French-speaking Quebecois remain loyal to their homeland

They've been so successful that French President Jacques Chirac recently traveled to this cradle of Acadian culture and presented all three with France's Order of Merit.

You might think this would be widely celebrated next door in French-speaking Quebec, where provincial leaders propose to break away from Canada and create their own country. But nothing is simple when it comes to the Byzantine politics of Quebec separatism.

Truth be told, a recent resurgence of the Acadian community here in Atlantic Canada presents something of an inconvenient development for Quebec separatists. They have argued that the Canadian model of one country, two languages is a hollow promise that will lead to the gradual extinction of French language and culture in North America.

But if 300,000 Acadians in New Brunswick can preserve their culture and language while under the Canadian flag, it would seem 6 million French-speaking Quebecois could surely do the same.

That not-so-subtle message was hammered home this month in New Brunswick by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, host of the biennial meeting of La Francophonie, the Paris-based organization of 49 countries and territories where French is spoken by the majority or a minority of the people.

The history of Canada's two largest French-speaking communities began to diverge with the 1759 British defeat of the French army in North America. While the British governors seemed content to rule the large French community in Quebec, British officials in Nova Scotia ordered the mass expulsion of the French settlers. In the resulting diaspora, some Acadians returned to France; others fled to the southern United States, forming the basis of Louisiana's Cajun community; and still others took refuge in remote areas of northern New Brunswick.

Historian Maurice Basque said this diaspora mentality still defines the Acadian personality.

"Like all minorities, Acadians have needed to compromise in order to survive - it's a daily business with us," said Basque, director of Acadian studies at the University of Moncton. "In Quebec, where the French-speaking community is large and constitutes a majority, they can afford to take a more confrontational approach.""We have a different history, a different culture, a different view of being Canadian," explained educator Muriel Roy, who was honored by Chirac along with Catholic priest Anselme Chiasson and banker Martin Legere.

Like most Acadians, Roy does not support Quebec's secessionist movement. For them, the Canadian government has been a protector against the sometimes hostile policies of the English-speaking majority in New Brunswick. Acadians wonder how long the federal government would honor its commitment to bilingualism if Quebec were to secede, taking with it nearly 90 percent of the country's French speakers.

And while Acadians thank the Catholic Church for helping to keep their culture alive over the last century, modern Quebecois have largely turned away from a church they blame for conspiring with the English elite to keep them backward and poor.

Michel Venne, deputy editor of Quebec's leading separatist newspaper, Le Devoir, says the difference in mind-set between the two is summed up by a recent controversy over the name of the city of Moncton, site of this year's Francophonie meeting.

Shortly after the city was selected, the head of Quebec's staunchly separatist Saint Jean Baptiste Society suggested that New Brunswick find a name for the city other than that of the British general who carried out the expulsion of the French-speaking Acadians.

Acadians, said Venne, would have nothing to do with it.

"For the Acadians, it is enough to take quiet revenge knowing that they have finally triumphed over their oppressors," Venne said. "Quebeckers prefer unconditional surrender."