Bernard Landry Interview (Part 3)

Back to the action. For those just joining the party in progress, I highly recommend checking out the first couple of parts of the interview. The beginning of this little adventure can be found here.

Whenever I talk to a lifelong sovereignist, I can’t help but ask if there’s anything that can be done to reconcile the two solitudes, aside from splitting Canada up into its component parts. The answers are usually pretty similar. At this point, I’ve typically heard that they just feel it’s time to try things on their own.

“Frankly, there is not so much animosity and thank God! We’re in good relations with the rest of Canada, but nothing can be done to prevent us [from seeking] liberty for our nation. A nation must be free. There is literally no real compromise except independence.” Landry said.

So it appears we’re at an impasse. The Parti Québécois has been around for 36 years now and don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“What Canada should do, formally, that could be in the interests of Canada and in the interests of Quebec, is accept that Quebec is a nation—accept that formally, which is not the case.” Landry suggested. “That’s the base of everything for the future; the way England recognizes Scotland as a nation; the way Spain recognizes Catalonia as a nation. Why doesn’t Canada do the same?”

Alright, let’s suppose that Quebec chooses to leave Canada. What happens to the small francophone communities in the rest of the country? The Quebecois would be essentially turning their back on their linguistic brethren, wouldn’t they? Not necessarily, according to Landry.

“They will be more protected if they could count on a new French-speaking country, member of the United Nations, UNESCO and other international organizations, to help them live as a minority and to give the example to treat the minority in the way we treat English speaking Quebeckers,” he explained. “As an independent country, we could be in a very good position to be an example to the rest of Canada, and to many other countries in the world, how to treat minorities.”

This is where he and I sharply disagree. Are English-speaking minorities respected in Quebec? For the most part, yes, though I can attest to how difficult it is for an Anglophone to try and find work in this province without being perfectly bilingual. I would argue that any “respectful” treatment Anglophones receive has more to do with the fact that they were historically part of the ruling class and thus, had the money and influence to ensure their needs were taken care of. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with Quebec’s respect for minority groups. Money talks. So he and I will have to agree to disagree on this point.

Longtime readers will remember that I typically end off my interviews by asking my guest to give me some adjectives to describe Quebec. Here’s what Monsieur Landry came up with:
“Culture is important. Solidarity is important. And to be open to the rest of the world is important. That’s the 3 most interesting characteristics of Quebec. Look at the cooperatives we have here, the unions we have, the social system we have,” he said. “And young Quebeckers travel all over the world. The population in Quebec travels more that the rest of Canada, outside of North America. You should see the proportion of Canadian passports held by the Quebec population compared to Ontarians or the West. Look at our culture: Celine Dion, Cirque du Soleil, Denys Arcand, many singers, dancers and musicians. Quebec is sort of a synthesis between North America and Europe. It’s the most European part of North America, no doubt.”

So looking back on his career in politics, what is Monsieur Landry most proud of? The economic revolution and transformation of Quebec that he, along with many others, were a part of.

“When I was young, we were exporters of aluminum, pulp and paper, wood and that sort of natural resources. Today, we export airplanes, telecommunication materials, pharmacology products, high technology with our sophisticated engineering firms, multimedia and so on. We started from raw materials and mining and forests and we went on to technology,” Landry said.
I would like to take a moment to thank Monsieur Landry for granting this interview and giving me the opportunity to learn a bit more about the sovereignty movement in Quebec. Hopefully my readers enjoyed it as well. Til next time…