Foundation of the nation

In Canada West (Ontario), the confederation process was promoted as the act of foundation of a new British nation. The project generally received wide support in the press and in the political class. It is primarily the politicians of Canada West that, with the Great Coalition, orchestrated the process which led to the legislative union of the British North American colonies.

The anti-Confederation movement was however quite strong in one of the two Maritime provinces that were initially federated by the BNAA. The Liberal politicians of the Maritime provinces did not support the movement of the Great Coalition before or after the fact.

In Nova Scotia, 36 out of 38 seats of the provincial legislature and 18 out of 19 seats of the new federal legislature went to anti-Confederation candidates at the first election. Premier William Annand and federal MP Joseph Howe pushed for the removal of Nova Scotia from the new Dominion. Howe eventually accepted a position in the federal government of McDonald, while Annand kept fighting Confederation up until 1869.

The movement died shortly after when the idea of reversing the process of confederation was abandoned. The point of view that the confederation is the act of foundation of the Canadian nation was and still is today the policy of the federal government.

Pact between two founding peoples

In Canada East (Quebec), the confederation project was promoted by the Parti bleu and opposed by the Parti rouge. George-Étienne Cartier supported and promoted the project as a way to regain the political autonomy that Lower Canada had lost with the forced Union of 1840. Reluctant at first, the Catholic clergy eventually supported confederation when it became known that education and "health" were going to be exclusive provincial jurisdictions.

After 1867 and up until the 1960s, the idea that the BNAA was a legal document containing guarantees to the equality of the two founding peoples was taken for granted by most members of the intellectual elite of French Canada. Nationalist politicians from Quebec (sometimes Liberal, sometimes Conservative) were elected on programs which stated how they were to defend the constitutional guarantees granted by Great Britain to French Canadians in order to protect their nationality. Federal politicians, such as Henri Bourassa, advocated more autonomy for Canada within the British Empire, while provincial politicians such as Honoré Mercier defended the autonomy of the province of Quebec within the Canadian Dominion.

Just another British Act

The Parti rouge of Canada East opposed the confederation process, just as its ancestor party, the Parti patriote, had opposed the Union process. Some rouges such as Antoine-Aimé Dorion, demanded that the project be submitted to a direct vote by the people, convinced it would be rejected. The process which led to the confederation was considered illegitimate because in their opinion it was undemocratic.

Other liberals suggested a highly decentralized confederation that would have given only certain limited powers to the union government. The party lead the anti-confederation campaign and at the first provincial elections, 13 out of 65 anti-confederation candidates were elected, obtaining 45% of the recorded votes.

Much later, in the late 1950s, the opinions of the Parti rouge would be supported by the first advocates of the independence of Quebec.

Confederation / federation

Since the creation of the federal state, the role of this new level of government has been the object of debate. As of 1867, some politicians have seen the federal government as the central, national government of Canada whereas others have seen it as a confederal government, the creation of the provinces, responsible for administering things the latter had in common.

Symmetrical and asymmetrical federalism

Symmetrical federalism refers to a political organization where all federated states have equal status and autonomy within the greater ensemble.

Asymmetrical federalism refers to a political organization where the federated states have variable levels of autonomy within the greater ensemble.

Binationalism, bilingualism and biculturalism

Mostly supported by French Canadians, the binational confederation was seen as a way for French Canadians and British Canadians to coexist within the same country and share common institutions. Since French Canadians viewed themselves as a distinct nation and wished for this nation to keep existing, many political leaders from Quebec promoted the official recognition of the French language by the federal government and all provincial governments. This view is today associated with the pre-Quiet Revolution era.

Multicultural nation state

Promoted by the Liberals during Pierre E. Trudeau's prime ministership, this view of Canada is at once readily embraced by a great number of Canadians and is enshrined in Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is, however, seen as unacceptable because it is insufficient by essentially all Quebec provincial politicians. To them, the multicultural nation state model alone fails at recognizing the national character of Quebec society and the consequences of this for the Quebec state as a member state of the Canadian federation.

The concept of a pluralistic society is generally perceived positively in Quebec, which is also a land open to immigration. However, Quebec policies speak of civic "interculturalism" rather than multiculturalism, which is associated with ghettoization. The Canadian multiculturalism policy is often perceived negatively, for it depicts the French-speaking majority of Quebec as one of the many ethnic groups of Canada, therefore denying the national character of Quebec, and undermining the efforts of the Quebec state to integrate immigrants into its mainstream French-speaking society. Debates over issues of cultural pluralism such as reasonable accommodations for religious observance in public spaces have been prominent in Quebec politics and society in the 21st century, as in the Bouchard-Taylor Commission of 2007-08, the Quebec Charter of Values proposed in 2013 but abandoned in 2014, and the Act respecting the laicity of the State which became law in 2019.

Multinational state

Many politicians and public figures think that Canada would move forward in the recognition of its own diversity by declaring itself a de jure multinational state. With regards to Quebec, this view would be more in line with the "nation within the nation" of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in the pre-Trudeau era.

One nation, one country

Many Canadians outside Quebec think of Canada as a monolithic nation with 10 equal provinces. Since they see only one nation in the country, they are opposed to any kind of asymmetrical relation with Quebec or any other province. Believing that Canada needs a strong federal government to defend and promote national unity, some are by principle reluctant to decentralization of powers to the provinces. Others accept broad provincial powers so long as those given to Quebec are no different from those given to the other provinces (essentially the position of the Reform Party during the Meech Lake debate, as described in Preston Manning's 1992 book The New Canada.

Two nations, two countries

With secession, many Quebec nationalists think they have the answer to Canada's continual constitutional debate. Marginalized after the Patriotes rebellion of 1837–38, the secessionist option was resurrected as a credible solution in the wake of the 1960s Quiet Revolution of Quebec. Some politicians see independence as the normal conclusion of the Quebec struggle for the conservation of its autonomy within the Canadian federal framework. Some see it in a broader perspective of every people's right to self-determination and what they see as the normal evolution of a 400-year-old former French colony that fell victim to the colonial wars between Great Britain and France.

Treaty federalism

The doctrine of treaty federalism states that Canada consists of two unions, one of ten provinces and the federal government, and the other of the Crown with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Under this doctrine, The First Nations, Inuit, and Métis are thought of as sovereign nations who are in a compact with Canada, rather than minority groups within the Canadian nation-state.^[1]

The report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) stated that

the terms of Canadian federation are found not only in formal constitutional documents governing relations between federal and provincial governments but also in treaties and other instruments establishing the basic links between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown^[2]