Poll Shows Wide Gap Between Quebecers and Other Canadians on Bill to Amend Constitution
French-speaking Quebecers and the majority of the Canadians are at odds on the Quebec government’s recent bill to amend Canada’s Constitution and to reform the province’s language law, according to a new poll that reveals the depth of divergence across the country.
The poll (pdf) is a national survey on Quebec government’s introduction of Bill 96, which proposes to amend Canada’s Constitution Act, recognizing Quebec as a “nation” and French as its sole official language.
The results of the survey show that 62 percent of the Quebecers believe that a province should be allowed to unilaterally amend the Canadian Constitution. By contrast, less than one-fifth of the Canadians living outside of Quebec share the same mentality.
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The Quebec Community Groups Network is calling for more study on the Quebec CAQ government s proposal to amend the Canadian constitution to affirm Quebec as a nation and that its official language is French.
David Ljunggren
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People pass a shop sign written in French, mandated by local laws, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada May 27, 2021. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi
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Some 25 years after an independence bid by Quebec almost broke Canada apart, a new push by the province to strengthen its French-speaking identity poses an awkward challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau months before an expected election.
Quebec, a political battleground that accounts for almost a quarter of the 338 seats in the federal House of Commons, has a history of separatist governments, one of which held a 1995 referendum on independence that only just failed.
Premier Francois Legault is a nationalist who rejects separatism but wants more rights for Quebec, which has just 8.5 million people and constantly frets about its linguistic and cultural heritage on a continent with hundreds of millions of English speakers.