Quebec in a Global Light

To the outside world, Quebec is Canada’s most distinctive province. To many Canadians, it has sometimes seemed the most troublesome. But, over the last quarter century, quietly but steadily, it has wrestled successfully with two of the West’s most daunting challenges: protecting national values in the face of mass immigration and striking a proper balance between economic efficiency and a sound social safety net. Quebec has also taken a lead in fighting climate change. Yet, many people – including many Quebeckers – are unaware of this progress and much remains to be done. These achievements, and the tenacity that made them possible, are rooted in centuries of adversity and struggle.

A masterful survey of the major social and economic issues facing the province, Quebec in a Global Light by Robert Calderisi offers an intimate look into the sensitivities and strengths of a society that has grown accustomed to being misunderstood. In doing so, he argues that the values uniting Quebeckers – their common sense, courtesy, concern for the downtrodden, aversion to conflict, and mild form of nationalism, linked to a firm refusal to be homogenized by globalization – make them the most “Canadian” of all Canadians.

ROBERT CALDERISI studied at the universities of Montreal, Oxford, and Sussex, as well as the London School of Economics, and was a 1968 Rhodes Scholar for the Province of Quebec. He spent his career in international development at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, and the World Bank in Washington, DC. His previous books, The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working (2006) and Earthly Mission: The Catholic Church and World Development (2013), were both critically acclaimed. The first was chosen by The Economist magazine as one of the best books of the year. In June 2017, Concordia University in Montreal awarded him an honorary doctorate of laws for his contribution to the international debate on economic and social development