{"product_id":"french-canadian-idea-of-confederation-1864-1900","title":"French-Canadian Idea of Confederation, 1864-1900","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt Confederation, most French Canadians felt their homeland was Quebec; they supported the new arrangement because it separated Quebec from Ontario, creating an autonomous French-Canadian province loosely associated with the others. Unaware of other French-Canadian groups in British North America, Quebeckers were not concerned with minority rights, but only with the French character and autonomy of their own province.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, political and economic circumstances necessitated the granting of wide linguistic and educational rights to Quebec's Anglo-Protestant minority. Growing bitterness over the prominence of this minority in what was expected to be a French province was amplified by the discovery that French-Catholic minorities were losing their rights in other parts of Canada. Resentment at the fact that Quebec had to grant minority rights, while other provinces did not, intensified French-Quebec nationalism.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt the same time, French Quebeckers felt sympathy for their co-religionists and co-nationalists in other provinces and tried to defend them against assimilating pressures. Fighting for the rights of Acadians, Franco-Ontarians, or western Métis eventually led Quebeckers to a new concern for the French fact in other provinces.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eProfessor Silver concludes that by 1900 Quebeckers had become thoroughly committed to French-Canadian rights not just in Quebec but throughout Canada, and had become convinced that the very existence of Confederation was based on such rights.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOriginally published in 1982, this new edition includes a new preface and conclusion that reflect upon Quebec's continuing struggle to define its place within Canada and the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54226034491736,"sku":"9780802079282","price":36.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780802079282.jpg?v=1777042832","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/french-canadian-idea-of-confederation-1864-1900","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}