The Foriegn Market Essay, Research Paper

The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this

hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet

revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage

came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution.

Lesage had an excellent team of cabinet ministers which

included Rene Levesque. The Liberals promised to do two things

during the Quiet Revolution; one was to improve economic and social

standards for the people of Quebec, and the other was to win

greater respect and recognition for all the French people of

Canada. The Liberals started a program to take control of hydroelectric power companies. French-Canadian engineers from all over

Canada returned to Quebec to work on the project. Slogans during

these times were we can do it and masters in our own homes .

The government also started to replace programs the Church

previously ran, which included hospital insurance, pension schemes

and the beginning of Medi-Care. For these programs, the Quebec

Liberals had to struggle with Ottawa for a larger share of the tax

dollars.

+ +One of the greatest reforms was the modernization of the

entire school system. The Church used to own the schools of

Quebec. Most of the teachers were Priests, Nuns and Brothers.

They provided a good education but Quebec needed more in business

and technology. Lesage wanted a government run school system that

would provide Quebec with people in engineering, science, business

and commerce.

+ +With the new freedom of expression, lots of books, plays and

music about French culture were all developed in Quebec. French

contemporary playwrights were very famous during that time.

However, not all was going well in Quebec. The French English

relation was going bad. Many studies showed that French Canadian

Quebecers were earning the lowest wage in all of the ethnic groups

in Canada. Other complaints were that the top jobs in Quebec were

given to English speaking Canadians. Canada was going through the

worst crisis in its history, and unless equal partnership was found

a break up would likely happen. Some Quebecers thought that

separation was the only solution. They thought that as long as

Quebec was associated with the rest of Canada, French Canadians

would never be treated equal.

The FLQ (Front De Lib+) +ration Du Qu+) +bec) was founded in 1963.

It was a smaller, more forceful group of separatists. They were a

collection of groups of young people whose idea was to use

terrorism to achieve independence for Quebec. The ALQ (L Arm) de

Lib) ration de Quebec) was even more of a violent separatist group.

Some of their actions included robbing banks in order to get money.

For their ammunition they had to raid arms depots of the Canadian

Armed Forces.

There were many Federalists that believed that separatism had

no future and that FrenchCanadians could play a role in a bilingual Canada. There were three Quebec men that believed in

Federalism. These men were Liberals and their names were Pierre

Trudeau, Jean Marchand and +rard Pelletier. The President of

France, General De Gaulle came to Quebec in 1967 and gave speeches

to separatist groups that deemed him an enthusiast of the thoughts

of the separatists in the struggle to fight for the liberation of

Quebec. The Prime Minister at the time, Lester B. Pearson,

criticized De Gaulle s remarks and said that Quebec belonged to

Canada and there was no need for their liberation. In 1970,

British Trade Commissioner James R. Cross was kidnapped by FLQ and

wanted in return for Cross, 23 political prisoners.