A charter group: the political behaviour, identity, and constitutional discourse of anglophone Quebec, from Bill 22 to the Charlottetown referendum, 1974-1992

This thesis presents the argument that the contemporary political behaviour and identity of anglophone Quebec is consistent with that of a Canadian minority. As do many Canadian minorities, anglophone Quebecers look to the Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms as both a political tool and as a source of identity. Reflective of their status as an official-language minority, anglophone Quebec can be distinguished from that of the rest of English-speaking Canada. Using the concepts of symbolic resources and the symbolic order provided by Raymond Breton, Charles Taylor's discussion of the modern idea of identity and the politics of procedural and substantive liberalism, and Alan Cairns's notion of constitutional minoritarianism, this thesis examines the transformation of the political behaviour and identity of anglophone Quebec from that of a segment of the Canadian majority to that of a distinctive Canadian minority group.