Quebec's Relations with the United States

Abstract

Introduction Among all of the noncentral governments in the world, Quebec has by far the largest representation in the United States, including a delegation generale in New York City established sixty years ago, delegations in Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, a tourism office in Washington, D.C., and commercial or ancillary offices in Atlanta and Miami. Government leaders in Quebec City have recently announced plans to spend an additional four million dollars in the United States to strengthen Quebec's representation at these offices and to work more closely with academic and civic groups to bring about a greater awareness of Quebec among America's attentive public. (1) The Quebec government's new program in the scholarly arena will include the establishment of a Quebec Studies chair at a major U.S. university and an American Studies chair at a Quebec university, library grants to American universities, grants to American professors and researchers, and financial support for U.S. academic and civic groups who want to spo nsor presentations by Quebec professors, writers, artists, and media representatives. It is important to study Quebec's relations with the United States for a number of reasons. First, Quebec City not only has extensive relations with the U.S., but it is also more actively involved internationally than any other noncentral government in the world. (2) Second, Quebec is scrutinized more closely by the international political science community than any other noncentral government in federal systems, although, interestingly enough, relatively sparse attention has been paid by this community to Quebec's international forays. (3) Third, few noncentral governments have as great a dependency on a foreign nation for their economic well-being as Quebec has on the United States. And, finally, Quebec is perhaps the most notable player among noncentral governments in attempting to adjust rapidly and aggressively to the special challenges and opportunities found in a new era of globalization and unprecedented technology change. This article will discuss the history of Quebec's relations with the United States, analyze the effectiveness of Quebec's programs vis-a-vis its neighbor to the south, and then prescribe policies which might improve its overall relationship with the United States and enhance the competitiveness of Quebec in a period of entrenched regionalism and globalization. The History of Quebec's Relations with the United States The Legacy of French Canadians in the United States Few Americans are aware of the tremendous influence that French and French-Canadian people have had on the development of the United States. Today, over 10 million Americans identify themselves as having French ancestry, almost 2.2 million French-Canadian ancestry, 670,000 Acadian or Cajun ancestry, and 550,000 Canadian ancestry. (4) In his book Centennial, James A. Michener introduces the character known as Pasquinel, the coureur de bois who helped settle the area now known as Colorado. (5) It is estimated that explorers, coureurs de bois, voyageurs, and others from France and French Canada either discovered, explored, or colonized areas that now constitute thirty-one of the fifty U.S. states, leaving behind settlements with names such as Beaufort, Boise, Coeur d'Alene, Detroit, Dubuque, Joliet, Lafayette, La Pointe, La Salle, Louisville, Marquette, New Orleans, and Provo. (6) Currently, there are over five thousand U.S. communities that have French names, indicating the pervasive influence that French or Fr ench Canadians had on the United States in both the colonial and postcolonial periods. (7) During the U.S. Civil War, perhaps up to forty thousand Quebeckers traveled southward to fight on the side of the Union, with fourteen thousand losing their lives on the battlefield. (8) One of those who fought with the Union forces was Calixa Lavallee, the composer of the music that would later become Canada's national anthem. …