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EVOKING THE THOUGHT OF ALEXIS DE TOQUEVILLE, MINISTER
DION STATES THAT UNIVERSAL VALUES MUST UNDERPIN NATIONAL ATTACHEMENT
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC, July 29, 2000 – Speaking at a
workshop on the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville during a conference sponsored
by the Conference for the Study of Political Thought in cooperation with the
Canadian Political Science Association, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, President
of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, stated today
that universal values must underpin any sense of national attachment.
The Minister first noted that, unlike those who consider
nationalism to be incompatible with individual freedom, Tocqueville believed
that liberalism and nationalism can be reconciled. He asserted that under
certain conditions, nationalism can be the bearer of the civic virtues necessary
for a democratic and liberal society.
Fearing that democracy could degenerate into asocial egoism,
Tocqueville stated that love of one's country - or what we now call nationalism
- is one of the ways to strengthen the commitment of individuals to the
societies to which they belong, Mr Dion noted.
The Minister explained Tocqueville's premonition of "the
demagogic, despotic, reactionary and racist outrages which the inflammation of
the national sentiment can produce." And yet, in spite of the dangers
of nationalism, he continued to believed in the civic virtues of national
attachment. Tocqueville thought that, to promote this civic patriotism more
effectively, a democratic state ought to be federal or decentralized.
"Uniformity held no attraction for Tocqueville,"
the Minister pointed out, "which is why he saw federalism,
decentralization, and love of one's country as a useful contribution to the
plural quest for freedom and genuine citizenship."
The Minister noted that, although we now know the enormity of
the crimes that have been committed in the name of the nation in the past two
centuries, Tocqueville was right in seeing national sentiment as "a
potential source of civic virtue." But Mr Dion pointed out that
Tocqueville did not specify "how nationalism might become civic
patriotism, rather than degenerating into a principle of racist and totalitarian
exclusion."
"There are universal values that are far more important
than nationalism," Mr Dion continued. "That go far
beyond it. I am thinking of the values of liberty, equality, solidarity,
sharing, tolerance, acceptance of others, and the pursuit of prosperity for all.
These are the goals that, as human beings, we should all pursue beyond our
differences."
"To my mind, that's what we're trying to do in Canada,"
the Minister stated. "We must draw our national pride from our efforts
to build here a country where each human being has the best chance to flourish
as a human being, whatever their origin or skin colour," he
emphasized. "To do so, we must build on the plurality of experiences,
on the diversity of our country and on the federative form of our system of
government."
He asserted that we need "to draw from our feelings of
belonging [...] something bigger and better than nationalism, something that can
anchor us to the universal, to what Tocqueville called displaying 'the aspect of
mankind [...] in the broadest light'."
The attachment to both Quebec and Canada is in no way
contradictory, the Minister concluded. "I consider it to be a wonderful
complementarity, perhaps the best combination to better live according to the
universal values sought by all human beings."
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For information:
André Lamarre
Special Assistant
Tel.: (613) 943-1838
Fax: (613) 943-5553
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