The word “pride” does not come easily from the lips of Quebecers when talking about themselves as a people. For many, it is a controversial, suspicious word, which can cause criticism, derisive looks or even contempt for those who dare to say it. talk about it with François Legault !
Anyone who says he is proud to be a Quebecois can seem pretentious, but also like someone who enjoys looking at his navel, who refuses to open up to others, differences, the world or this famous difference in which, according to some, it would be much better if we all drowned and gone forever. “Long live multiculturalism”, we could finally sing in unison, all provinces joined and melted in the Canadian melting pot, “the best country in the world”, as they say. Jean Chrétien.
And then, proud of what exactly, all those who are annoyed by this sentiment when it comes out of our mouths could ask themselves? Survive despite conquest? To continue standing, albeit bent and sometimes on its knees, after the aborted rebellion of 1837-1838, the lost referendum in 1980, the imposition of the constitution in 1982 by the federal government, or even that second referendum lost – and probably stolen – in 1995? Can the people say that they are proud of themselves when they twice refused to say yes to becoming independent and responsible for their own destiny? could add the opponents of the emancipation of the people of Quebec. Let’s face it, they may be somewhat right…
“I never thought I could be as proud to be Quebecois as I am tonight,” he told us. René Levesque November 15, 1976, the day that Fun in Quebec took power for the first time. However, when in the same speech he added this: “We are not a small nation, we may be something like a great nation”, let’s admit that his hesitations and twists told us a lot about the fragility of this cursed pride that he was just celebrating.
And then, when we can no longer hold back before the exploits or successes of one of our own on the international scene, we quickly find a way to soften our pride by talking about these Quebecers as little boys or girls from our area. Why call them “small” when they are among the greats of this world? Yes, we may be something like a small, I mean like a big nation…
I have been spending several months in Greece every year for ten years. Despite the misfortunes, crises and wars that have marked its history, I find there people who never hesitate to express their pride loud and clear, to the extent that they are sometimes convinced that they invented almost everything! Would we blame them? For nothing in the world! How then can we explain our reluctance to do the same? Why this embarrassment and sometimes even this shame when it comes to affirming, even in words, our pride in being Quebecois?
Maybe it’s because we have a certain self-confidence problem, we suffer from a lack of self-confidence and are too easily intimidated or influenced by the followers and descendants of Lord Durham who despise us, who mock our accent and always want to see us as water carriers, less than nothing, as a people without culture, without history and above all without future.
It is up to us to raise our heads, to stop being a two-headed creature – one head in Quebec and the other in Ottawa -, to reject this bipolar attitude that makes us believe that it is possible to be one and its opposite, wanting “an independent Quebec in a united Canada ”, as Yvon Deschamps said ironically.
To become adults, sovereign, independent and completely proud of who we have become, we Quebecers of all origins will have to show courage, lucidity and introspection, qualities that are much easier to acquire when we know our own identity. Although the challenge is enormous, it is still possible to fulfill it.