Watching Quebec: Selected Essays

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Born in Manitoba, Ramsay Cook, now 76, is arguably English Canada’s
premier expert on Quebec. It all began at the University of Toronto in
the midst of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution when as a young lecturer he
observed that none of his colleagues were interested in studying French
Canada. Since that time, he has published several books focusing on
Canada and Quebec.

The book under review is a collection of 15 previously published essays
that were written between 1964 and 2003. Even though they have not been
revised for republication, the essays still feel fresh and replete with
provocative insights. “Quebec: The Ideology of Survival” (1965) and
“The Canadian Dilemma: Locke, Rousseau, or Action?” (1964) should
still be read by every Canadian interested in the future of this
country. In addition to grand thematic pieces, the book contains more
specialized papers that stand on their own, such as “A Country Doctor
and His Bishop: An Incident in the History of Science and Religion in
Quebec.”

Watching Quebec ends with a paper on René Lévesque and Pierre
Trudeau. If the collection has one drawback, it is that Cook chose not
to include a paper addressing recent developments in Quebec, and
especially the emergence of the Bloc Québécois.