Breakup: The Coming End of Canada and the Stakes for America - Hardcover

An unusual, hybrid alert--part worthy analysis, part alarmist scenario--to a Canada possibly to be sundered next year by a separatist Quebec. Journalist Lamont's (Campus Shock, 1979) essayish analysis lacks lively scenes, but it contains much wisdom and information about the current state of Canada. Most Canadians these days don't view their country as a contract between its two founding peoples; Canadians outside Quebec seek a strong federal government but Quebecois seek autonomy. Federalist Canada lacks both a strong sense of patriotism (he notes that it took nearly a century for the country to get a flag) and ``an effective farm league'' to groom potential national leaders. Lamont tracks Canada's ``love-hate'' relationship with the United States, its highly divergent regions (from rich British Columbia to the poor Atlantic provinces) and the unhealthy French-Canadian nationalism ``embroidered'' onto what Quebecois consider their history of constant humiliation. He observes cogently that Canada's public embrace of multiculturalism has not only enraged Quebec but also threatened the country's already weak identity. Some two fifths of the book is a nightmarish vision of a future break-up: Anglophones and francophones throughout the country crack down on each other; riots erupt in Montreal; Native Canadians attack power plants; US troops are called in. An independent Quebec can't join NAFTA; Canada's split economy falters; the wounded country both hampers American interests and gives up its ``international Boy Scout image.'' Conflict with a weakened Russia could also arise. Lamont's hopes to maintain Canada are worthy, but after such sturm und drang, he merely suggests that Canadians must reign in both spending and their sense of victimization. Likewise, he fails to suggest policies for the United States that would stem the potential disaster. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In a compelling wake-up call that should stir wide debate, American Canadaphile Lamont ( Day of Trinity ) presents a plausible worst-case scenario of Canada's political disintegration and economic fragmentation. In his detailed forecast through the year 2002, French-speaking Quebec becomes a separate nation and its English-speaking residents disperse to escape authoritarian government; the western provinces patch together a regional alliance to counterbalance Ontario; British Columbia oscillates between sovereignty and American statehood; the Atlantic provinces form an anemic economic union and face political absorption by the U.S.; indigenous people stage acts of civil disobedience to reclaim ancient territories; massive indebtedness saps social welfare programs. Lamont also analyzes the Canadian national character and U.S.-Canadian relations throughout history. He predicts as well the frightening costs a Canadian breakup would have for the U.S., Europe, Latin America and the Third World.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.