À lire ce qui s’écrit sur les réseaux sociaux, bon nombre de Québécoises et de Québécois vivent un combat quotidien—une petite guerre amorcée à la fin du régime français et loin d’être achevée, une petite guerre qui anime tous les aspects de la vie publique du Québec. Entendons-nous : le fait français est minoritaire dans son […]
Continue readingCategory: Canadian Politics
Depopulation and Despair, 140 Years Ago
So declared Sir Richard Cartwright in the House of Commons in Ottawa exactly 140 years ago, February 29, 1884, while offering a vigorous response to the government’s proposed budget. Not that he knew any other kind of response: in the 1870s, Cartwright had emerged as one of the most outspoken and effective critics of John […]
Continue readingDebating Emigration in Ottawa: 5 Takeaways
Quebec’s nineteenth-century legislative debates on emigration are available virtually in two searchable volumes (1867-1880 and 1881-1900). These compilations reveal policymakers’ ambivalence about industrialization as a viable means of curbing outmigration and the rise of domestic colonization as a projet national drawing bipartisan support. Excerpts are available here. Emigration to the United States was not confined […]
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