The Quebec question and the political geography of Canada

Abstract

The Quebec-Canada problem arises some ambigious and contradictory issues with Quebec itself being the source of the current facets of the crisis. Political geography is able to contribute to a greater understanding of the crisis by clearly demonstrating some of the classig concepts drawn from the discipline: geography of federalism, political viability and centrifugal forces, ethnic separatism, territorial integrity and linguistic territoriality, nationalism, and regionalism, territorial ideology, international frontiers... Evermore, Quebec appears to be the unique case of a national state. The gravitation of Canada's population towards the West has a direct impact upon the Quebec situation, with the eventual independence of the Province bringing about ipso facto a Pakistanisation of the country as a whole. Currently, one may observe an ever-widening lack of communication between Quebec and the rest of Canada. In order that Europeans (and many others) may fully understand the Quebec situation, a sort of mental debriefing must take place.