Federal-Provincial Tensions

The Québec government also sought to stake out diplomatic ties. In 1961, it opened the Maisons du Québec in Paris, London, and New York. However, when Québec signalled its intention to sign cultural and educational agreements with France, Ottawa intervened, asserting that there could be only one interlocutor with foreign countries.

These federal-provincial quarrels raised the question of the place of Québec and French Canadians in Confederation. In 1965, for instance, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism noted that “Canada, without being fully conscious of the fact, is passing through the greatest crisis in its history. The source of the crisis lies in the Province of Quebec.” French Canadian nationalism, which was becoming more and more Québecois in nature, was exacerbated by this crisis. The number of separatist groups increased—some of which adopted more extreme positions—and the Front de Libération du Québec began to engage in acts of terrorism.

At the same time, other francophones were concerned by such growing nationalism. Among them were Jean Marchand, Gérard Pelletier, and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who joined the federal Liberal Party and were elected to Parliament in 1965.

In the mid-1960s, these so-called “wise men” had been recruited by the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in order to enhance francophone participation in federal government and to help Ottawa quell potentially dangerous political clashes with Québec’s increasingly neo-nationalist-inspired, and in some cases separatist-oriented, political parties and successive governments. When the Québec Liberals faced the electorate in 1966 they were confident of reelection. But the Union Nationale had renewed its image and attracted dissatisfied individuals among conservatives, nationalists, and those who had voted Créditiste in the federal election. The party still had a solid base in the rural areas that were left largely untouched by the Quiet Revolution. On June 5, the Union Nationale won 56 seats against the Liberals’ 50. However, the Liberals obtained 47 per cent of the popular vote whereas the Unionistes, led by Daniel Johnson, obtained 41 per cent.

In the late sixties, the federal government under Prime Minister Trudeau proposed a two-fold strategy to improve federal-provincial relations. To enhance and encourage francophone participation in all national institutions, a policy of official bilingualism was set forth. To guarantee individual rights as well as the rights of Canada’s two official linguistic communities, a renewed Constitution with an inserted Charter of Rights and Freedoms was tabled. The first goal was achieved in 1969, with the passing of the Official Languages Act. The second objective was accomplished with the Constitution Act of 1982, which incorporated a Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a general amending formula based on seven provinces comprising over 50 per cent of the Canadian population. The Quiet Revolution is a major reference point used by successive Québec governments in power since the Liberal defeat in 1966. It is an event used to distinguish the old-guard sociopolitical structure of the past from the post-Revolutionary paradigm.

An earlier version of this entry was published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .