Je me souviens (I remember) ~ Motto of Quebec

Quebec is the largest province in Canada by area and the second-largest by population. Located in Central Canada, the province shares land borders with Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast, and a coastal border with Nunavut; in the south it borders Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York in the United States.

Montreal is the most populous city in Quebec and the second largest in Canada. Quebec's capital and second largest city is Quebec City, which is also the eleventh-largest city in Canada.

Quotes

B

  • The present government of Quebec is the most financially and intellectually corrupt in the history of the province. There are the shady deals, brazenly conducted, and the broken promises, most conspicuously that of last October to retain Bill 63... The government dragged out the ancient and totally fictitious spectre of assimilation to justify Bill 22 and its rejection of the right of free choice in education, its its reduction of English education to the lowest echelon of ministerial whim, its assault upon freedom of expression through the regulation of the internal and external language of businesses and other organizations, and its creation of a fatuous new linguistic bureaucracy that will conduct a system of organized denunciation, harassment, and patronage... There is a paralytic social sickness in Quebec. In all this debate, not a single French Quebecker has objected to Bill 22 on the grounds that it was undemocratic or a reduction of liberties exercised in the province. The Quebec Civil Liberties Union, founded by Pierre Trudeau, from which one might have expected such sentiments, has instead demanded the abolition of English education, and this through the spokemanship of Jean-Louis Roy, who derives his income from McGill University.... It is clear that Mr. Bourassa... is now going to try to eliminate the Parti Quebecois by a policy of gradual scapegoatism directed against the non-French elements in the province... The English community here, still deluding itself with the illusion of Montreal as an incomparably fine place to live, is leaderless and irrelevant, except as the hostage of a dishonest government. Last month one of the most moderate ministers, Guy St-Pierre, told an English businessman's group, 'If you don't like Quebec, you can leave it.' With sadness but with certitude, I accept that choice.
    • Conrad Black, radio broadcast on 26 July 1974, the day he left Quebec for good.
  • If, as is believed by many Canadians, Canada can not exist without Quebec, then it simply does not deserve to exist.
    • Si, comme le croient plusieurs Canadiens, le Canada ne peut exister sans le Québec, alors il ne mérite tout simplement pas d'exister.
    • Pierre Bourgault, La Colère. Écrits polémiques. Lanctôt Éditeur, 1996 p.257, tome 3

L

  • Est Québécois qui veut l'être.
    • Whoever wants to be a Quebecer is one.
    • René Lévesque, Victory speech, 1976 Quebec election.
  • Je n'ai jamais pensé que je pourrais être aussi fier d'être Québécois.
    • I never thought that I could be so proud to be Québécois.
    • René Lévesque, Victory speech, 1976 Quebec election.
  • On n'est pas un petit peuple, on est peut-être quelque chose comme un grand peuple.
    • We are not a small people, we are maybe something of a great people.
    • René Lévesque Victory speech, 1976 Quebec election.
  • Si j'ai bien compris, vous êtes en train de me dire: à la prochaine fois.
    • If I understood you well, you are telling me: Next time. (
    • René Lévesque, Concession speech, 1980 Quebec referendum.
  • Mais j'ai confiance qu'un jour... y'a un rendez-vous normal avec l'Histoire que le Québec tiendra, et j'ai confiance qu'on sera là, ensemble, pour y assister.
    • But I have confidence that one day... there's a normal rendezvous with History that Quebec will hold, and I have confidence that we shall be there, together, to witness it.
    • René Lévesque, Concession speech, 1980 Quebec referendum.
  • And I would like to say we've got no lesson on that score to take from the McConnells, from anyone that has been dominating Quebec like a bunch of Rhodesians! The white group. If we have colours here you feel it and that is something we will not stand any more. This paternalistic, WASP ... and it is that, typically, WASP arrogance of the ones that have been leading our government and to the slush funds that they contribute to leaving both of our hacked bodies by the road for too long.

