MEECH LAKE ACCORD: DOCUMENT) indicated a will to ease the tension and permitted Québec to accept fully the Constitution Act, 1982.

In fact, however, the position of Québec with respect to the federal government appeared to be improving. Under Trudeau (1968-79 and 1980-84) there were more Québecois than ever before in Cabinet, and federal institutions adopted a far more pronounced bilingual stance. But these circumstances depended on the influence of Québec representatives in the Liberal Party, and in the 1980s the number of Francophones in administrative posts remained low - particularly at the senior levels.

In addition, there were conflicts internal to French-Canadian society. The growing strength of the trade-union movement during the 1960s led in the next decade to serious confrontations between the major union federations and the provincial government. At the same time there were profound tensions within the new French-Canadian middle class, which had grown up gradually in the postwar period and occupied centre stage during the 1960s and 1970s. There was relative unanimity during the Quiet Revolution, but afterwards deep divisions appeared - politically, with the polarization between the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois, and socially, with the tensions between trade union leaders and provincial government administrators.

Although the province enjoyed a higher standard of living, serious inequalities continued to characterize Québec society. There were regional inequalities, as Montréal flourished while other regions remained underdeveloped, and social inequalities, as Québec's unemployment rate was substantially higher than the Canadian average and many of its citizens lived in poverty. Awareness of these problems was much greater in the 1960s and 1970s, and demands for a change in the situation were increasingly heard.

A Turbulent End of Century
The period of upheavals and rapid transformations which had characterized Québec since the start of the Quiet Revolution ended in the early 1980s. The following two decades were marked with uncertainty and turbulence as the ebb and flow of economic and political development evidenced sharp turnarounds.

Québec was hard hit by the recession of 1981-82. Recovery was slow but it finally took hold, allowing for strong growth in the second half of the decade. The good times abruptly ended with the severe depression of the early 1990s, and it was not before the middle of the decade that the economy gathered steam again. The effects of these major crises were compounded by the fundamental restructuring of the economy which had begun to take place before 1980 but whose consequences were now fully felt. Québec's traditional light manufacturing industries, based on the use of low-skilled cheap labour, were badly hurt by the new international competition. Numerous old plants closed, unemployment rose dramatically and great numbers of people were forced to go on welfare. There were signs of hope as the new economy, with its emphasis on leading-edge technology, took hold in the manufacturing and service sectors and fuelled economic growth. The adjustment process was nevertheless painful as the discarded workers could not easily find employment in the new highly skilled workplace. Buying power, which had steadily increased since the end of WWII, was now decreasing.

After 1980, despite those problems, Québec society harvested the benefits of the economic, educational and language policies adopted during the 2 previous decades. The rise of new generations of highly trained people transformed all walks of life. Women's participation in the workforce became much more significant as they made inroads in many previously male-dominated sectors. Generally speaking, Francophones also gained a much higher profile. In the large Canadian and American corporations operating in Québec, where they had long been confined to the lower ranks, they rapidly rose to prominent positions. Private enterprises owned by Francophones became much more numerous and powerful; some of them, such as Bombardier and QUEBECOR, achieved the status of multinational corporations.

Francophone entrepreneurs' successes shed new light on the role of the private sector and stirred questions about a cornerstone of Quiet Revolution policies: government intervention in the economy. This led to a drive for privatization and deregulation during the 1980s and 1990s. Ever-increasing deficits forced governments to cut expenses and to reduce the level of services offered by the welfare state. The pace of reductions accelerated in the mid-1990s, as the objective of a zero deficit was laid out for the end of the century.

Significant demographic changes also occurred. Since the late 1960s, the birth rate of people of French origin had steadily declined and now ranked among the lowest in the world, compromising the future growth of that group. The population of British origin declined sharply as a result of outmigration to other provinces. These factors contributed to the rise in importance of other minorities whose ranks were fuelled by immigration. These groups were also much more diverse in their origins, a result of the new immigration policies implemented since the late 1960s. Their presence was now officially acknowledged and recognized through the cultural communities policy, the Québec version of multiculturalism. Representatives from these groups held a larger sway in public debate and in politics. The political scene was characterized by back and forth movements between sovereignty and renewed federalism and between the Parti Québécois and the Liberal Party.

