Tribal Nationalism Afire

Now that's a bombshell of unexpected proportions. Pierre Karl Peladeau surrendering to his tribal conscience telling him that he must step forward to align himself with the left, the unions he has always upbraided and derided, and those of ideological inclinations he has never found much sympathy for. Suddenly, he sympathizes. He thinks, he has said, of his children, and wants them to feel comfort bathing in the security of tribal nationalism.

Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois and Pierre Karl Peladeau greet supporters as they arrive in Saint Jerome, Que., to announce Peladeau as PQ candidate for that riding on day five of the Quebec provincial election campaign. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Politics, philosophy, economics, none of that motivates people so much as tribalism does. And usually when we think 'tribe' or 'clan', we think if primitive emotions, of groups of people living in profoundly dysfunctional environments, surrounded perhaps by other tribal groups threatening each the other's peace and security. Well, it seems the Quebecois express fears and frustrations that put them in direct lineage with, for example, Palestinians.

No wonder there is such sympathy among the French in Canada with the 'plight' of the Palestinians. The reality of Israel, a Jewish state in a Muslim territory engendered the furious hatred of Palestinians who feel they have been disenfranchised from their birthright by an upstart group of intruders forcing themselves on to a geography that doesn't want them. Israel has Fatah/Hamas hungering for its swift demise.

Quebec views the conquering English armies of a time long past as illegitimate overseers of a far more extraordinarily exceptional culture, language and heritage than their own. The influence of the majority English-speakers in Confederation represent a cultural-linguistic threat to French Canadians whose heritage is more dear than any investment in a nation comprised of both 'founding' nations plus those whom the presence of Europeans displaced, along with the continuing influx of immigrants.

Little wonder the current Government of Canada feels such affinity for the State of Israel, willing to defend it in hostile circles that generally sympathize hugely with the "Palestinian cause", prepared to think of Israel as an 'oppressor, apartheid' state, because that fits the narrative they prefer. It is an inherited burden that Canada recognizes well.

Quebec, within Canada, needed the Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois to lead them out of the wilderness of captivity within a union of French and English, where the quality of French expression and culture is never adequately appreciated, when francophones are expected to comport themselves no differently in an integrated society as any other language-come-lately through the kind of mass emigration that made Canada what it is today.

Francophones have never been particularly shy in the last half-century to complain about their status within Canada. And Anglophones have never been particularly loathe to cut them slack, to attempt all measures at their disposal whether convenient or not, to appease and impress the French in Canada with the esteem in which they are held as an integral and truly impressive portion of the whole. It is never enough.

No amount of accommodation, deal-making or cozying up and promises have ever sufficed to soothe Quebec's hurt feelings dating back to the battle of the Plains of Abraham. They must become a Republic, a sovereign political, national entity, for that is their destiny in emulation of France from whence they came. Negotiations to improve relations, to convince Quebec that its value within Confederation is incalculable fall on deaf ears.

The power of grieving tribal nationalism transcends all matters of practicality, of loyalty, of usefulness to both parties' future aspirations as a unified and mutually-supporting tandem; Quebec/Rest of Canada. The visceral nature of Quebec's ongoing, defiant, entitled rejection of confederation, its feverish forays toward secession surmount all considerations.

Quebec will not be appeased, it will not be placated, for there is nothing Canada can do to persuade francophone separatists that they have anything to gain by bargaining 'in good faith' with their Anglophone counterparts. And the more that is surrendered to Quebec's demands, the greater those demands accelerate, one querulous insistence after another to ensure that all regard Quebec as 'special', more entitled than any other sum of the parts of the whole.

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 “israeli palestinian peace negotiations”

Just as Israel negotiates year in, year out, time after time with the aggrieved Palestinians, revelling in grief in their refugee status that cannot, will not be reversed until such time as Israel dissolves itself in remorse, leaving the geography for Palestinians to flood back to recapture history as they want it, frozen pre-1948, so too does Quebec anticipate that Canada and Canadians will eventually tire of struggling to appease Quebec, and wave it on to separation.