The Foriegn Market Essay, Research Paper
The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this
hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet
revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage
came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution.
Lesage had an excellent team of cabinet ministers which
included Rene Levesque. The Liberals promised to do two things
during the Quiet Revolution; one was to improve economic and social
standards for the people of Quebec, and the other was to win
greater respect and recognition for all the French people of
Canada. The Liberals started a program to take control of hydroelectric power companies. French-Canadian engineers from all over
Canada returned to Quebec to work on the project. Slogans during
these times were we can do it and masters in our own homes .
The government also started to replace programs the Church
previously ran, which included hospital insurance, pension schemes
and the beginning of Medi-Care. For these programs, the Quebec
Liberals had to struggle with Ottawa for a larger share of the tax
dollars.
+ +One of the greatest reforms was the modernization of the
entire school system. The Church used to own the schools of
Quebec. Most of the teachers were Priests, Nuns and Brothers.
They provided a good education but Quebec needed more in business
and technology. Lesage wanted a government run school system that
would provide Quebec with people in engineering, science, business
and commerce.
+ +With the new freedom of expression, lots of books, plays and
music about French culture were all developed in Quebec. French
contemporary playwrights were very famous during that time.
However, not all was going well in Quebec. The French English
relation was going bad. Many studies showed that French Canadian
Quebecers were earning the lowest wage in all of the ethnic groups
in Canada. Other complaints were that the top jobs in Quebec were
given to English speaking Canadians. Canada was going through the
worst crisis in its history, and unless equal partnership was found
a break up would likely happen. Some Quebecers thought that
separation was the only solution. They thought that as long as
Quebec was associated with the rest of Canada, French Canadians
would never be treated equal.
The FLQ (Front De Lib+) +ration Du Qu+) +bec) was founded in 1963.
It was a smaller, more forceful group of separatists. They were a
collection of groups of young people whose idea was to use
terrorism to achieve independence for Quebec. The ALQ (L Arm) de
Lib) ration de Quebec) was even more of a violent separatist group.
Some of their actions included robbing banks in order to get money.
For their ammunition they had to raid arms depots of the Canadian
Armed Forces.
There were many Federalists that believed that separatism had
no future and that FrenchCanadians could play a role in a bilingual Canada. There were three Quebec men that believed in
Federalism. These men were Liberals and their names were Pierre
Trudeau, Jean Marchand and +rard Pelletier. The President of
France, General De Gaulle came to Quebec in 1967 and gave speeches
to separatist groups that deemed him an enthusiast of the thoughts
of the separatists in the struggle to fight for the liberation of
Quebec. The Prime Minister at the time, Lester B. Pearson,
criticized De Gaulle s remarks and said that Quebec belonged to
Canada and there was no need for their liberation. In 1970,
British Trade Commissioner James R. Cross was kidnapped by FLQ and
wanted in return for Cross, 23 political prisoners.