Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:18:54.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Re-imagining Confederation: Moving Beyond the Trudeau-Lévesque Debate*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Samuel V. LaSelva
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia

Abstract

The Trudeau-Lévesque debate has created a political deadlock that threatens not only Confederation but federalism as well. At the core of the political deadlock is a philosophical dispute about language, in which liberty is set against community, and particularism becomes opposed to universalism. Not only does the Trudeau-Lévesque deadlock presuppose an antagonism between basic values that is difficult to justify, but it has also diverted attention from important dimensions of Canadian federalism. An exploration of the Trudeau-Lévesque debate provides insights as to how the deadlock can be dissolved, thereby facilitating the re-imagination of Confederation.

Résumé

Le débat Trudeau-Lévesque a créé une impasse politique qui menace non seulement la Confédération, mais également le fédéralisme lui-même. Au coeur de l'impasse politique on retrouve une discussion philosophique du problème linguistique, dans laquelle liberté s'oppose à la communauté, et le particularisme à l'universalisme. Outre le fait qu'elle présuppose un conflit entre les valeurs fondamentales qui est difficile à justifier, l'impasse Trudeau-Lévesque a détourné l'attention d'autres aspects plus importants du fédéralisme canadien. Cet examen approfondi du débat Trudeau-Lévesque contribue des aperçus qui permettront de sortir de cette impasse, rendant ainsi plus facile la réimagination de la Confédération.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Parliamentary Debates on the Subject of the Confederation of the British North American Provinces (Quebec: Hunter, Rose, 1865), 5960Google Scholar. Henceforth cited as Confederation Debates.

2 Waite, P. B., The Life and Times of Confederation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), 329.Google Scholar

3 Laponce, J. A., Languages and Their Territories (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987)Google Scholar; and Joy, Richard, Languages in Conflict (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Cook, Ramsay, “‘I Never Thought I Could Be as Proud…’: The Trudeau-Lévesque Debate,” in Axworthy, Thomas S. and Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, eds., Towards a Just Society (Markham: Viking, 1990)Google Scholar; McRoberts, Kenneth, “Making Canada Bilingual: Illusions and Delusions of Federal Language Policy,” in Shugarman, David P. and Whitaker, Reg, eds., Federalism and Political Community (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1989), 141Google Scholar; and McRoberts, Kenneth, “English Canada and Quebec: Avoiding the Issue,” Sixth Annual Robarts Lecture, York University, May 31, 1991.Google Scholar

5 See Taylor, Charles, “Shared and Divergent Values,” in Watts, Ronald L. and Brown, Douglas M., eds., Options for a New Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 53.Google Scholar

6 Scott, Frank R., Essays on the Constitution (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 3Google Scholar; and Hobsbawm, E. J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 3035.Google Scholar

7 Block, Maurice, as cited in Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism, 33.Google Scholar

8 Craig, Gerald M., ed., Lord Durham's Report (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963), 28, 150.Google Scholar

9 Ajzenstat, Janet, “Liberalism and Assimilation: Lord Durham Reconsidered,” in Brooks, Stephen, ed., Political Thought in Canada (Toronto: Irwin, 1984), 240–41.Google Scholar

10 Craig, , Lord Durham's Report, 23.Google Scholar

11 Confederation Debates, 29.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 60.

13 Morin, Claude, Quebec versus Ottawa (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 133, 148.Google Scholar

14 Scott, , Essays on the Constitution, 185.Google Scholar

15 Confederation Debates, 31.Google Scholar

16 Silver, A. I., The French-Canadian Idea of Confederation 1864–1900 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 33.Google Scholar

17 Vipond, Robert C., Liberty and Community (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991).Google Scholar

18 Creighton, Donald, The Road to Confederation (Toronto: Macmillan, 1964), 141–46.Google Scholar

19 Dicey, A. V., Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (London: Macmillan, 1959), 142–43.Google Scholar

20 Vernon, Richard A., “The Federal Citizen,” in Olling, R. D. and Westmacott, M. W., eds., Perspectives on Canadian Federalism (Scarborough: Prentice-Hall, 1988), 4.Google Scholar

