The theoretical framework of this thesis bases itself essentially upon
the respective works of Arendt Lijphart and Karl Deutsch, who have studied
how societal cleavages and social communication interact with each other.
The present thesis's main focus is the Quebec/English Canadian duality. It
uses quantitative analysis to study and compare pan-Canadian reactions to
the Allaire Report that was issued by the Quebec Liberal Party in early
1991. The purpose is to try and find out whether the Allaire Report and the
proposals it contains have had a divisive effect on Canadian society, and
if so, to what extent.
The data consists of all issues of the following newspapers over a
period of time of exactly one month, from the 22nd of January and the 22nd
of February, 1991 : the Calgary Herald, the Chronicle Herald, the Globe and
Mail, Le Devoir, the Montreal Gazette, the Vancouver Sun and the Winnipeg
Free Press. The analysis bases itself upon (1) the space that each
newspaper devotes to the issue (2) the tone and content of the headlines
and (3) the frequencies of appearance of certain selected words.
Quantitative analysis shows that the gap between Quebec and English
Canada is becoming wider. Quebec clearly overestimates English Canada's
fragile degree of homogeneity, while English Canada, by increasingly
identifying itself to the so-called "rest of Canada", paradoxically acts as
if Quebec were the glue that holds the whole country together. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/2948 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Danjoux, Olivier |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 2876317 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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