A Canadian Challenge

David De Brou is an assistant professor of History at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Dufour’s book is an English translation of his Le défi québécois,
which first appeared in Quebec in the fall of 1989. It was, and remains,
a warning to Québécois and English-Canadians that, unless they act
expeditiously, the future of Quebec and Canada is in jeopardy.

Playing historian and psychoanalyst, Dufour argues that
English-Canadians and Québécois share more than they realize.
According to Dufour, the Conquest of 1763 allowed English-Canadians to
absorb the Quebec identity without acknowledging its role in keeping
Canada from becoming another victim of U.S. expansionism. Similarly, the
anciens Canadiens owed their survival to the political realism of the
English governors, who ignored the assimilationist goals of the
Proclamation of 1763. This interdependence continues to be a fact of
life, one that English-Canadians should have finally recognized by
supporting the Meech Lake Accord. In this post-Meech era, Dufour’s
essay is important as an indicator of what the Accord symbolized for
many Québécois.

His message to English-Canadians and Québécois remains relevant
today. The challenge to English Canada is to acknowledge Quebec’s
contribution to Canada’s survival by recognizing Quebec as a distinct
society; the challenge to Quebec is to recognize that its Canadian
component is “a strong argument for staying with the status quo while
waiting for English Canada to listen to reason or until Independence
comes.”