Michel Tremblay Analysis

Jean Lesage was known to be the “father of the Quiet Revolution” by many for the multiple changes he was able to bring in the 1960s. The first change he brought to Quebec was subsiding the Catholic Church’s role to replace it with an increased

Though the beginning of the separatist movement was marred by fighting and violence, the vast majority of the conflict has been a political one. The reason for the revolution in Quebec stems from the restrictions placed upon the populace by the English. These restrictions were on both the language and culture of the Quebecois, and caused them to feel trapped in under the English rule, for lack of a better term. This revolution is on a much less certain foot than the others however, with many of the younger citizens not remember the restrictions of days

The Quiet Revolution is characterized as the events that took place in Quebec following the death of Quebec’s conservative Premier Maurice Duplessis in 1959 and the election of Jean Lesage and his Liberals the following year. The era marked a period of unprecedented political and social change for the province and also the development of the Quebecois identity.

“Gens du pays, c 'est votre tour, De vous laisser parler d 'amour”, those were the only words to be heard across the arena, as Rene Levesque, then Prime Minister of Quebec delivered his speech on the defeat of the Sovereignty Association Referendum. His speech, “À la prochaine fois” (“Until next time”) was one that he hoped to never deliver during his lifetime. On May 20th, 1980, the long awaited referendum that would lead to negotiations with Canada for the province, Quebec, resulted in a resounding no, with a 59.5% vote. (Lévesque, 1980) The defeat marked a resounding blow and stalemate to Levesque’s hopes of establishing an independent Quebec and defeating his long term rival, Pierre Trudeau. In an emotionally wrought campaign that swept the nation, the outcome of the referendum was determined by Quebec Prime Minister, Rene Levesque’s inability to manipulate ambiguous language where Trudeau succeeded, swaying the largely uncertain voters in favour of the federalists. Though the two principles of the respective sides contradicted each other, and was thus, the underlying cause of the referendum, it was the personal nature of the conflict between Trudeau and Levesque coupled with the manipulation of language that would ultimately influence the results of the referendum.

The Quiet Revolution refers to the developments which transpired during the late 1950’s to 1970’s that influenced the socio-political and socio-cultural standing of Quebec in Canada. This was a period of expeditious modifications which highlighted Quebec’s desire to become an individual nation. The goal of this essay is to bestow enough evidence in order to reveal the role of The Quiet Revolution in encouraging the incidents of the October Crisis which changed Quebec’s standing in the syndicate of Canadian institutions.

Though the separatist movements came very close to achieving their goal, the steady actions of PM Chrétian show a change in attitude towards French Canadians in within the country. The fact that Chrétian managed to succeed in keeping Quebec from separating further proves that the perspective of cultural differences in Canada started to develop for the better. The language rights within Canada add depth to the sincere maturity and growth that Canada has experienced in the years after WWII. Some direct impacts were the immediate enactments of French policies within the federal government, and indirectly the language rights reduced tension within all of Canada and mainly Quebec. Over the years, language rights have helped the country learn to blend itself back into a bilingual nation of acceptance and diversity. Canada, during the years after WWII, managed to stop the cultural bond between the French and the English from further deteriorating and helped to repair previous bruises by accepting Quebec’s ideas and beliefs, by enacting language rights, and through Chrétian’s active attendance to maintaining the balance between French and English

After expo 67 came the October crisis, which consisted of Quebec citizens creating separatist groups and making open kidnappings and bombs, furthermore disrupting the peace. Chretien, from the province of Quebec, was determined to bring the people together, so he ran an almost flawless campaign and “recaptured his old riding of St-Maurice and managed to win 19 seats in Québec in the face of the onslaught of the Bloc Québécois” (Bothwell, Koch, & Marshall, 2015). Another cause of his election into parliament that was more of a national event, was the concern of the people in terms of Liberals spending excessive amounts of money when brought into power. Because of this concern, it was up to Chretien to ease the public and ensure that he “effectively answered criticisms that he would mark a return to the spending extravagances of previous Liberal governments” (Bothwell, Koch, & Marshall, 2015). As a result, Chretien was elected in to power, and decided upon making many budget cuts and re-establishing the Canadian economy and debt in order to prove to the people that he was not about going against his word and spending large amounts of money on projects that were unneeded. This is one of the more prominent points of cause and consequence during his election into parliament, the cause being the people

