For decades now Canadian politics has been faced with the issue of Quebec's independence, the province of Quebec

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October 02, 2007 Naveen Kashyap

Quebec

Should it stay or should it go?

For decades now Canadian politics has been faced with the issue of Quebec's independence, the province of Quebec has wanted to leave Canada to become a country of its own. Canadian history has debated whether or not Quebec should stay or go? Certain Quebec leaders and citizens main goal is to preserve and protect their culture and language, in order to do so they must form their own government. Quebec does not truly feel "a sense of belonging to the entity called Canada; and it is unlikely they ever will."i They believe they are a distinct society that the French people are a shrinking minority in an English speaking nation, and they do not feel they have a strong political voice in their own province.

In a way Quebec is already like a separate country from the rest of Canada, it has a distinct society because of its unique French culture, its language and its history. To the Quebeckers these aspects characterize their province to be a unique province which the rest of Canada should "recognize as a distinct society."ii However in spite of these differences Quebec is actually quite similar to the rest of Canada. In Quebec as in the rest of Canada there are many other cultures, like the Inuit and the Cree Indians in the north, the fact that Montreal is one of the most multicultural cities in Canada. Montreal's population consists of East Indians, Chinese, Jewish, German, Italian and the list goes on. There are also people of mixed heritage living in Quebec; the rest of Canada prides itself on this very multiethnic feature. Furthermore, in Quebec there is still crime, environmental issues, children who play hockey as much as the rest of Canada, politicians who take advantage of the common citizen and people who pray to god for a peaceful world. These similarities are reflective of the rest of Canada.
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The official language of government, courts, and businesses in Quebec is French (all shop signs have French twice as large as English) and this fact of having a distinct language is the backbone for debating for independence, "Francophone Quebecois identify Quebec as their nation and Canada as their state, while English speaking Canadians identify Canada both as their nation and as their state."iii The debate in relation to having a distinct language is not a strong argument because other provinces also speak French like, New Brunswick and Northern Ontario, and Manitoba. Moreover French is not the only language ...

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