Check against delivery.
Hello everyone!
Bonjour à tous!
J’aimerais d’abord remercier sincèrement votre professeur, Monsieur André Lecours, pour son invitation à venir m’adresser à vous dans le cadre de votre cours d’introduction à la politique canadienne.
Professor Lecours, thank you for this invitation to speak with your students.
To begin with, I would like to tell you that Canadian politics is not only what is described in the media.
If one relies on the media alone, one will observe many conflicts, disputes and irreconcilable interests, because that is the essence of mainstream news coverage.
Criticism of the equalization program; contradictory visions on the environment;
the feelings of this or that group concerning pipeline projects;
the reactions of those who defend Bombardier;
of those who defend Boeing…
Media coverage gives the rather general impression that no one gets along in Canada.
I will give you a recent example.
In December, at a conference of the Mowat Centre in Toronto, Premiers Wynne and Couillard discussed publicly their visions of the Canada of tomorrow.
The audience unanimously noticed the incredible complicity between these two heads of government.
They shared in a very inspiring way the importance they place on an honest and respectful relationship imbued with mutual trust, despite the divergent interests that are inherent in human – and governmental! relations.
The following day, in the Québec media, the points raised were virtually limited to the very few areas of disagreement between the two governments: the approach toward the minimum wage and the tax on Netflix. I will leave it at that.
This conflictual image is all too often provided to us. But over and above, there are many areas of solidarity between Canadians; between Quebecers and other Canadians.
We have much in common. We are not just two solitudes.
And this is a point that I want to talk about. But, before going further, I would like to set the context of my presentation by quoting the most recent book by Professor Peter Russell, of the University of Toronto: Canada’s Odyssey – A country based on incomplete conquests, where he talks about the three pillars of our country : the Canadians, the Quebecers and the Aboriginal peoples.
And I quote:
“As a country or a society, Canada might always be a work in progress. We make the best progress in living well together when we learn more about those we see as “the other” - Canadians not in our own pillar.
(…) I do suggest in closing the book that what we have learned about living well together could be a value to all of humankind. Multinational, multicultural Canada might offer more useful guidance for what lies ahead of the peoples of this planet than the tidy model of the single-nation sovereign state.
Indeed, Canada might be more like a civilization than a nation-state.”
He concludes by saying:
“Canada could replace empire and nation-state as the most attractive model in the twenty-first century.”
Coincidentally, Peter Russell published this book almost at the same time that we made our Policy public.
What is he telling us?
He is telling us that Canada is neither a mononational-state nor a post-national state – that it is multinational;
that Canada’s DNA is its diversity: its collective diversity and its individual diversity.
He is telling us that the model of these diversities and of the recognized and accepted multiple belongings is probably the one that has the most to offer to the world of the future.
I cannot tell you if he is echoing our Policy, or if our Policy is echoing his words.
But what I do know is that what we are saying is the same. To those who wonder whether the dialogue to which Québec is inviting other Canadians is possible, I would say that it has already begun.
What lies at the heart of our Policy on Québec’s Affirmation and Canadian Relations is to make room for everyone – so that we may together shape a common space.
Our Policy defines and names what we are: an inclusive and plural nation.
A nation composed of a Francophone majority, with the added strength of the dynamic, historical and contemporary contribution of the English-speaking community, wishing to respond to the aspirations of the eleven Aboriginal nations spread across the territory, and enriched by the diversity of people of all origins who join it.
Québec is a nation that also possesses its own legal, political, cultural, economic, educational and social institutions.
In short, the Québec Nation has a very specific character that it wishes to preserve, to cultivate and to share.
Thus we seek to create a balance, on the one hand between the continuity of a collective identity closely linked with the history of Québec and with its distinct and Francophone character, and, on the other hand, with an openness to mutual and collective enrichment through the recognition of diversity and by valuing intercultural dialogue and understanding.
We know that to achieve this objective, framed by the policy of interculturalism, we still have much work ahead of us. But we also know that it is the only way to achieve an inclusive Québec.