[1] [2]

M

  • This province of Quebec is catholic and French and shall remain catholic and French. All the while asserting our friendship and our respect for the representatives of the other races and religions, all the while claiming our eagerness for giving them their fair share in every aspect [...] we solemnly declare that we shall never renounce our rights that are garanteed by treatees, by law and by the constitution [...] Let us cease our fratricidal struggles and let us unite!
    • Cette province de Québec est catholique et française et restera catholique et française. Tout en affirmant notre amitié et notre respect pour les représentants des autres races et religions, tout en déclarant notre empressement de leur donner leur juste part en tout et partout (...) nous déclarons solennellement que nous ne renoncerons jamais aux droits qui nous sont garantis par les traités, par la loi et la constitution (...) Cessons nos luttes fratricides et unissons-nous!
    • Honoré Mercier, Speech given of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day of 1889.
  • Je Me Souviens.
    • I Remember
    • Motto of Quebec.

R

  • So far as one can generalize, the most gracious, cultivated, and innovative people in this country are French Canadians. Certainly they have given us the most exciting politicians of our time: Trudeau, Lévesque. Without them, Canada would be an exceedingly boring and greatly diminished place.
    • Mordecai Richler, as reported by Donald Smith, D'une nation à l'autre: des deux solitudes à la cohabitation (Montreal: Éditions Alain Stanké, 1997), p. 61.
[Skit entitled: Behaviour Modification School for Candidates]
Instructor: Let's say you're a Liberal.
Student (Mercer): [Claps hands eagerly] I'm a Liberal! I'm a Liberal!
Instructor: Do you think Quebec should be recognized as a nation inside of Canada?
Student: [Firmly] Yes. I believe that Quebec should be rec-[A board hits him over the head] Owww! What the hell?!
Instructor: No, wrong.
Student: He hit me with a board!
Instructor: Do you believe Quebec should be recognized as a nation inside of Canada?
Student: [Warily] Uh, no. [Stronger] I do not believe that Quebec is- [Another board hits his head] Owww! Ahhh!
Instructor: Do you believe Quebec should be recognized as a nation inside of Canada?
Student: [Confused and frightened] I just think that all the provinces should be happy and be in a happy place where they're in a happy land of happiness?
Instructor: Correct!

S

  • Canadians are friends and Quebecers are my family.
  • What France knows deep down is that within this great Canadian people, there is a Quebec nation.
  • I do not see how proving my family, brotherly love for Quebec should be strengthened by defying Canada.
    • Nicolas Sarkozy, October 18, 2008, address to the National Assembly of Quebec.

T

  • It's an old idea from the 19th century. It is something that is not relevant to the vibrant, extraordinary, culture that is Quebec as Quebec is an amazing part of Canada. Nationalism is based on a smallness of thought that closes in, that builds up barriers between people, and has nothing to do with the Canada we should be building. It stands against everything my father ever believed.
  • Mr. Lévesque was saying that part of my name was Elliott and since Elliot was an English name, it was perfectly understandable that I was for the No side, because, really, you see, I was not as much of a Quebecer as those who are going to vote Yes. That, my dear friends, is what contempt is…. It means saying that the Quebecers on the No side are not as good Quebecers as the others and perhaps they have a drop or two of foreign blood, while the people on the Yes side have pure blood in their veins.… Of course my name is Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Yes, Elliott was my mother's name. It was the name borne by the Elliotts who came to Canada more than 200 years ago. It is the name of the Elliotts who, more than 100 years ago, settled in Saint-Gabriel de Brandon, where you can still see their graves in the cemetery. That is what the Elliotts are. My name is a Quebec name — but my name is a Canadian name also.
    • Pierre Trudeau, Speech in Paul Sauvé Arena, Montreal, Quebec, six days before the Quebec referendum on independence. (14 May 1980)[specific citation needed]

V

See also

  • People From Quebec
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