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8
·N·o·
E XIT
IMPASSE
SUNSET OVER
Quebec City, one of
North America's most attractive urban
settings,
is
pictured in top
photo. Wi/1 the city on the
St.
Lawrence
someday become a national capital?
Canadian bi/ingual sign, left,
carries a
message
in itself: an impasse
is
near over the Ouebec government's
determination to secede from the
Canadian confederation. Canadian
bu/k carrier, below, passes
through a lock on the
St.
Lawrence
Seaway. Opened in 1959, the seaway
has
been a great boon to the
Great Lakes basin, the world's Jargest
agricultura/ and industrial
complex. Much of the seaway courses
through the Quebec heartland.
On the economic side, Quebec is
steadily catching up with Ontario in
per capita income. Francophones
are beginning at last to move into
top management positions in Que–
bec-headquartered firms , though
they are still considerably outnum–
bered in Montreal's executive
suites.
Partly because of aggressive fed–
eral prodding, French culture in
Quebec has ftourished. The French–
language service on the CBC, Radio
Canada, has had a major role in
leading Quebec's "Quiet Revolu–
tion" of the 1960s and '70s. Mon–
treal produces more live television
in French than the national network
in France; and it is original televi–
sion for the most part, whereas Can–
ada's English-language networks
are surfeited with American pro–
gramming.
The arts- thea ter. ballet, opera,
concerts- are all vigorous. More
French-language books are pub–
lished and bought in Quebec than
in France. French Canadians far
surpass Frenchmen in their overall
standard of living.
All of this, stress Canadian fed–
eral authorities. has taken place
within confederation. Quebec's na–
tionalists, they claim, are still living
in the past, fighting the old battles,
kindling the tires of 1759 (when
British forces ended the rule of New
France on Quebec's Plains of Abra–
ham).
"Our goal is a bilingual, multi–
cultural country," stresses federal
cabinet official Barney Danson.*
"We're [still] a long way from Car–
tier's dream of a bilingual Canada
coast to coast, but 1 do think it's
ironic that separation should
threaten us just as the first dim out–
line is taking shape."
*Caoada is no longer one nation composed
of two founding races. the British and the
F rench. Since World War 11, four million
newcomcrs from approximatcly 100 nations
and colonies have settled in Canada. These
" new Caoadians" now comprise about 30
percent of Canada's 23 million population.
The great majority speak English as their main
adopted Canadian tongue. Reftecting this
development, Canada, in 197 1, was officially
declared a "multicultural society within a
bilingual framework."
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1978