A comprehensive account of the political involvement of Quebec's English-speaking minority and their response to the social and political transformation of Quebec since the Quiet Revolution.
Until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s English-speaking Quebecers seldom thought of themselves as a minority and the Quebec government had little influence on their lives. Over the last generation their situation has been totally transformed, as Quebec governments have sought to promote the French language, to reform education and social policy, and to influence the Quebec economy. Quebec's dissatisfaction with its status in Confederation and the growth of the sovereignty movement have also placed the interests of the English minority at risk. While many English-speaking Quebecers have responded by migrating to other provinces, most have stayed in Quebec and tried to adapt to their new circumstances.
In Community Besieged Garth Stevenson describes the unusual circumstances that allowed English-speaking Quebecers to live in virtual isolation from their francophone neighbours for almost a century after Confederation. He describes their relations with Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale and their ambivalent response to the Quiet Revolution. New political issues - language policy, educational reform, sovereignty, and the constitution - undermined the old system of elite accommodation in Quebec, causing conflicts between anglophones and francophones and creating a new sense of anglophone identity that transcends religious differences. The changing relations of Quebec anglophones with the major political parties, as well as the role of newer entities such as Alliance Quebec and the Equality Party, are also examined. Stevenson concludes with a look at the future of anglophones in Quebec.
Based in part on interviews with more than sixty English-speaking Quebecers who have played prominent parts in Quebec's political life, Community Besieged is a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the political life of this unique minority at both the federal and provincial level.