This period of massive reform that overtook Quebec was given the name: “The Quiet Revolution.” It did not only cause division within the nation, but als, rifts within Quebec itself. The province was an unstable society “where rapid changes [had] occurred, but which [had] not absorbed [those] transformations at an equal rate.” Groups formed on both sides of arguments concerning separatism, maintaining French culture, and social classes within society. People felt lost while everything was changing so quickly and so drastically; defined, opinionated, and unwavering groups began to emerge. Some of these were terrorist groups who felt very strongly about the path that Quebec should be taking, and were unafraid to impose their beliefs on others.

The Sixties was and still is a decade of great significance for the northern country of Canada, it is due to the fact that the decade brought intense changes to Canada through historical occurrences that the decade was and still is a significant decade for Canada. The historical occurrences that happened in the Sixties in Canada that were the most significant to Canada in terms of bringing changes to Canada were the occurrences known as the Great Canadian Flag Debate, the Quiet Revolution and the occurrence known as Trudeaumania; these important occurrences are still significant to Canada as they continue to bring change to Canada through the things in which they caused. The changes brought on by the historical occurrences stated,

Thinking that this would satisfy almost everyone, Levesque anticipated a lot of support; however, he’s never been so wrong. On May 20, 1980, 90% of Quebec voters came out to cast their vote. 59.5% votes were against the sovereignty-association and the referendum became lost. To try and fix what was broken, the government came up with the Meech Lake Accord. In 1985, there were many political changes that occurred in Quebec and federally. Federally, Trudeau was replaced by Brian Mulroney. In Quebec, Moderate Liberal Robert Bourassa was replaced by Rene Levesque. Mulroney promised when he got elected, that he would bring Quebec into the Constitution (the supreme law in Canada). He held many meetings to talk about the constitutional problems. In April 1987, there were constitutional changes made that satisfied Quebec’s concerns and both the PM and 10 provincial premiers agreed to these changes. This happened at Meech Lake, near Ottawa. Some of these changes included that all provinces were able to nominate candidates, opt out of federal cost sharing, have the right to veto any constitutional change, and that Quebec would be seen as a “distinct society”, with their own legal, culture and language

John Diefenbaker and Lester B. Pearson can both equally be credited for this renowned reputation. This essay will explore the durability of the reforms implemented by each politician in Canadian society. In addition,

In many ways, contemporary Quebec is a drastically different society than the Quebec of the early twentieth century. No longer can the majority of Quebecers be described as religious, rural, and conservative; instead they are generally secular, urban, and liberal. This transformation has come about largely because of the change in values that occurred as Quebec modernized: today’s Quebec is built around the values of secularism, gender equality, and the primacy of the French language, principles that would have seemed outlandish a few generations ago. Change triggers the urge to ask questions, and in this case, the question raised is whether or not Quebec society is better off as a result of its commitment to these values. In my opinion, one

today the trend has continued and most of the population in Quebec is Roman Catholic, and only a small

In the 1950’s, Duplessis and is government called “Union National’’ were in power in Quebec province. That period called the Great Darkness is characterised by the fact that instead of taking a step forward like most countries, Quebec took a big leap back. A lot of people fought back and tried to take him out in order to stop the conservatism and to follow the path that the rest of the world was already following. Some of those rebellious were the authors of The Total Refusal, an important book in which figured poems, paintings, sketches and plenty other art forms. It is a renowned document that we cannot forget. The book is a part of our story and it teaches us a valuable lesson. The Total Refusal (or Refus global in French) changed the

Les Miserables is a characteristic romantic work in both theme and form. In theme the novel assaults the traditional social structure, glorifies freedom of thought and spirit, and makes a hero of the average individual. In this novel the several characters were portrayed as heros. It follows the lives and interactions of several French