“Anglo Reality Check” was Global News’ four-part series looking into the reality of life for Anglophones in Quebec. The series aired in November 2012.
MONTREAL – When Jacques Parizeau said “It was money and the ethnic vote,” it was just seven words, but their impact was enormous.
The “Yes” side blamed its loss of the 1995 referendum directly on the wealthy and on Quebec’s immigrant population.
Parizeau’s words caused a deep divide in a society that despite its sometimes polarized politics, often prides itself on getting along and thriving in its multicultural, multilingual reality.
“We mix English and French like no other place in the world,” said Josh Freed, a Montreal-based journalist who often writes about life in Quebec. “There is no other place that does this.”
And then, this last election, memories of the referendum all came crashing back.
Us versus them
Hoping to win votes, the Parti Quebecois focused on the “vous and the nous,” hinting that only a “pure laine” (dyed-in-the-wool) Quebecois was a real Quebecer.
“It serves political interest to throw all of the this in the same basket,” said Anne Lagace-Dowson, director general of the anti-bullying Tolerance Foundation and an award-winning broadcast journalist and political analyst. “And use defence of the French language to serve a certain political agenda.”
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Leading up to election day, the PQ was poised to win a majority government.
But the party’s political agenda – that focused on winning votes by dividing and conquering -backfired. Instead the PQ just barely won enough seats for a minority.
Anglo community reaction
Still the campaign and the fact the party was elected has created a renewed feeling of unease among Quebec Anglophones.
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this and I can’t believe I’m worried,” Andrew Woodall told Global News.
Woodall was born and raised in Montreal. He expected the recent election to be about the student strike and social equality, so the xenophobic tone and vigour of the PQ campaign came as a shock.
“It hasn’t come back like it did recently that was with something and I didn’t realize it bit me from behind,” Woodall said.
“I didn’t see it coming.”
Post-election
After just two months in power, the political rhetoric of the PQ has toned down – but with recent promises to strengthen Bill 101 by limiting English in schools and small businesses, there is a constant political reminder that being an Anglophone in Quebec means being considered “the outsider.”
“The idea of me being a fully equal citizen sometimes comes to mind,” said Woodall. “I don’t feel like that most of the time after the election we just went through.”
“The fat lady at Eaton’s who doesn’t speak French, all that kind of stuff is largely passé,” said Lagace-Dowson.
“But I think it served political interest to keep the fire burning because that is what by large fuels the nationalist project.”
However, the attempts to fuel the nationalist project fell flat.
The reason, political analysts say, is that “identity politics” no longer resonate with the modern Quebecer.
“The more they use the ‘us vs. them’ stuff, they more they sink,” noted Freed. “Anglos get enraged. But Francophones don’t get enraged, they just don’t listen.”
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