Acadian Autonomy in the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the 1960s–1980s

Abstract

Unlike the Quebec community, the Acadian ethno-cultural community in Canada is a minority and is threatened by linguistic and cultural assimilation. Since the 1960s nationalistic ideas started becoming more popular in the Acadian society, and, as a result, they have been reflected in the program of the Acadian Party.
The issues of nationalism and separatism in the French-speaking minorities of Canada have never been the subject of a special scientific research in the Russian historiography This article for the first time in Russian Canadian studies considers issues related to the political and ethno-cultural transformations in the Acadian society in the second half of the 20th century. So these problems are discussed for the first time in the Canadian studies in Russia. The article focuses mainly on tracing the historical path of the Acadian Party and to revealing the significance of an autonomist project for the Francophone population of New Brunswick. To this end the article makes use of the historical, political, ethnographic, socio-anthropological and interdisciplinary analysis based on the principles of historicism, systemic and scientific objectivity. The project proposed by the Acadian radicals turned out to be politically immature and unclaimed both by the elite and by the electorate. The reasons for that, in the author’s opinion, are the excessive radicalism that repulsed most of the Acadians, and the lack of support from the Quebec separatist groups.With that an experience of peaceful settlement of ethnic and political conflicts, proposed by the Acadians as a minority, is extremely relevant both for the Canadian province of Quebec and for a number of European countries (Belgium, France, Switzerland and Spain) as well as for the Russian Federation minorities.