Following are scenes from Quebec, the last refuge of the dying grand old Canadian tradition of farmer demonstrations and the political society where even yellow margarine can become a symbol of Quebec’s oppression within Canada.
July 3, 10:30 a.m.: inside the Delta Hotel in historic Trois Rivieres, Canada’s agriculture ministers are settling in for their annual summer gabfest. In contrast to some stormier sessions in earlier years with different personalities involved, this meeting is shaping up to be quiet.
Outside, a flatbed truck pulls up and young men begin to set up a sound system and signs. Quebec’s farmers are coming to town to protest the proposal by provincial agriculture minister Guy Julien to make Quebec the last province to allow margarine to be colored yellow.
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It is being proposed because of a 1994 Canadian internal trade agreement signed by all provincial governments, including Quebec.
The protest is organized by Quebec dairy farmers and the powerful Union des Producteurs Agricoles and it is heartening to watch. In most of Canada, farmers see public protest and fighting back as outdated.
Quebec farmers appear to accept nothing as inevitable.
Today, they are promising as many as 2,000 farmers on the street.
Upstairs, there were signs of panic.
The Quebec delegation had security guards close down the second floor to anyone but official delegations. Doors were locked and journalists were ordered to either go to the windowless press room, downstairs to the hotel lobby or outside into the driving rain.
Noon: a far smaller crowd than expected has gathered but they are good-natured, watching a few men in cow suits and a couple of young women in shiny dresses perform pantomimes.
Then came the speeches. Requiring Quebec to allow butter-colored margarine is the thin edge of the wedge, the crowd was told.
Next will come butter-margarine blends and imitation dairy products that could end up taking a significant slice of the Quebec market, displacing the production from 700 dairy farmers and costing 3,000 Quebec dairy industry jobs.
By the next morning, Julien was being quoted as promising that he would consult more and would not move without industry support, although the Sept. 1 implementation deadline looms.
But the protesters also had a break. The distinct-society card began to surface.
At least one newspaper saw the dispute in “why Quebec is not like Canada” terms. The agriculture ministers from the Rest of Canada had gathered on Quebec soil to tell Quebeckers what color their margarine should be.
The dairy industry and white margarine are part of what makes Quebec distinct from the rest of Canada.
In a round-about way, the demonstration had worked, leading the great “yellow margarine” debate to where most Quebec debates seem to arrive – jobs, the right to be distinct and the dividing line between Quebec and the ROC.
For the independence-minded government of Bouchard and Julien, that could complicate life considerably.
