Quebec scores high in identity survey

QUEBEC- Being Canadian is less and less an important part of how Quebecers define themselves, a new poll on national identity indicates.

The survey for the Association for Canadian Studies shows that almost a third of Quebec francophones define themselves as Quebecers only, while 39 per cent see themselves as Quebecers first but also as Canadians.

More than 60 per cent of Quebec residents define themselves as Quebecers first or exclusively, according to the Léger Marketing survey.

In January 2009, it was 54 per cent, according to a previous survey for the non-profit research institute.

The results suggest a distancing of Quebecers’ emotional ties with Canada – a finding that could have important implications for the province’s political future, said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the association.

“The reality is that 31 per cent of Quebec francophones see themselves as only Quebecers. That says to me there’s a not insignificant minority of Quebecers who feel a really strong sense of detachment to Canada,” Jedwab said.

Just under 20 per cent of francophones define themselves equally as Quebecers and Canadians, seven per cent as Canadian first and one per cent as Canadian only.

The survey reflects a growing disengagement among Quebecers toward federal politics, said Jedwab, pointing to the outcry in Quebec during the October 2008 election campaign over federal cutbacks in arts funding.

Disillusionment with national political parties, fuelled partly by the Liberal sponsorship scandal in 2004, has favoured the Bloc Québécois, but increased Quebecers’ disconnect with the federal government, he said.

The poll also reveals a widening identity gap between francophones, anglophones and allophones in Quebec when it comes to national identity. Among English-speaking Quebecers, identification with Canada mirrors francophones’ identification with Quebec: 45 per cent define themselves as Canadian first but also as Quebecers, 21 cent as equally Quebecers and Canadians and 18 per cent as Canadians only.

Nineteen per cent of anglophones define themselves as Quebecers first but also Canadian, and two per cent see themselves as Quebecers only.

Anglophones tend to look to Ottawa as the government more likely to meet their needs just as francophones look to Quebec, Jedwab said. “I think it’s partly because (anglophones), too, don’t feel that the Quebec state responds to their identity needs,” he said.

Allophones, on the other hand, identify strongly with both Canada and Quebec. “They don’t see it in the conflictual way that anglophones and francophones see it,” Jedwab said.

Attachment to Canada has waned dramatically among young Quebecers: only 18 per cent of those age 18-24 report strong feelings of attachment to the country – a cause for concern for the future of national unity, Jedwab said. Seniors are the only age group where attachment to Canada is strong, with 49 per cent of those age 65 and over describing themselves as strongly attached to the country.

“What is worrisome is that that entire group under 65 feels very detached from Canada,” he said.

The results suggest that the strategy of asymmetrical federalism, under which powers over culture were devolved to the province, has not succeeded in winning Quebecers’ hearts, Jedwab said.

“I think the hope was that the more Quebec assumed responsibilities that it’s best positioned to support, the more there’d be attachment to Canada. In the same way when the House of Commons recognized that the Québécois were a nation, I think the hope was that that recognition would create a greater proximity to Canada. But that doesn’t appear to have been the outcome,” he said.

What does all this mean for Canada’s future? It is difficult to predict, Jedwab said.

“In the unfortunate event that we do have another referendum, which I’m not sure we will, it depends how people understand the issues.”

What the survey does clearly show, he said, is that the decline in Canadian identity among Quebecers is all but irreversible.

“I think what the survey confirms unequivocally is that there’s a lot more attachment to Quebec than there is to Canada. It would be extremely difficult to reverse that trend which is now very deeply felt,” Jedwab said.

“I think we’ll have to live with the fact that selling the Canadian project in Quebec can’t be about a love affair for most Quebecers,” he added. “It’s a marriage of convenience, not a marriage of love.”

The internet survey of 1,224 Quebecers was conducted during the first week of December. An equivalent telephone survey would be accurate within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.