PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to H. Bruce Jefferson, 29 October 1967. MS-2-202 42.52.
Subject HeadingsIn a letter to his friend and fellow politics watcher H. Bruce Jefferson, T. H. Raddall gives his views on the evolving political situation in Qu�bec a few months after Charles de Gaulle's Vive le Qu�bec libre speech. Raddall focuses on the economic consequences of separation for Qu�becers and concludes that unlike France, Qu�bec needs English support for economic development. Raddall draws comparisons between the Qu�bec situation and that caused by Joseph Howe's strong anti-confederate rhetoric of a hundred years before. Raddall ends his overview expressing the opinion that average Qu�becers would not accept separation as continued economic prosperity could not be guaranteed.
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H.B. Jefferson 6014 Shirley St., Halifax, N.S. October 29, 1967. Hello Jeff: The Daniel Johnson -- Charles De Gaulle axis1 seems to be working out as I expected, along with the noise of the separatistes. Capital has begun to fold its tent and move out of La Belle Province. Already this movement has frightened Lesage and his Liberals into dropping Mr. Levesque2 and protesting that (like the darkie in the hen-coop) nobody's there except us chickens. Even Johnson is making soothing sounds about not wanting to build a Chinese Wall around Quebec. According to Norman DePoe3 (did you hear him on TV a few nights ago?) a careful sampling of Quebec opinion by the Canadian Press shows that not more than 7% of the people want to separate from the Canadian federation, and the great majority are much more worried about jobs and markets. I think most of them realise that they couldn't be any more "libre" than they are now,4 but they could be a lot worse off financially, and money is the prime factor with the French as much as the English. De Gaulle's anglophobia is directed mainly at the Americans. With France cosily established as boss of the Europ- ean common market she can get along very well without American capital. Quebec is in a very different position, wanting money for development and absolutely dependent on English-speaking markets for her products. When De Gaulle brayed his set piece on North American soil he was thumbing his long nose at the Americans as much if not more than at the English-speaking Canadians, and the American reaction was as strong as ours, and much more effective. They put the chill on the money end of the French Fact, where it is most sensitive. And the thermometer has only begun to go down. It could be a long winter. In the long run that is going to have more effect on French-Canadian thinking than anything Ottawa could devise in the way of concessions and handouts -- and we may be sure that Mr. Pearson5 will devise all kinds of things. The continual noise and arrogance of the separatists (like the bad manners of those Quebec students at the Halifax dinner last week) is irritating, of course, but I'm no Francophobe. The thing to keep in mind is that the noise and arrogance are coming from a distinct minority in Quebec itself, as the C.P. survey shows. I think the average Quebecois is like our own Acadien, content to have his language and his church and a share in a going concern. Papineau found that out a long time ago.6 At the time he stirred up his reb- ellion he seemed to have all kinds of support throughout Quebec, but when it came to a showdown he found damned little. Think of Joe Howe and all the ruckus he kicked up against "this Botheration Scheme".7 He even talked of "taking up arms" and uttered some nonsense about standing with his sons on the Tantramar Marsh to fight off the Canadians. Not long after that he accepted a minor post in the Canadian cabinet and piped down. Joe was a good man for Nova Scotia in his day, but there were times when his ambitions and emotions got mixed up to the fizzing point, and then he shouted through his chapeau like any fuzzy political professor from the Univ- ersity of Montreal today. And the average Bluenose knew it. If the separatists could convince Jean Baptiste8 that he could have a French republic and prosperity at the same time they could sell their package tomorrow. They won't -- because they can't. |
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