Ça Devient Une Question D'être Maîtres Chez Nous
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-23-2011 12:00 AM "Ça devient une question d’être maîtres chez nous”: The Canadiens, Nordiques, and the Politics of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984 Terry Gitersos The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Don Morrow The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Kinesiology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Terry Gitersos 2011 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Cultural History Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Political Science Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Gitersos, Terry, ""Ça devient une question d’être maîtres chez nous”: The Canadiens, Nordiques, and the Politics of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984" (2011). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 252. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/252 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “ÇA DEVIENT UNE QUESTION D’ÊTRE MAÎTRES CHEZ NOUS”: THE CANADIENS, NORDIQUES, AND THE POLITICS OF QUÉBÉCOIS NATIONALISM, 1979-1984 (Spine title: Hockey and the Politics of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Terry Vaios Gitersos Graduate Program in Kinesiology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Terry Vaios Gitersos 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ___________________________ ___________________________ Dr. Don Morrow Dr. Christine Dallaire Supervisory Committee ___________________________ Dr. Michael Heine ___________________________ Dr. Michael Heine ___________________________ Dr. David Spencer ___________________________ Dr. Kevin Wamsley ___________________________ Dr. Kevin Wamsley The thesis by Terry Vaios Gitersos entitled: "Ça devient une question d’être maîtres chez nous”: The Canadiens, Nordiques, and the Politics of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984 is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ______________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract This dissertation analyzes the discourses produced by the selected newspaper coverage of the Montréal Canadiens and Québec Nordiques, two professional hockey clubs based in the province of Québec, from 1979 to 1984. Sport has long provided a medium for national identification, and constitutes one the most effective institutions through which the nation is imagined. This is especially true of Canada, where ice hockey has been celebrated as the country‟s national game and a window into the Canadian soul. However, sport is a malleable institution; in Québec, hockey has long served as a symbol, speaking to French Canadian national identity, imbued with its own significance independent of any pan- Canadian context. The Montréal Canadiens, founded in 1909, were the sporting institution most intimately associated with French Canadian identity. However, following two decades of unprecedented social, political, and economic changes in Québec, newspaper journalists in the early 1980s questioned the Canadiens‟ monopoly over Québécois affections. As a result, the newspaper coverage of the rivalry between the Canadiens and the newly-formed Nordiques was anchored in Québec‟s neo-nationalist politics, and the teams became channels for debates about language, social change, the shape of Québec society, and the nature of Québec identity. Through a critical discourse analysis of the newspaper coverage of the Canadiens and Nordiques in both French and English newspapers, I determined that the Nordiques were celebrated as an institution that both reflected and advanced the neo-nationalist project, while the Canadiens were depicted as having fallen out of step with the pace of Québec‟s social and political change. The neo-nationalist identity constructed through this newspaper coverage iii normalized the French language as the foundation of Québécois identity, but, contrary to the claims of neo-nationalists themselves, also constructed ethnicity and biology as central to the neo-nationalist sense of self. The identity represented through this hockey coverage excluded and even demonized Québec residents, such as Anglophones, who deviated from these norms. These discourses exposed the deep schisms that existed in Québec society in the early 1980s. Keywords Montréal Canadiens, Québec Nordiques, Québec, hockey, nationalism, identity, politics, discourse, sport history. iv Acknowledgments To start, I would like to thank Dr. Don Morrow for accepting me as a doctoral student and for shepherding me through the dissertation process. Your patience and council has been much appreciated, and your passion for teaching, learning, and clever turns of phrase will continue to inspire me in the future. I am also grateful to Dr. Neil Carter, Dr. Tony Collins, Dr. Richard Holt, Dr. Tony Mason, and Dr. Dilwyn Porter for introducing me to the sociocultural study of sport and capably directing me through my master‟s degree. I would also like to acknowledge my dissertation committee members, Dr. Don Morrow, Dr. Michael Heine, and Dr. Kevin Wamsley, whose constructive feedback helped jumpstart this project. With sincere appreciation, I would like to thank the chairs and examiners from both my internal and external examinations: Dr. Don Morrow, Dr. Christine Dallaire, Dr. Janice Forsyth, Dr. Michael Heine, Dr. Darwin Semotiuk, Dr. David Spencer, and Dr. Kevin Wamsley. Special acknowledgement is reserved for Dr. Dallaire, who travelled from Ottawa for my examination. I must also recognize Jenn Plaskett, Kate Fitzgerald, Miranda Wickett, and Jacqui Saunders, the former and current superheroes of the Kinesiology graduate office, for making my life as a doctoral student much, much easier over the past four years. I am indebted to Dr. Jean Harvey and Dr. Roger Boileau for their best efforts in trying to secure research possibilities for me in Québec, and to Dr. Christian Poirier and Dr. Michel Vigneault for injecting much-needed enthusiasm into the initial stages of this project. I am also thankful for the patience and expertise offered to me by Amapola Alares and Pierre Renaud at Les Archives de Radio-Canada in Montréal. I am grateful for the licences granted by Tim Burke, Terry Mosher, and la Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec that allow me to reprint the editorial cartoons in this dissertation. v I am in the enviable position of having too many wonderful friends and family members to acknowledge by name in this space. Therefore, I extend a collective shout out to my friends and family in Yellowknife, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, London, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montréal, Halifax, the United States, the United Kingdom, St. Lucia, Guatemala, South Korea, Hong Kong, Greece, and all points in between. Thank you for never allowing me to take myself too seriously, and for constantly reminding me that there exists a beautiful word outside of the academy. Special acknowledgements must be extended to my current and former Western colleagues Megan Popovic, Toby Rider, Mac Ross, Stephen Swain, Natalie Szudy, Braden Te Hiwi, Sarah Teetzel, and Anne Warner, who have provided good conversation, commiseration, and periodic pep talks; Tara Dumas, who proved without a shadow of a doubt to be the best roommate in the world; and Geoff Bardwell, Brie O‟Keefe, and Kait Pinder, who graciously provided lodging and good company during academic field trips. This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Eleftherios and Panagiota Gitersos, whose love, support, and decision to enrol me in a French immersion program made this project possible. It is also dedicated to my sister, Helen Gitersos, who over the course of this doctorate had to deal with a lifetime‟s worth of defeatism and histrionics, and did so with good humour and kind words of encouragement. vi Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION ........................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi List of Appendices ............................................................................................................ xii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Statement of Purpose .............................................................................................