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Quebec and Canada at the crossroads: a nation within a nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2000

Michel Seymour
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Montreal
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Abstract

I argue first that there are many different concepts of the nation, and advocate a certain conceptual pluralism. I also argue that a population as a whole cannot constitute a nation unless it has a certain national consciousness. I then show that we must adopt a fundamental principle of tolerance. I also try to attend to the complexities of the relations between Quebec and Canada, and argue that different populations represent themselves as nations in different ways and with different concepts. I show that Quebec constitutes a nation within a nation. I then wonder what it would mean for Canadians to accept a Quebec nation. Finally, I try to explain why a very large proportion of the population of Quebec has increasingly been favourable to sovereignty, and favourable to making a partnership proposal to Canada.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism

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