Pluralism and Inequality in Quebec

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of history at York University, the
co-author of the Dictionary of Canadian Military History and Empire to
Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s, and the author of The Good
Fight.

This book by a University of Ottawa sociologist is an attempt to measure
Quebeckers’ attitudes to pluralism. Many readers will find the prose
difficult, the historical sections too brief and wobbly, and the
concepts hard to grasp. But there are some interesting survey results in
Laczko’s work that make persevering worthwhile. The evidence
demonstrates that the highest-status francophones are the most likely to
believe that Quebec is different and that French culture is in danger.
They are also readiest to perceive inequalities between French and
English and to judge that anglophones are favored by the system.
Education and money, in other words, do not necessarily lead to a
broadening of outlook. Francophones are also more likely to be
unwelcoming to immigrants and hostile to First Nations’ aspirations
than anglophones are—a result that seems to explain the 1995
referendum result, though this book appeared before the vote, and some
of the bitter anti-immigrant comments after it from separatist leaders.
Laczko, however, sees the possibility that the Parti Québécois could
offer guarantees to the anglophone, allophone, and First Nations
minority in return for loyalty to an independent nation. He also
suggests that the result of independence could be that Quebec remains a
de facto bilingual state while the rest of Canada returns to unilingual
status. As these conjectures suggest, this is an interesting book that
merits careful digestion.