"Despite being a stranger to the city-I spent hours walking up and down Saint Laurent Boulevard, the city's dividing line between east and west, English and French, rich and poor-I knew this was where I belonged. I didn't recognize the names of the streets or the exotic smells, but there was an undeniable connection with the people I passed, a sense of belonging that was both comforting and exhilarating."
"Canada has often been described as having too much geography but too little history. Quebec, on the contrary, abounds in historical upheavals: the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Lower Canada Rebellion, the Quiet Revolution, not to mention two referendums on a potential split with the rest of Canada. The persistent feeling of being in a perilous position, of Quebec in North America being that "cube of sugar beside a gallon of coffee,""
A francophone from Ottawa moved to Montreal in 1975 and immediately felt at home, walking Saint Laurent Boulevard and sensing belonging despite unfamiliar streets and smells. Quebec retains exceptional political and cultural complexity shaped by events such as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Lower Canada Rebellion, the Quiet Revolution, and two referendums on sovereignty. The province's persistent sense of precariousness within North America strengthens culture and politicizes life. Quebec demands a high level of commitment to collective life from francophones, anglophones, and allophones. Emerging immigrant-wary nationalism and deep fault lines raise doubts about continued inclusion.
Read at The Walrus
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