How do narratives regarding Canada's founding nations/peoples differ across provincial citizenship education curricula? We analyze 84 currently active secondary-level curriculum documents (history, social studies, civics/citizenship, grades 5+) from all ten provinces. Using a keyword-guided content analysis, we code five indicators-(1) recognition of three founding nations/peoples, (2) their foundational influence on Canadian identity, (3) the framing of self-government/self-determination (Indigenous; French/Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois), (4) language protection (Indigenous; French), and (5) whether Indigenous governments are presented as part of Canadian governance-on a four-point scale and convert them to comparative scores. Reading the results through the analytical triad recognition-self-government-self-determination, we identify four accommodation logics: (1) civic-pluralist with reconciliation forward (e.g., PEI, MB, NL), combining broad recognition with positive cues on Indigenous self-determination, language revitalization, and the inclusion of Indigenous governments; (2) equivalence-of-peoples (AB), uniquely pairing Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois and Indigenous nationalism/self-determination as parallel projects; (3) intercultural-national (QC), centering Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois nationhood and bracketing pan-Canadian identity; and (4) minimalist civic/skills-based (BC, NB), decentering founding status. Across provinces, Indigenous self-government/self-determination is more often framed positively than French/Qu & eacute;b & eacute;cois claims, which are ambivalent or negative in several jurisdictions. Support for French language protection is uneven, while Indigenous language revitalization is frequently endorsed but unevenly institutionalized.

Dans cette contribution, nous aborderons les pouvoirs dont dispose le Québec pour apporter des changements structurels à sa gouvernance locale, le tout, en accordant une attention particulière aux institutions de la minorité anglophone. Deux exemples distincts, mais analogues, seront présentés : d’une part, le cas des fusions municipales (début des années 2000) et, d’autre part, celui des commissions scolaires (à partir de l’arrivée au pouvoir du gouvernement de la Coalition Avenir Québec, en 2018). Alors que le premier semble confirmer l’étendue du pouvoir des provinces en matière de gouvernance locale, le second, toujours devant les tribunaux, pourrait limiter les pouvoirs du Québec concernant les structures scolaires de la minorité anglophone au-delà de la protection déjà reconnue aux minorités linguistiques de langue officielle. Cette comparaison sera l’occasion de situer, sur un continuum, les divers types de protections constitutionnelles qui sont offertes aux groupes minoritaires dans un système comme le Canada.

Phénomène central pour la trajectoire moderne du Québec comme projet sociopolitique national, la Révolution tranquille a fait l’objet d’un nombre croissant de contributions scientifiques au courant des dernières décennies alors qu’on en commémorait les 40 ans (années 2000), 50 ans (années 2010) et 60 ans (années 2020). Cet article a pour objectif de contribuer à cette littérature de manière originale non pas à la lumière de la découverte d’une nouvelle source, mais en analysant l’expérience singulière du Québec à la lumière de l’une des plus célèbres théories générales pour expliquer l’avènement des nations et des nationalismes : l’ethnosymbolisme. Élaboré pour l’essentiel par Anthony D. Smith, l’ethnosymbolisme offre une grille d’analyse sophistiquée qui a marqué le champ des études sur le nationalisme, au point où plusieurs experts en mobilisent les tenants et aboutissants dans leurs propres analyses sur le Québec. Or, en tant que nation minoritaire qui ne dispose pas de son propre État souverain où ses membres représentent la majorité démographique, l’expérience québécoise demeure à maints égards « atypique » et « anormale » pour l’ethnosymbolisme. En mettant l’accent sur la période qui correspond à la Révolution tranquille, cet article cherche à montrer la fiabilité relative comme les limites objectives d’une telle théorie générale des nations et nationalismes pour comprendre la politisation du sujet politique national moderne québécois, et les filiations symboliques qu’il entretient avec la trajectoire canadienne-française.

