ABSTRACT
On November 15, 1976, the viability of the Canadian Confederation was placed sharply in question: the voters of Quebec Province gave a majority of seats in the provincial assembly to the Parti Québécois, whose avowed objective is the independence of Quebec. Most Canadians are keenly aware of the historical background of the Quebec problem, but most people in the United States are not. In 1775, for example, the American Continental Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Montreal in an effort to persuade Quebec’s leaders to join the thirteen colonies in their struggle against British domination. Things began to change rapidly in Quebec in 1960 with the beginning of the “Quiet Revolution,” initiated by a new provincial premier, Jean Lesage. The power of the church over the educational system and political life was broken, and the new government instituted a modernization program for Quebec’s backward economy.