21 Lower, A. R. M. et al. , Evolving Canadian Federalism (Durham: Durham University Press, 1958), 16.Google Scholar

22 Confederation Debates, 60.Google Scholar

23 Martin, Compare Ged, ed., The Causes of Canadian Confederation (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1990).Google Scholar

24 Léger, Jean-Marc's commentary in René Lévesque, An Option for Quebec (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968), 113.Google Scholar

25 Léger, , in Lévesque, , An Option for Quebec, 112.Google Scholar

26 Lévesque, René, “National State of the French Canadians,” in Scott, Frank and Oliver, Michael, eds., Quebec States Her Case (Toronto: Macmillan, 1964), 134.Google Scholar

27 Rioux, M., Quebec in Question (Toronto: James Lewis & Samuel, 1971), 79.Google Scholar

28 Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, Federalism and the French Canadians (Toronto: Macmillan, 1968), 169, 211.Google Scholar

29 See LaForest, Guy, “Herder, Kedourie et les errements de l'antinationalisme au Canada,” in Hudon, Raymond and Pelletier, Réjean, eds., L'engagement intellectuel (Sainte-Foy: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1991), 313.Google Scholar

30 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991), 6.Google Scholar

31 Smith, Anthony D., National Identity (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1991), 75.Google Scholar

32 Anderson, , Imagined Communities, 7.Google Scholar

33 Smith, , National Identity, 160.Google Scholar

34 Laurin, Camille, Quebec's Policy on the French Language (Québec: Ministère de Communications, 1977), 2.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., 28, 43.

36 Lévesque, , An Option for Quebec, 14.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., 92.

38 Joy, , Languages in Conflict, 117, 131–39.Google Scholar

39 Morin, , Quebec versus Ottawa, 158.Google Scholar

40 Swiss writers speak of the linguistic sovereignty of the cantons.

41 Laponce, , Languages and Their Territories, 189Google Scholar; and McRae, Kenneth, Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Societies, Vol. 1: Switzerland (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1983), 229–40.Google Scholar

42 Lévesque, , An Option for Quebec, 27.Google Scholar

43 Dion, Léon, “The Mystery of Quebec,” Daedalus 117 (1988), 288.Google Scholar

44 Chaput, Marcel, Why I Am a Separatist (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1962), 100Google Scholar; and Dufour, Christian, A Canadian Challenge (Halifax: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1990), 5560.Google Scholar

45 The applicability of perfectionism or purism to Quebec separatists is defended by Handler, Richard, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 4750, 107–08, 166–75Google Scholar. Compare, however. Knopff, Rainer, “Democracy vs. Liberal Democracy: The Nationalist Conundrum,” Dalhousie Review 58 (19781979), 638Google Scholar; and LaForest, , “Herder, Kedourie et les errements de l'antinationalisme au Canada,” 313Google Scholar. See also McRoberts, Kenneth, “Protecting the Rights of Linguistic Minorities,” in Drache, Daniel and Perin, Roberto, eds., Negotiating with a Sovereign Quebec (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1992), 181–83.Google Scholar

46 Handler, , Nationalism and the Politics of Culture, 170.Google Scholar

47 Ford v. Quebec (1989), 54 D.L.R. (4th), 625–28.Google Scholar

48 Lévesque, , An Option for Quebec, 14.Google Scholar

49 Dufour, , A Canadian Challenge, 17, 59, 98, 150.Google Scholar

50 Trudeau, Pierre, “The Values of a Just Society,” in Axworthy, and Trudeau, , eds., Towards a Just Society, 374–75.Google Scholar

51 Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, Conversation with Canadians (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), 33.Google Scholar

52 Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 53Google Scholar; and Trudeau, Pierre, Approaches to Politics (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1970), 37.Google Scholar

53 Trudeau, , Conversation with Canadians, 42.Google Scholar

54 Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 179.Google Scholar

55 Rioux, , Quebec in Question, 100–01.Google Scholar

56 McRoberts, , English Canada and Quebec, 16.Google Scholar

57 Trudeau, , “The Values of a Just Society,” 383.Google Scholar

58 Johnston, Donald, ed., Pierre Trudeau Speaks Out on Meech Lake (Toronto: General Paperbacks, 1990), 8.Google Scholar

59 Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 211.Google Scholar

60 Government of Canada, A National Understanding: The Official Languages of Canada (Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada, 1977), 35.Google Scholar