Patterns of social networks in plurinational societies remain understudied in the inter-group contact literature. In Canada, a significant number of authors have studied political divides between Quebecers and other Canadians, but little is still known about the scope and determinants of the social disconnect between both communities. This paper provides the first quantitative measure of the social networking gap between Canada's 'two solitudes' using behavioural data. Our analysis mobilises the Facebook Connectedness Index (2020), which provides district-level connectivity estimates between all active Facebook users in Canada. Results obtained via linear regression models show that population size, distance and self-isolation patterns cannot account for the significant connectivity gap between Quebec and the rest of Canada. However, bilingualism in Quebec is positively correlated with higher inter-regional networks, suggesting asymmetrical linguistic exchanges. These results empirically confirm decades of anecdotal accounts about the existence of a social disconnect between Canada's French- and English-speaking communities.

This article examines the representations of the Quebec nation in English-language media, specifically focusing on editorials and Op-eds which discuss Bill 21 An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State and Bill 96 An Act Respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Quebec. The study explores the perspectives expressed by members of the dominant English-speaking group in response to these nation-building policies introduced by Quebec public officials between 2019 and 2023. Specifically, it asks: How do editorials and Op-eds in established English-language newspapers represent the Quebec nation in response to Bill 21 and 96? In doing so, the research uncovers how the Quebec nation and its nation-building enterprises are portrayed in the media by examining four established newspapers: the Globe and Mail, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Montreal Gazette, and the Calgary Herald. Mobilizing a qualitative and inductive critical content analysis approach, it highlights core common themes and key normative and regional variations in the perspective advanced by the media outlets.

The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic put enormous strain on healthcare services across the country, leading Canadian premiers to call on the federal government to negotiate a new healthcare deal. The dynamics of these negotiations received extensive media coverage and highlighted some of the most fundamental issues in Canadian federalism. The objective of this article is to explore whether the 2023 healthcare negotiations were conducted in accordance with core federalism principles (e.g. autonomy, constitutionalism, partnership), or if they rather reflect some form of federalism deficit. More specifically, it asks whether, and to what extent, provincial autonomy was challenged through conditional federal funding to health care. The authors conclude that the formal division of constitutional powers is blurred through the federal government’s use of its “spending power,” and that the state of intergovernmental relations in Canada has undermined the principle of equal partnership between Ottawa and the provinces within the federal system.

What factors shape the federal or national governments' responses to substate identity policies within deeply diverse federal systems? This article answers this question by analysing the role of the President or Prime Minister as 'bearers' of national unity, when confronted with (exclusivist) identity policies that may threaten the inclusion of all citizens, in particular minorities residing in jurisdictions dominated by a dominant (ethnocultural, linguistic or religious) group. The empirical evidence draws on the experiences of Canada and Nigeria, focusing in particular on the tension over secularism and the Muslim veil in Quebec public institutions, and the adoption of Sharia by twelve Muslim-majority states in Nigeria. The paper demonstrates that while the need to uphold cultural diversity could explain the federal government's responses to the identity policies implemented in these regions, the primary driver of the responses was the president and prime minister's political goal of re-election and retaining power. The paper contributes to the literature by stressing the similarities in the political reflexes and strategies utilized by political actors in managing the tension between the constitutional principles of self-rule and shared rule in two federations that are often thought to be so different and, hence, incomparable.

Today small nations must deal with a typical "dual challenge": on the one hand, for all sorts of socio-economic and humanitarian reasons, they seek to welcome newcomers within their borders and, on the other hand, they fear that doing so contributes to minimising what makes them "distinct societies" and that they may soon be destined for a quiet, yet inevitable disintegration. More accurately, the (perceived) mismanagement of newcomers' integration within the host society fuels a certain "identity malaise." As a result, many small nations have rejected the paradigm multiculturalism in order to reflect and act upon the desired dynamics to be established between members of the historical and cultural majority and those who come from a more or less recent immigration. Since they seemingly cannot avoid dealing with the first part of the aforementioned "dual challenge" and focus solely on the second, if small nations wish to distance themselves from multiculturalism and still hold onto the principle of pluralism, they must draw inspiration from another model. This chapter argues that small nations should take inspiration in what has come to be known in Quebec as the model of "interculturalism."