État québécois
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- This article is about the term "État québécois". For the government of Quebec, see Politics of Quebec and National Assembly of Quebec.
The French language expression État québécois (English: Quebec State) or État du Québec is a term used by some Quebecers to refer to their province or provincial government.
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[edit] Meaning
The term is commonly used by Quebec sovereigntists, but is also used by nationalists not necessarily favouring independence.
To the separatists, the word État, or "state", signifies that Quebec is a national government representing the homeland of a people, a nation, as in l'État français or l'État italien. However, no entity legally named "State of Quebec" exists.
The intent of the word État is to imply that Quebec is, or ought to be, a state in the legal sense. Frequently, however, the wording used in a given context says only that the government of Quebec is a "state" institution, and it is intentionally left unclear whether this refers to the Canadian state or an independent Quebec state. For example, "crown corporation" can be expressed as société d'État without any nationalist connotation. Also, similar to the English word "state", état, when not capitalized, can mean "state of being" or "establishment". (French uses capitalization to contrast État, the legal term, with état, the more general meaning, but this does not distinguish usage in proper nouns.) Ironically, Quebec Establishment, while not the usual intent of this expression, could be considered a correct description of Quebec's legal status as a province.
The term was used in the title of a law passed by the governing Parti Québécois in the National Assembly of Quebec in 2000 titled an Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State. This symbolic document was the separatists' rebuttal of the Clarity Act, a Canadian statute that describes in detail the referendum conditions that need to be met before the Government of Canada would enter into any form of discussion with representatives from the Province of Quebec concerning that Province's status in Canada.
[edit] Origins
The term, with nationalist undertones, first became popular in Quebec during the Quiet Revolution. It was used especially by Jean Lesage and the members of his Liberal government as an alternative to Province de Québec ("Province of Quebec"), the official name given by the British Parliament to its colony of Quebec and reaffirmed as part of the nation of Canada in the British North America Act.
[edit] Reasons
The term "province" is seen by a relatively small minority of Quebeckers as less dignified, even contemptuous, for two main reasons.
- "Province" is used for the nine English-majority provinces. From the Quebec nationalist perspective, Quebec forms a nation, distinct from both English Canada and French Canada, and should not be put on the level of a regional entity.
- "Province" is also a legacy of the British colonial empire and the Seven Years' War when France chose to give up its colony in the northern part of New France in preference to Guadaloupe. The expression Province of Quebec was the first name for this territory that became part of territory already under British administration (later Lower Canada, Canada East, then Province of Quebec again), and "province" as a legal term was the equivalent of colony. This was consistent with the Quiet Revolution, presented by many of its proponents and architects as a process of decolonization.
