>...but the center of gravity in each has changed.
>French-speaking Quebec, with nearly a quarter of the
>population and its open social attitudes, pulls
>Canada to the left, just as the South and Bible Belt
>increasingly pull the United States in the opposite
>direction, particularly on issues like abortion, gay
>marriage and capital punishment.
>
>None of those have resonated much over the last
>decade in Canada, where the consensus on social policy
>seems more solidly formed, its fissures narrower and
>less exploitable.
>
>Chris Ragan, a McGill University economist, observed:
>"You can be a social conservative in the U.S. without
>being a wacko. Not in Canada."
Like anyone on this list cares about Canada... including other Canadians... but Quebec has not always been "left." It was very right wing until the Quiet Revolution of the 1940s and 1950s. Duplessis was the fascist blending of Church, Local Culture and Big Business. Premier Lesage's election in 1960 was driven by the same motor that "made" Pierre Trudeau, Rene Levesque and Jean Chrétien. (And many, many others, like F.R. Scott.)
Also, "French-speaking Quebec" is declining as a percentage of Canadian population...
But the French focus of the American newspaper just fits with the U.S. editorial complaints about the Iraq Adventure. (France was opposed from the beginning, though for different reasons than French-Canadians were.)
So... the writer in the NYT is wrong (not dead wrong!) in thinking Quebec is the centre of gravity today in Canada. The _echoes_ of its provincial revolution are. Toronto has become the centre of gravity and it has undergone its own "Quiet Revolution."
Urban Quebec and Urban Ontario really dominate Canadian politics at the moment -- for good or bad. (I think Canada may be one of the most urban nations.)
Chris Ragan, in the above quote, is right, though. You guys down there elect the wackiest fuckers. Up here, you have to be from Alberta to get away with that.
On another list, I asked when you are going to finally finish the Civil War and eradicate the Bible Belt?
Ken.
-- The state does not belong in the bedrooms of the nation.
-- Pierre Trudeau, 1967