I read an interesting article this week in Maclean's (a Canadian political magazine) talking about the overwhelming Catholic Quebecois support for the province's sovereigntist party, the Bloc Québécois, despite the fact that the Bloc's leader, Gilles Duceppe, is a pro-choice, pro-eutanasia, pro-gay rights atheist, all positions (atheist translates into the party's secularist position) also espoused by the party.
From the article "Ungodly Union":
Notions to the contrary aside, Talin says, religion is alive, well, and politically active in Quebec. Even stranger: despite the Conservatives' family-oriented platform designed to attract churchgoing folk, it's the Bloc Québécois — a left-wing party whose leader is a former Communist and avowed pro-choice atheist who often rails against the Church's encroachment in public affairs — that does surprisingly well with the faithful.
In 2000, Talin concluded, roughly 50 per cent of Quebec's practising Catholics voted for the Bloc. Though much has changed in eight years, notably the formation of the Conservative party and its recognition of la nation Québécoise, that support has remained relatively stable.
What I find interesting, having read so many American secularists' concerns that religion sometimes becomes the number one issue in an election, is that the Quebecois are placing their national identity and separatist views on a much higher level than their religious views.
I think that, from a historian's point of view, this is somewhat explainable. The period between 1945 and 1959 in Quebecois history is known as la Grande Noirceur, the Great Darkness or Dark Ages, during which Quebec's Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis strongly opposed education and industrial development. The Catholic Church had a real vice-grip on public life at this point, controlling everything from education and hospitals to the printing press and what was deemed "acceptable" in the arts. In the 1960s, a new intellectual and cultural movement emerged in Quebec society. It is called la Revolution tranquille, the Quiet Revolution. It is a rejection of the traditional values, mainly through literary art, but also in the media, the political institutions, education, women's rights, etc. It is during this period that Quebecois society became heavily secularized and religion was ejected from public institutions.
However, Catholisism is in no way unimportant to the Quebecois society today and the separatist movement has been on the decline recently. In fact, in their latest election platform, the Bloc Québécois don't mention sovereignty as a current political issue. The Conservatives have been making headway into Quebec, traditionally a Bloc and Liberals stronghold, in this election, but the Bloc is still relevant to the Quebecois, despite recent criticisms stating the contrary.
Anyways, I just thought this would be interesting to share and I wanted to write down my thoughts on it since the Great Darkness and Quiet Revolution periods have always fascinated me. If you ever get the chance, do read some novels from that period - they are well worth it. One of the best (I should know; I wrote my Extended Essay thesis on it) is A Season in the Life of Emmanuel by Marie-Claire Blais. Good stuff and a text that really made me reflect critically on religion in my life during the period when I affirmed my atheism and feminism.
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