2019 Presidential Address
DR. FRANÇOIS ROCHER | CPSA PRESIDENT 2018-2019
Life and Death of an Issue:
Canadian Political Science and Quebec Politics
“In this address, I would like to shed light on how political science in Canada, mainly by the English-speaking ones, has conceived of the relationship between Quebec and Canada. I want to understand why an issue that has been considered central for more than three decades has become less attractive, if not marginal, within the discipline. Like the subject of an anthropological study, I put myself in the shoes of the observer who observes his observer. My aim is to examine, from this example, the overlap relationship between science and politics.”
Introduction: Guy Laforest
(directeur général de l’École nationale d’administration publique -ÉNAP)
“My intention is to show that Canadian political science has examined the Quebec/Canada relationship from four different angles: 1) its interest in Quebec politics was part of the urgency of the moment, based on a crisis that challenged the foundations of the political system; 2) it questioned the legitimacy of the sources of the dispute, namely the compatibility between the new expressions of Quebec nationalism with the presumed principles on which the Canadian political community had been founded; 3) Quebec nationalism also encouraged a reflection on the existence (or not) of “English Canada” as a sociological and political reality; 4) the combination of the first three factors caused the prescriptions for getting out of, or resolving the crisis, to evolve over time, to the point of rendering research on this issue obsolete.”
Words of Thanks:
Nadia Verrelli (Laurentian University)
The full text of professor François Rocher’s presidential address will be available online at the Canadian Journal of Political Science Web site in December 2019.
