Proposal for the Province of Montreal

The Province of Montreal is a proposal to separate the city of Montreal, its metropolitan region or its English and non-Francophone regions into a separate province from Quebec, becoming the 11th province of Canada. There have been several proposals of this nature from mid-century of the 20th century onwards.

During the French colonial era, a district of Montreal existed in the French Province of Canada. During the 19th century, Americans sometimes referred to the Province of Quebec as the Province of Montreal^{[citation needed]}. The Roman Catholic church also divides Canada up into ecclesiastical provinces, one of which being the Ecclesiastical Province of Montreal.

During the prelude to Confederation of Canada, in the 1860s, some proposals were made to divide up Lower Canada (the current province of Quebec) into multiple provinces, the one with the most currency being to create the provinces of Montreal, Eastern Townships and Quebec.^[1]

One of the earlier modern proposals for the Province of Montreal dates from the late 60's, where it was proposed that Mr. Montreal, Mayor Jean Drapeau, having many successes, and having Montreal as the economic engine of the Province of Quebec, become the premier of a new province, due to the way that Montreal tax dollars were spent outside of the region, to little benefit to Montrealers. A lesser^{[clarification needed]} position was to join the United States instead as a new state.^[2][3][4]

Following the renewed rise of the Quebec sovereignty movement in the 1990s, efforts revived to create a Province of Montreal. Roopnarine Singh of Montreal founded the Movement for the 11th Province of Montreal in this era.^[5][6] This era also produced proposals to split the Ottawa Valley western part of Quebec, the Eastern Townships of Quebec in a strip along the US border, and Anglo-Montreal (such as the West Island and Westmount) into a separate "Province of Montreal", in response to the then-upcoming referendum of 1995, and following it.^[6][7][8] This proposal is that of the "partitionist movement", which demands the right for minorities to succeed from Quebec if Quebec succeeds from Canada. In the wake of the referendum, prominent lawyer Guy Bertrand, formerly a separatist, then in this era a federalist, before returning to an autonomist position after this era, lead a court fight to allow for the creation of the Province of Montreal.^[9] The position posited would be that should Quebec separate from Canada, Montreal would then separate from Quebec.^[10] A point brought to support the position in public was the example of West Virginia.^[11]

References

1. ^ (French) Septemtrion, "Histoire populaire du Québec -- Volume 3", Jacques Lacoursière, 1996, pp.94 (ISBN 2-89448-066-0)
2. ^ Montreal Gazette, "Option Montreal -- to leave the province", Bruno Signori, 24 February 1969, pp.5
3. ^ Montreal Gazette, "Montreal as 11th Province", J. Martin, 18 February 1971, pp.7
4. ^ Montreal Gazette, "Montreal as a Province", Thomas LeGrady, 23 February 1971, pp.6
5. ^ Toronto Star, "Brick thrown through window of federalist", 13 February 1996, pp.A11
6. ^ ^{a b} University of Toronto Press, "Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs -- 1996", David Mortimer, 2002, pp.140 (ISBN 0-8020-3715-1)
7. ^ (French) Societas Criticus, "A quand un vrai leadership libéral et montréalais?", Michel Handfield, 19 June 2003, Volume 5, Number 2
8. ^ (French) Societas Criticus, "A la recherche du « Pouvoir » perdu… dans la grande ville", Michel Handfield, 10 May 2004, Volume 6, Number 2
9. ^ Toronto Star, "How will Quebecers spot an olive branch in forest of threats?", Rosemary Speirs, 4 September 1997, pp.A29
10. ^ Toronto Star, "New province of Montreal proposed Move should follow Quebec independence, lawyer says", Tim Harper, 3 September 1997, pp.A10
11. ^ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Oh Canada .French-speakers In Quebec Keep Up Their Flirtation With Separatism", Jack Kelly, 6 December 1998, pp.B3

See also

• Proposal for the Province of Toronto