Saint-Jean is behind us and the provincial elections are coming up. It seems that the pride of the Quebec nation will be one of the key themes of these elections. Quebecers will have to be proud. More than simply happy, less than proud, we will be proud of our achievements, of what we have become.
Posted yesterday at 12:00 p.m.
Of course, demanding an emotion is not easy. Like fear, love and a sense of belonging, pride cannot be controlled. But hey, if the well-known expression gives us reason to be proud, we can want to be. We will have to glean facts and arguments from our brains that justify our self-satisfaction and deduce from them that we are proud.
What are we proud of? The show Quebec codepresented by Télé-Québec a few years ago1mentioned the survival of our French-speaking nation in North America, gender equality, welcoming immigrants, our health system, Hydro-Québec and our territory. The Press of June 25, 2022 seems to confirm these objects of pride of Quebecers2.
But why do we need to be proud? To distinguish ourselves from others? In order to solidify our nation or our belonging to the nation? In order to prepare us for a culture war? Or are we ashamed of having let ourselves be fooled in the past?
When I arrived in Quebec, my future father-in-law spoke to me at length about Quebec. A sovereignist from the start, he explained to me that I would have a hard time understanding Quebec if I did not know its history.
Fortunately, the media I frequent report elements of the past on a daily basis. Often events of the Quiet Revolution and developments since. Cultural heroes and other figures of this era. Sometimes old stuff about Maurice Duplessis and Father Groulx. Often artists we hadn’t listened to for over 30 years.
Thus, I discovered that Quebec is one of those few countries that cultivate their defeats, that treat each wound so that the wound remains open, in order to use it later, in order to support and strengthen their nationalism or again in order to better negotiate with others, those who will be identified as the oppressors of yesterday, today or tomorrow.
The Serbs have their battle of the Champ des Merles, the Americans, the Alamo, Quebec, the patriots and, above all, the battle of the Plains of Abraham. The unfair treatment of Quebec during the patriation of the Canadian Constitution and the Meech Lake Accord can only reinforce this feeling of being chronic victims.
A faintness
By way of revenge, any challenge to crucial Quebec decisions will be treated as disrespectful of our nation or considered “Quebec bashing”. Also, the perception of being rejected by the other has led us to the rejection of the other, of those who believe otherwise or speak differently.
Thus, I was struck, more than 30 years ago, by the fact that Quebec did not recognize some of its greats because they had opposing opinions, such as Mordecai Richler, or because they sang in another language. , like Leonard Cohen, or the McGarrigle sisters, because of their name or because they also wrote songs for American artists.
This is my discomfort. Moreover, during my youth in Europe, nationalism was not fashionable. The declaration by the United Nations of human rights as well as the founding of NATO and the European Union have reinforced this orientation towards internationalism and modernity. Also, the individual responsibility that characterizes modern humanism has gradually – but totally – replaced the submission of the individual to the Church and the State. The identity of modern man should not depend on his sense of belonging or his pride, but rather on his feeling of responsibility and the voluntary acceptance of his fate.
If we abandon the discourse of victims, we will be able to assume the whole of our individual situation and of our society, not as a fate that has been inflicted on us, but as a construct for which we claim responsibility and for which, if the subject lends itself to it, we can be proud.
I can only hope that this longed-for pride of Quebecers replaces the cultured position of victim that dominates our public discourse. Let’s be proud!