Manitoba's French-Language Crisis

Book excerpt: Raymond Hebert analyses Manitoba's French-language crisis in detail and considers its local and national implications. For nine months in 1983 and early 1984, beginning with a protest by French-speaking Manitobans, who had received parking tickets written only in English and ending with a legal compromise that made Manitoba all but officially bilingual, Manitoba endured charged demonstrations, grimly fought plebiscites, and legislative filibustering. Towards the end of the crisis, legislative paralysis set in and the government itself ground to a halt. Hebert argues that, far from being a spontaneous populist movement, the crisis was largely manufactured by a few individuals, some of whom were in the Legislative Assembly itself. Hebert considers various theoretical models to explain aspects of the crisis and concludes that the authoritarian personality model is the most relevant. Right-wing authoritarianism exists everywhere and, he argues, under proper conditions, especially demagogic leadership, can provoke populist explosions of racist and prejudiced sentiment; and hence the cautionary nature of this Canadian tale.