This willingness to include is also what Québecers expect from Canada.
Yet Canada still hasn’t formally welcomed the Québec Nation within its fold.
Quebecers feel an allegiance to the Québec Nation that is real and strong.
For a majority of Quebecers – 75 % – this allegiance is also connected with a feeling of belonging to Canada.
We do not have to choose between being Quebecers and being Canadians. We are both. We want to be both.
In our quest for a more formal recognition, we are not alone. The role of Aboriginal peoples in our federation would be different, were Canada to be designed today.
Hence the importance of dialogue, if we want to agree on the way to conceive the Canadian federalism of tomorrow.
University of Alberta Political Scientist Frédéric Boily recently noted that there are many studies comparing Canada and the United States, but that there are quite few providing comparison between provinces.
He thus concluded that Canadians do not know one another very well. This gap is one that Québec hopes to fill.
When the First Nations and the Inuit share their aspirations with us, do we stop to listen to them and to understand them?
When the western provinces express their feeling of alienation, do we hear them? Do we understand them? Do we at least try?
When Quebecers express their feeling of not being fully accepted and recognized within the federation, who tries to understand them?
And I know that you also have in mind other Canadian realities that deserve an attentive ear and an answer.
Are we ready to recognize these realities and to try to understand them?
Dialogue is the primary tool available to us for this purpose.
There is room for dialogue, not only for or about Québec.
Each of us has a story to tell. Mostly, we all have a common story to write together.
All of these stories can be harmoniously integrated into the Canadian narrative.
This is what our Policy proposes: to listen; to understand; to set up mechanisms and spaces for dialogue and for solidarity.
The ties between Quebecers and other Canadians must be based above all on relationships of trust and reciprocity.
And we have the conviction that it is through dialogue, by coming closer together, by creating greater solidarity between us, that we will make this possible.
And probably also, by going beyond the media-based perception.
As I mentioned earlier, our relationships are already numerous, diversified and well entrenched. We can still develop more of them.
In 2015, there were more than 13,000 Canadian students from outside Québec who were registered in Québec universities, and were thus in relation with Québec students.
It is these young people, and those from throughout Canada, who will build the 21st century of which Peter Russell speaks.
Perhaps these new interrelationships should be seen as the source of a new solidarity.
Indeed recently, on May 10, 2017, the Québec Student Union and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations signed a partnership agreement aiming to unite their efforts so that the students whose interests they defend may be better represented to the federal government.
Moreover, not enough is said about the major areas of economic solidarity that exist between us.
Trade between Québec and the other Canadian provinces almost reaches levels equivalent to that of our trade with the United States, despite the fact that the U.S. population is ten times as high!
Québec trades more goods each year with New Brunswick than with France, although New Brunswick is a province with 750 thousand inhabitants, while France is a country that numbers more than 60 million!
Same thing between Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador: The exchanges of goods between our two provinces are greater than those of Québec and Italy, despite that Newfoundland and Labrador's population is 530 thousand people while Italy's is 62 million people!
With Ontario, we trade more goods every year than with the entire European Union: all 28 countries of the European Union!
We also trade three times more goods with Ontario as with China!
The trade relations between our provinces are the result of entrepreneurs discussing matters together and creating relationships that go beyond merely the economic sphere.
This means thousands of Quebecers and Ontarians who collaborate, exchange, discuss things and work together on a daily basis.
Our two governments have launched a common artificial intelligence initiative.
Québec, Ontario and private businesses are currently contributing to the development of the 5G Network.
We are preparing the next economy together: remote tactile interaction, information transmitted by vehicles, intelligent transportation, telemedicine and mobile health.
The future is now.
While free trade with the United States is threatened, we are building the future together, without any fanfare.
Our solidarities constitute fertile ground for the trust needed to face the other challenges that await us.
We must renew the trust needed to build the Canadian federation in our image; in our plural images: in the image of Québec, in that of the Aboriginal peoples, in those of Ontario, of the Western and Atlantic provinces.
