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Introduction
National representations are generally Janus-like; they all contain elements of universalism and ethnicism, of "abstract rationalism" and "tribalism." These two faces or heads lying at the foundation of nations (contract and culture) do not always strike a balance: certain socio-historical conditions and events favour their reversal or struggle. In Canada, it is within the relations of competition between two "national" visions that the tension between the two faces is constantly reactivated.
Although the Canadian and Quebec national visions have undergone a parallel development (Meisel, Rocher, and Silver 1999) toward an increasingly civic, contractual, pluralistic, and inclusive self-definition,(1) political relations among Quebeckers and between Quebeckers and other Canadians(2) are still imbued with an essentialist conception of an "Us" and an "Other." Through a selection of often reified historical elements, a mythical construction of the nation and the Other was formed and remains active in relations between the "two solitudes." Following constitutional negotiations or referendums, the political competition(3) between the two universalist ambitions often reveals a breakdown of the universalist ideals into ethnicizing ideological discourses. This reversal is based on feelings of failure and fear, which fuel a will to promote, legitimate, and justify a certain political and institutional vision: on one side, the universalist project of sovereignty is said to have been undermined by "ethnic votes" and "money" (Parizeau),(4) and, on the other side, Canadian federalism is considered to be more "universalist," more apt to protect individual rights (and thus morally superior) than the "Quebec project" -- borne by an ethnic minority "like the others."(5) One way or another, ethnics are always minorities and the universalist (or civic) project is always that of majorities.
There is no need for an exhaustive review of newspaper clippings since 1995 to note the alarmist tone and proliferation in the anglophone media of ethnicizing, even racializing, "slips"(6) about Quebec, Quebeckers, Lucien Bouchard, and the sovereignist government; slips visibly based on the fear of the destruction of Canada and, consequently, on a form of nationalist and patriotic pride.(7) Although public opinion in English Canada is divided on the question of Quebec sovereignty and does not speak in a single voice, several of these discursive slips which are analyzed here have nevertheless activated preconceived ideas, contributed to the creation of a...