Public opinion and the Canadian political crisis*
Authors: ORNSTEIN MICHAEL D. , STEVENSON H. MICHAEL , WILLIAMS A. PAULM. 
Published: July 2010

This survey of public opinion offers little hope of a speedy resolution to the conflict between the federal government and the government of Quebec by reference to a wider public debate than is provided for in the existing electoral machinery. In Quebec, the program of the Parti Quebecois is supported by about one‐third of the population. However, the very great majority of Quebecers wants recognition of the special status of French in their province, in line with the recent language legislation of the pq government. French Quebecers also strongly support the extension of bilingual opportunities in education and government in the rest of Canada, policies which are presently beyond the jurisdiction of the federal government and which provincial governments are not yet prepared to enact.

A clear majority of Canadians outside Quebec opposes provisions for the special status of French within Quebec as the language of work and of schooling for non‐English‐speaking immigrants, and only a small majority supports the extension of educational and governmental facilities in French outside Quebec.

Differences in public opinion are equally pronounced with respect to the issues of concessions and economic agreement. The great majority of Quebecers favours an economic agreement with the rest of Canada if the province becomes independent. Outside Quebec only a bare majority of Canadians supports any concessions to Quebec to prevent separation, and a large proportion of them draws the line at “minor” concessions. Similarly, only a slight majority of Canadians outside of Quebec is prepared to approve of the negotiation of an economic agreement should a majority of Quebecers vote for independence, and it seems likely that a majority in English Canada would oppose any concrete suggestions for economic union.

Further insights into the structure of these political attitudes can be obtained from Table V1, which shows gamma values measuring the associations between the individual items discussed so far and compares these associations for the two large non‐minority groups ‐ the French in Quebec and the non‐French outside Quebec. The generally stronger associations in Quebec among the responses to items a to E ‐measuring support for conventional policies of bilingualism ‐ indicate that French Quebecers are more likely to view the extension of these rights in Quebec and English Canada in terms of reciprocity and that their beliefs are more coherently organized than those of English Canadians. It is interesting to examine the relationship between support for English‐language schooling for Canadians who move to Quebec versus provision for this schooling for people who do not speak English and move to Quebec. In English Canada the two policies are very strongly related; the gamma of 81 indicates that both policies are seen as part of a single dimension. But French Quebecers see these as two distinguishable issues, though they are still positively related (the gamma is.25).

In Quebec there is little relationship between support for independence and attitudes to bilingualism. Support for independence is weakly, but negatively, correlated with support for English schooling for English Canadians who move to Quebec and with recognition of the right to communicate with the Quebec government in English. Supporters of independence tend to oppose common Federalist notions of bilingualism, but not as strongly as might be expected.

What is suggested here is that “independen‐tisme” is a reaction to conditions within Quebec ‐ as indicated further by the definite association between support for independence and the measures to protect French within Quebec ‐ rather than a reaction to conditions in Canada or an ethnocentric response to English Canadians generally. The data in Table VI also indicate that amongst non‐French‐speaking Canadians outside Quebec support for the extension of opportunities for the use of French in Canada is associated with support for the recognition of the special status of French in Quebec and with approval of a more conciliatory attitude to concessions and economic agreement with Quebec. The relevant coefficients are in the order of.30, indicating a fairly consistent attitudinal structure. In English Canada, therefore, attitudes to bilingualism reflect a general orientation towards political developments in Quebec which can be seen in terms of the response of a dominant ethnic group to the assertion of “civil rights” by an ethnic minority. In Quebec, on the other hand, problems of civil rights in majority‐minority relations within Canada have little or nothing to do with the demand for the right to self‐determination. This demand reflects rather the concentration of the French population and the historical continuity of the French community in Quebec, and arguments over the right to self‐determination are based upon interpretations of political and economic conditions within Quebec. Within Quebec, therefore, we expect to explain attitudes to independence and language rights in terms of conventional theories of support for nationalist movements, while in the rest of Canada we concentrate on theories of prejudice and support for civil liberties.