Our Policy marks a change. It recognizes that constitutional modifications will be possible only once Quebecers and other Canadians have come closer together.
We are convinced that with time, when we will have learned to know each other, we will be able to acknowledge each other.
And when we will meet again to discuss our Constitution – one day…, we will not sit on opposite sides of the table, tearing each other apart.
It will be all of us, on the same side of the table.
Because we will better know, better understand and better accept each other for what we are.
It is important for me, as is the case at all forums where I have spoken in recent months, to talk to you about the fundamental importance of the Canadian Francophonie.
We are about 10.5 million Francophones and Francophiles in Canada.
In the world, there are currently close to 275 million French speakers and in 2050, there will be 700 million.
Canada has an advantage that few countries share. It possesses a window on the English-speaking world and a window on the French-speaking world.
I sincerely believe that this advantage adds to the strength of our country and to the role that it can play in the world.
It is in the interest of all Canadians, whether English-speaking or French-speaking, to benefit from the economic, social, cultural, environmental and diplomatic advantages resulting from these windows.
Let us open these windows wide!
And let us show everyone the Francophone advantage, which is quite real.
Bruno Bernard, an expert on Francophone international trade, recently wrote that French is the second-most studied language in the world, after English. Currently, 116 million people are attending French courses or courses given in French around the globe.
This expert states that if we add up the total GDP of the countries of the Francophonie, together we are the 3rd largest in the world, just behind the United States and China. And in contrast to the latter two, the Francophone market is growing rapidly!
Our official languages should be seen as a bridge that unites us, not as a gap that divides us.
Let’s build this bridge together. Since 1961, the number of bilingual people in Canada has never stopped growing.
The rate of bilingualism has risen from 12% to 18%.
This is progress; it is even a new summit for French-English bilingualism in Canadian history, but it is only one stage.
We must carry forward with this momentum, particularly by encouraging people in our country to learn French.
Why not set an objective that within 10 years, all university students in Canada should be bilingual at the completion of their studies?
The world is headed in that direction.
Did you know that over 50% of the citizens of the member states of the European Union speak at least one other foreign language in addition to their native language?
In a recent speech at the Sorbonne University, President Macron set the objective that by 2024, every French student should speak two European languages.
Let us also be ambitious!
The present century will be multinational and multilingual. Will Canada be following in the wake, or ahead of the others?
The answer to this question is up to you.
Canada is not its governments, its union leaders nor even its media. Canada is YOU!
The Canada of the 21st century of which Peter Russell speaks is your Canada.
The project presented in our Policy should be of concern not only to Quebecers. It should be of concern to all Canadians, and it concerns you, first and foremost.
You are 20 years of age.
You will build the 21st century.
It is up to you to decide whether Canada will be a country like any other, or a model for the others to follow.
In an anxious world, tempted by isolation and identity withdrawal, Quebecers and all Canadians, motivated by an inclusive perspective on humanity,
have the opportunity to come together, to share and realize the ambitious idea of bringing together the plurality of our belongings instead of putting them in opposition.
In the face of global challenges raised by increased migration, economic delocalization and increased inequality,
Quebecers and Canadians can together offer the world the beginning of an answer on how to live together, by recognizing and accepting collective diversities.
This is at once an imposing challenge and an exciting project.
It is a project for all Quebecers; it is a project for all Canadians.
I therefore wish to invite you to take part in this dialogue.
How?
Develop student exchanges and youth activities with groups from different corners of the country.
Set up activities that bring people together.
Put pen to paper, choose to foster relationships across the country.
Learn French!
Invest in the intellectual, political and economic circles, in newspapers, and in social networks!
Lift the constitutional taboo that has set in within the public sphere.
Together, we can build the Canada of tomorrow.
From Québec I say: we can, and we want to do it.
We are Quebecers, and it’s our way of being Canadian.
From Ontario, what do you say?
Merci beaucoup!