61 Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 177.Google Scholar

62 Government of Canada, A National Understanding, 19Google Scholar; and Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 177.Google Scholar

63 Government of Canada, A National Understanding, 21.Google Scholar

64 Trudeau, , “The Values of a Just Society,” 368.Google Scholar

65 Laponce, , Languages and Their Territories, 155, 164Google Scholar. According to Montefiore, “to be neutral in any conflict is to do one's best to help or hinder the various parties concerned in an equal degree” (Montefiore, Alan, ed., Neutrality and Impartiality [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975], 5).Google Scholar

66 Green, Leslie, “Are Language Rights Fundamental?Osgoode Hall Law Review 25(1987), 656–65.Google Scholar

67 Trudeau, , Conversation with Canadians, 33.Google Scholar

68 Oliver, Compare Michael, “Laurendeau et Trudeau: leurs opinions sur le Canada,” in Hudon, Raymond and Pelletier, Réjean, eds., L'engagement intellectuel (Sainte-Foy: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1991), 339, 357–65.Google Scholar

69 McNeill, William H., Polyethnicity and National Unity in World History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986), 4, 85.Google Scholar

70 Taylor, , “Shared and Divergent Values,” 61.Google Scholar

71 See Kymlicka, Will, Liberalism, Community and Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 135258.Google Scholar

72 Trudeau, , “The Values of a Just Society,” 359.Google Scholar

73 Johnston, , Pierre Trudeau Speaks Out on Meech Lake, 81.Google Scholar

74 Government of Canada, A National Understanding, 52.Google Scholar

75 Sandel, Michael J., Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

76 Lévesque, , An Option for Québec, 17.Google Scholar

77 Trudeau, , Conversation with Canadians, 14.Google Scholar

78 Trudeau, , Federalism and the French Canadians, 170.Google Scholar

79 Confederation Debates, 60.Google Scholar

80 Bergson, Henri, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (New York: Anchor Books, 1935), 32, 35, 77, 267.Google Scholar

81 Compare Isaiah Berlin's discussion of Christian and pagan morality in his Against the Current (London: Hogarth Press, 1979), 45, 54, 67.Google Scholar

82 Compare Alan C. Cairns, Charter versus Federalism (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992), 3361.Google Scholar

83 Minogue, K. R., “Theatricality and Politics: Machiavelli's Concept of Fantasia,” in Parekh, Bhiku and Berki, R. N., eds., The Morality of Politics (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972), 155.Google Scholar

84 Berlin, Isaiah, “Does Political Theory Still Exist?” in his Concepts and Categories (New York: Viking, 1979), 149.Google Scholar

85 McCall, Christina et al. , “Three Nations,” Canadian Forum, March 1992, 4.Google Scholar

86 Bercuson, David J. and Cooper, Barry, Deconfederation (Toronto: Key Porter, 1991), vii, 168–69.Google Scholar

87 Oliver, , “Laurendeau et Trudeau,” 362–63Google Scholar; and Dion, Stéphane, “Le nationalisme dans la convergence culturelle,” in Hudon and Pelletier, eds., L'engagement intellectuel, 305–08.Google Scholar

88 Cairns, Alan C., “The Fragmentation of Canadian Citizenship,” in Kaplan, William, ed., Belonging (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993), 210.Google Scholar

89 Creighton, Donald, Towards the Discovery of Canada (Toronto: Macmillan, 1972), 298Google Scholar; and Creighton, , The Road to Confederation, 145.Google Scholar

90 Lower, , Evolving Canadian Federalism, 4.Google Scholar

91 My analysis is similar to asymmetrical federalism. See Milne, David, “Equality or Asymmetry: Why Choose?” in Watts, and Brown, , eds., Options for a New Canada, 285Google Scholar; Dufour, , A Canadian Challenge, 91100Google Scholar; and McCall, , “Three Nations,” 46.Google Scholar