Confederation and Quebec

In Lower Canada some politicians, among them George-Étienne Cartier, promoted confederation, believing that the concept of a new political nationality in the proposed Dominion of Canada would guarantee the survival of French Canadians and that it would prove to be the best way to extricate themselves from the political difficulties of the period. Nevertheless, they faced opposition: Liberals, both radicals and moderates, denounced the proposed confederation. They believed it would give too many powers to the central government and lead to the annihilation of French Canadians, who should at least have been consulted. Once the plan for confederation was approved, the centralizing impulses of federal Conservatives encountered strong opposition from provincial politicians in Quebec, who saw it as an attack on provincial autonomy. Tensions between British Canadian nationalism and French Canadian nationalism continued to challenge the political compromise made at the time of confederation, a challenge that would increase in the 1960s with the emergence of separatism and the Parti Québécois, which proposed to break up confederation.