The Quebec myth and Her Majesty

Like all loyal Canadians, the Fox family caught Her Majesty’s Christmas message. This year, it was on inclusion -- a very pertinent topic these days.

That said, I’m not really all bent out of shape over the fact Queen Elizabeth isn’t going to be taking part in the upcoming 400th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Quebec in 1608.

After all, the English or British presence wasn’t that pronounced in Quebec during the 1600s - except in a negative, adversarial, way.

The Queen has already taken part in last year’s quadricentennial celebrations of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. That was, after all, something with which the English or British had a lot to do in 1607.

Despite the unpleasantness of 1776-83 and 1812-14, the Americans certainly appear to adore Her Majesty - sometimes even more than many in the more loyal areas of the continent.

It’s just that, of all the provinces, or as the Quebecoises are known, a people, in the federation; they probably owe among the most to being within the imperial fold.

This is ironic to most folks at first glance. Tthink of it: back in colonial days, Quebec had been hobbled by French policies, never allowed to grow like the New England and other British colonies.

After the defeat in 1763, the British set about – for their own purposes, of course – on a procedure that resulted in preserving the French character of Quebec: language, culture, religion, local government and various other aspects that have subsequently given Quebec its de facto distinct society and special status within what developed into the Canadian federation.

These guarantees – loosely put – were included in the 1774 Quebec Act by the British – a move that would soon help to deprive the empire of 13 of its colonies.

Various British colonies had coveted Quebec since the conquest, particularly the powerful mid-Atlantic colonies, who wanted to enjoy the spoils of the conquest – including heading farther west into aboriginal territories, also given guarantees. They had more than a century of scores to settle with Quebec.

The New England colonies – Massachusetts in particular – had been successful in smashing the Acadian society and economy in peninsular Nova Scotia in the mid-1750s.

The larger colonies could well have done the same to Quebec in the 1760s and 1770s, had there not been controls on their expansionist ambitions.

As I’ve said before, the Acadians knew firsthand what could happen to a Roman Catholic francophone society if left unattended - even temporarily - by the British in the face of American colonial ambitions.

The Quebec Act was added to the growing list of colonial beefs against the Crown in the mid-1770s.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Quebec’s important celebration isn’t the place for a fight over the monarchy. This whole thing is a wage of botched historical management by successive federal governments. Whole strands of our heritage were sacrificed in the name of creating “Canadian” myths.

Don’t get me going.