Quiet Revolution Origins Education Economic Reforms

The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) was a period of rapid change in Quebec in the 1960s. It was characterized by:

The changes were the result of many important transformations within Quebec society. Among those often cited are:

The term "Quiet Revolution" is said to have been first employed in an article of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail. It was used to qualify the peaceful nature of the changes that were going largely unnoticed in English Canada.

1 Origins

There is no consensus as to when the Quiet Revolution began, except perhaps on the political level with the reforms enacted by the Liberal provincial government of Jean Lesage elected in the 1960 Quebec election. Similarly, there is no consensus as to when the Quiet Revolution ended, but it is mostly agreed that it was before the 1970s.

Many events are said to have been precursors or at least signs of this impending revolution. Among them are the Asbestos miners' strike of 1949, the Maurice Richard riot of 1955, the signing of the Refus Global by les Automatistes and the publication of Les insolences du Frère Untel (the impertinences of Brother Somebody), which criticized the dominant role of the Catholic Church in Quebec.

Prior to 1960, the political, educational, economic and social spheres of Quebec were controlled by the fiercely conservative Maurice DuplessisMaurice Le Noblet Duplessis ( 20 April, 1890 7 September, 1959) served as the Prime Minister of the Canadian province of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959). He was a founder of and leader of the conservative Union Nationale party, and a strong sup, leader of the Union NationaleThe Union Nationale was a political party in Quebec, Canada that identified with conservative French-Canadian nationalism. It notably held power in Quebec uninterrupted from 1944 to 1960, under Maurice Duplessis. The party was created when a group of nati, the influential Catholic Church and wealthy businesses. Electoral fraud and corruption were commonplace, with the Church openly campaigning for the Union Nationale with slogans such as Le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge (Heaven is blue, hell is red - referring to the colours of the Union Nationale (blue) and the Liberals (red)). The Roman Catholic Church controlled the availability of books by maintaining an index of banned documents (the Index Librorum ProhibitorumThe Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books)—also called Index Expurgatorius is a list of publications which Roman Catholics were banned from reading, "pernicious books", and also the rules of the Church relating to books. The aim of the li). The province's natural resources were sold to foreign investors; iron being infamously sold to the U.S.-based Iron Ore Company for one cent a ton. Only 50% of the province's population had attended secondary school, and the salary discrepancy between francophones and anglophones was considerable (in favor of the anglophones). Historians have referred to this period as the Grande noirceur (Great Darkness), but most will add that this period is often perceived as worse than it was.

In many ways, Maurice Duplessis's death in 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac, very soon followed by the sudden death of his successor Paul SauvéJoseph-Mignault-Paul Sauv ( March 24, 1907 January 2, 1960) was a Canadian politican. He was born in St-Benoit, Quebec. He served overseas in the Canadian military during the Second World War, and took part in the Normandy landing. His political career be, served as a trigger for the Quiet Revolution. Or rather it unleashed energies that had been accumulating for decades. Within a year of Duplessis's death, the Liberal party was elected with Jean Lesage at its head. The Liberal party had campaigned under the very evocative slogans Maîtres chez nous (Masters of Our Own House) and Il faut que ça change (Things have to change).

2 Education

To achieve these goals the Lesage government bid largely on an accrued instruction of its population. The Commission Parent was established in 19611961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year i. one that looked the same upside down since 1881, and the last until 6009. Events January January 1 The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, cease to study the education system and to bring forth recommendations, which eventually led to the adoption of several reforms. The most important of which was the secularisation of the education system. Although schools maintained their historical Catholic or Protestant characters, in practice they were secular institutions since the State was now in charge of the school programs. Other reforms included mandatory school attendance until the age of 16 and free instruction until the 11th grade.

In 1967, CÉGEPs were created to offer post-secondary professional public education everywhere in the province. In 1968 the government created the Université du Québec network to achieve similar goals for university-level education.

3 Economic reforms

On the economic level, the government sought to increase francophones' control of the province's economic sphere, which, until then, had been largely dominated by English Canadian and American interests.

Seeking a mandate for its most daring reform, the nationalisation of the province's electric companies under Hydro-Québec, the Liberal party called for new elections in 1962. The Liberal party returned to power with an increased majority in the Quebec National Assembly of Quebec and within 6 months, René Lévesque, Minister of Natural Resources, enacted his plans for Hydro-Québec.

More public institutions were created to follow through with the desire to increase the province's economic autonomy. The public companies SIDBEC (iron and steel), SOQUEM (mining), REXFOR (forestry) and SOQUIP (petroleum) were created to exploit the province's abundant natural resources. The Société générale de financement (General financing corporation) was created in 1962 to encourage Quebecers to invest in their economic future and to increase the profitability of small companies. In 1963, the Régie des Rentes du Québec (Quebec Pension Plan) was created; universal contributions came into effect in 1966. To manage the considerable revenues generated by the RRQ, and to provide the capital necessary for various projects in the public and private sectors, the Caisse de dépôt et de placement was created in 1965.

A new Labour Code (Code du Travail) was adopted in 1964. It made unionising much easier and gave public employees the right to strike. It was during the same year that the Code Civil (Civil Code) was modified to recognise the legal equality of spouses. In case of divorce, goods were now to be split equally between the two parties. Prior to this modification, married women could not perform financial transactions and other legal duties without their husband's signature.

4 Nationalism

The heightened sense of national capacity and identity provided by the multiple reforms resulted in the transformation of the nationalist discourse of Quebec, stemming from political deadlocks between the governments of Quebec and Ottawa since as far as 1867. It is during the Quiet Revolution that the Canadien-nes-français-es (French Canadians) became Québécois-es, thus marking a distinct evolution from passive nationalism to a more active pursuit of political autonomy. For some, this could be achieved through a reform of the British North America Act, while for others, the BNAA was considered a null and void act passed by an imperialist foreign power.

In the 1966 election, a reformed post-Duplessis Union Nationale returned to power under leader Daniel Johnson Sr.. While visiting Montreal for Expo 67, General Charles de Gaulle proclaimed Vive le Québec libre! in his speech at Montreal City Hall, which gave the Quebec independence movement worldwide recognition. In 1968, the sovereignist Parti Québécois was created with René Lévesque as its leader.

To this day, the issue of a special status for Quebec within the Canadian Confederation or the attainment of sovereignty of this state is the subject of a fundamental and still unresolved debate. Since the end of the Second World War, Canada has lived through multiple failed attempts at reforming its constitution to accommodate Quebec while two referendums on Quebec's independence were rejected by a majority of Quebec voters.

Despite the continuing disagreements between federalists and sovereignists, Quebec has managed to progress in astonishing ways since the Quiet Revolution. The salary discrepancy between Francophones and Anglophones has almost been eliminated, the level of education is high, and Quebec is increasingly able to assimilate immigrants into a French-speaking society, since it has partial control over immigration.

5 Important figures

6 See also

7 External links

La Révolution tranquille a 40 ans (French language dossier on the Quiet Revolution at Radio-Canada.ca)

Canadian history

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