The referendum of 1980 and the patriation of the Canadian Constitution dealt a severe blow to the independence movement. Premier Lévesque proposed trying again the option of renewed federalism, a move which created a schism within the Parti Québécois. He resigned in 1985 and his successor, Pierre-Marc Johnson, lost the provincial election a few months later. The departure of Lévesque, and that of Prime Minister Trudeau the year before, marked the end of an era. Liberal Party leader Robert Bourassa, back in power as premier in 1985, joined forces with the new prime minister, Progressive Conservative Brian Mulroney. They attempted to solve the Québec-Canada wrangle by proposing new constitutional discussions. The ensuing Meech Lake Accord, which nominally recognized the distinct character of Québec, was drafted in 1987 but failed to get the constitutional approval of Newfoundland and Manitoba in 1990.

The failure of the Accord was widely resented in Québec and fuelled a renewed support for the idea of sovereignty. Bourassa then challenged the rest of Canada to come up with acceptable alternative proposals. But his strategy backfired. In 1992 he was compelled to accept the Charlottetown Accord, which was rejected by a majority of Quebeckers in a provincial referendum, as well as by the voters in 5 of the 9 other provinces. These events had 2 major political consequences. The first was the creation of a federal party devoted to the sovereignty of Québec: the Bloc Québécois, headed by Lucien Bouchard. In the federal elections of 1993, the Bloc swept the province and won 54 of the 75 seats, becoming the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The second consequence was the return to power of the Parti Québécois, now headed by Jacques Parizeau, who won the provincial election of 1994 against Daniel Johnson's Liberals. The PQ staged another referendum on sovereignty in 1995, which it lost by a slim margin. After the failed referendum, Lucien Bouchard replaced Parizeau as PQ chief and premier of Québec.

Support for sovereignty then dwindled. In the 1997 federal election the Bloc Québécois lost ground, the Reform Party taking over as Opposition. At the provincial level, Daniel Johnson resigned as leader of the Liberal Party in early 1998 and, after an extensive show of public support, Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest resigned his federal seat and agreed to take up the nomination to replace Johnson as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Federalists and Liberals counted on Charest to defeat Lucien Bouchard's PQ. Despite the ebb and flow, both parties have fought since the 1960s for a more definitive recognition of Québec's distinct character - be it within Confederation or outside of it. Both have conspicuously failed to get such a recognition from the rest of Canada.

Despite this setback, thanks to the impetus of the Quiet Revolution, Francophones were able to significantly improve their position within their own province and to shed the feeling of being second-class citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, Québec society has been transformed in major ways. Its evolution was not linear, but involved taking steps forward and back. There were winners and losers in the process and inequalities persisted. Continuing tensions show that Québec is a complex society and that its history cannot be explained in simplistic terms. Quebeckers themselves have been, and still are, far from unanimous in their interpretation of Québec's past, its future goals and its politics.

Author PAUL-ANDRÉ LINTEAU

Links to Other Sites
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
An extensive online collection of documents, portraits, maps, audio clips, and other archival material relating to the history of Québec.

The Quebec History Encyclopedia
An extensive information source about Québec history. Features texts from encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, anthologies, and other references that were published at least 50 years ago. Some articles in French. Produced by Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College.

Château Ramezay Museum
Explore the historic Château Ramezay located in Old Montreal. Check out the impressive timeline depicting Montreal’s history from prehistoric times to the present day.

New France, New Horizons
An informative and entertaining multimedia website about the founding and development of New France. Features abundant illustrations, documents and multimedia clips. A Canada/France collaboration.

Canada's Constitution
A comprehensive guide to resources about the evolution of Canada's Constitution. From the nelson.com website.

Review of the XXth century
Highlights of 20th century Québec history from the Government of Québec website.

Morrin Cultural centre - Heritage site
The Morrin Centre fosters English-speaking culture in Quebec City and encourages cultural exchanges in French and English. Their site offers online exhibits and learning resources for students and their teachers. Managed by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.