1976 PQ Victory

Last week I asked you to think about what it is that makes Shawville distinct. I'm still hoping that you will share anecdotes about Shawville that illustrate its special character and define its community. Post your thoughts, your anecdotes, a phrase or a few adjectives that express "being Shawville" to you.

This week, I am asking you to respond to some of the data I have been collecting. I’ve spent some time reading through The Equity’s archives. It’s a slow job, because the paper is rich in community stories, and details about local events and opinions. Most recently I read through the papers from 1976, the year of the Parti Quebecois victory in the provincial election. I knew the election, and the victory, were coming of course, so I was surprised by the absence of election related content in the weeks leading up to November 15. There were some signs of English/French tensions, mostly focused on Bill 22 which was clearly seen as a major imposition, and on interaction with Québec bureaucracy, an ongoing frustration. There is no hint in the paper of big changes in the offing. In September of 1976 The Equity even began to carry one page of French content, explaining that the inclusion was a better reflection of the region’s population.

On November 17th, the election results are reported, polling station by polling station. Shawville’s vote was almost evenly divided between the Union Nationale (448 votes) and the Liberals (408 votes). It seems the Liberals did not hold a monopoly on the federalist vote. That was my second surprise. The third was the editorial on page two of the same paper that read: "The election is over for another time so we can go back to our daily routine and try not to notice what happened". The editorial writer pointed out that Lévesque had only 40% of the popular vote, Canadian stock markets did not seem worried, and all would well. Two weeks later, the same editor initiated a conversation about "the problem of keeping Pontiac County in Canada" (Dec.8:p.2), and was chided for being ready to abandon ship rather than challenge “René”. The letter to the editor appeared, unusually, on the front page and read: "We must say, "O.K. René, you have Quebec, but in getting it, you got us. Now what are you going to do?" we must not be content to be cut off from the rest of the province, or to live in a Canada without Quebec” (Dec.15:p.1).

What do you remember about the PQ victory? Was it quickly forgotten, or did you hear conversations about moving away, or moving back in order to work against separation? Did it make the Québec/Ontario border more real, as much of my research suggests? I am interested in your opinions and impressions.

Launching the Research Project

This is the first entry in what I hope will become a conversation between you, Friends of Shawville, and me, Lyndal Neelin, a PhD student at Carleton University. This on-line forum is an important piece in the research project that will become my doctoral dissertation. I am exploring the the ability of a community to accommodate change without changing its own character, an ability I am calling ‘resilience’. Shawville, a great example of community resilience, is my case study.

The first part of my research asks how individuals and communities hold on to a sense of their identity and manage day-to-day decisions during times of change. I want to identify the strategies and resources communities make use of to keep their balance when what counts for ‘common sense’ changes. The second part of my project examines the potential costs of our ability to adapt. Social and environmental scientists who study resilience are concerned that some of the things we do to manage change make us less flexible and more vulnerable in the long run. I want to explore the possibility that how we manage change (the resources and strategies we use) might be making us (individuals, communities, and species) less resilient over time.

Shawville has experienced many social, political and economic changes since 1976. I want to discover which changes stand out in your mind as being the most significant; which moments and events you remember, and what you remember about them. I am particularly interested to learn what strategies and resources you think were most helpful to the community in managing the events that stand out for you. The objective of this research project is to offer an analysis of the present and future capacity for resilience of Shawville specifically, and small town, agricultural Canada more generally.

The first question I’d like to hear your responses to is “What makes this community (Shawville or The Pontiac) distinct from other small towns and rural communities”? Often the media make it sound as if all small towns are pretty much alike. I would like to hear your thoughts about what stands out for you about this community in particular. Shawville boosterism is okay, but answers that relate to what makes Shawville Shawville are obviously more helpful than answers that talk about why Shawville is the best.