Interpreting Quebec’s Exile Within the Federation

This book proposes a critical interpretation of the current predicament of the province of Québec within the Canadian federation. It uses the approaches of political theory and intellectual history to suggest that Québec is presently exiled within Canada: it is not adequately integrated, and it seems extremely unlikely that it will be successful in any attempt to exit from the federation.

Guy Laforest is Full Professor in the department of political science, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. His main areas of teaching and research are political theory, intellectual history in Canada and Québec, theories of federalism and of nationalism. He is vice-president of the International Association for Québec Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Leseprobe

Contents: Introduction: Interpreting Québec’s Exile within the Federation: Selected Political Essays – The Internal Exile of Québecers in the Canada of the Charter – The Contemporary Meaning and Utility of Federalism – Making Sense of Canada as a Federal System: The Relevance of Historical Legacies – The Historical and Legal Origins of Asymmetrical Federalism in Canada’s Founding Debates: A Brief Interpretive Note – What Canadian Federalism Means in Québec – Lord Durham, French Canada, and Québec: Remembering the Past, Debating the Future – Some Reflections on the Bouchard-Taylor Commission – More Distress than Enchantment: The Constitutional Negotiations of November 1981 – The Canadian State and the Political Freedom of Québec: The Ideas of James Tully and Michel Seymour – Trust and Mistrust between Harper and Québec.