It’s still called “La St-Jean” by most in Québec but the official name of today’s national holiday celebration is “La Fête nationale du Québec”.
And its two spokespeople, media personalities Marie-Chantal Perron and Boucar Diouf, suggest that when they talk about les “gens d’ici” (the people from here), they mean everyone who calls Québec their home independent of ethnicity.
But make no mistake; this is a celebration of the French language, culture and identity. For the past 25 years, the celebrations have been organized by the Mouvement national des Québécoises and Québécois. Its website claims that sovereignty, national pride, promotion and defense of the French language are at the heart of its actions.
The official website of la Fête - in French only of course – offers great content on the history of the celebrations including patriotic texts published over the years. And the theme this year is “une voix qui porte” – loosely translated as “a voice that carries, that resonates”.
So what is the definition of the word “Québécois”?
EKOS asked 1,022 Canadians in December 2006 shortly after the House of Commons passed a resolution affirming that the Québécois are a nation.
As EKOS wrote in its report, “the result, quite literally, is that the House of Commons resolution means one thing in one part of the country, and something else elsewhere”.
In Québec, the term Québécois is defined by residence and territory so it’s more civic than linguistic or racial in nature. In the rest of Canada, the term Québécois has retained the traditional English Dictionary definition as meaning a French-speaking Quebecker.
The EKOS report goes on to say: “In English, then, it seems, many Canadians make a distinction between “Quebeckers” who irrespective of linguistic background are residents of the province, and “Québécois” who are seen as Francophones.”
I’m not a research methodologist but it seems to me that asking someone in Edmonton about the meaning of the word “Québécois” instead of “Quebecker” is more likely to lead to answers about language than geography.
EKOS adds: “So, are these alternative understandings just a point of anthropological curiosity? We think not. The probing on whether or not recognition of a ‘Quebecois nation’ means more powers or is just a symbolic gesture becomes more charged when we consider that Canadians do not share a semantically consistent understanding of the term. The term is neither conceptually nor phenomenally equivalent across the Québec / ROC divide.”
Canadians do not share a semantically consistent understanding of the term?
How about just sharing a drink on this day? One look at the sponsors of the Fête nationale suggests that it’s what we should be doing instead of debating semantics.
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