“Sovereignty” emphasizes self-government and political independence. “Separation” emphasizes breaking something apart. Those words can describe the same constitutional outcome while creating very different impressions.

 

The Parti Québécois won Quebec’s provincial election Monday night, returning an explicitly pro-independence party to government. Yet one word in the coverage is worth noticing.

CTV News announced the result this way: “Quebec sovereigntist party will form next government.” 

“Sovereigntist.” Not “separatist.”

Compare that with the language routinely used when the subject is Alberta.

CTV has repeatedly described Alberta’s movement as “separatism” and its supporters as “separatists.”

Yet the political objective at the centre of both movements is fundamentally the same: independence from Canada.

The Parti Québécois does not merely advocate greater provincial autonomy. Its raison d’être is Quebec sovereignty, and leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has committed to pursuing another referendum on independence.

The Canadian Press described Monday’s victory as paving the way for an eventual third sovereignty referendum.

Alberta voters, meanwhile, are not even being asked on October 19 whether Alberta should immediately leave Canada. Question 10 asks whether Alberta should remain a province or whether the provincial government should begin the constitutional process necessary to hold a later, binding referendum on separation. 

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Nevertheless, “separatist” has become a standard descriptor for the Alberta movement.

The words aren't neutral

“Sovereignty” emphasizes self-government and political independence. “Separation” emphasizes breaking something apart. Those words can describe the same constitutional outcome while creating very different impressions.

The difference becomes especially striking when the movements are discussed side-by-side.  PQ Leader St-Pierre Plamondon himself drew a parallel between Alberta and Quebec, saying both were seeking self-determination in response to federal abuses of power. 

There are obviously major historical, cultural and political differences between Quebec nationalism and Alberta's independence movement. That doesn't explain why one movement should automatically receive the more affirmative vocabulary while the other receives the more pejorative one.

If “sovereigntist” accurately describes Quebecers seeking an independent Quebec, then it can accurately describe Albertans seeking a sovereign Alberta.

And if “separatist” is the appropriate term for Alberta, consistency demands asking why Canada's most famous separatist party suddenly becomes merely “sovereigntist” on election night.