User:Liberlogos/We Shall Dare

We Shall Dare

Lucien Bouchard

May 5, 2000

Translated by Benoît Rheault from:

Notes pour une allocution du Président du Parti Québécois monsieur Lucien Bouchard

[...] At the time of my assermentation speech as Premier, in January 1996, I summarized in a word the situation that all could observe. This word was: difficult. Difficult, the life of hundreds of thousands of Quebecers, women and men, deprived of employment or plunged in precariousness; difficult to relaunch the economy; difficult to put an end to decades of governmental budgets financed by deficits; difficult to manage a State stripped of any capacity to make development choices.

It is then that I called upon the help of Seneca, politician, writer and Roman philosopher. Seneca, who said: "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."

Thus, it appeared that the response to "difficult", that was, that had to be the words "to dare". Well! we have dared.

[...] Remember the teaching of Seneca. The antidote is "to dare". We have already done it, to the greatest confusion of skeptics.

My friends, we shall dare once again. From now, we dare putting at the forefront of public debate the question of the political future of Quebec.

Nous allons oser dire à nos concitoyens que le peuple québécois a une tâche à terminer; que nous devons compléter le parcours que nos prédécesseurs ont si vaillamment mené jusqu’à nous. Nous allons oser nous dire que tout dépend de nous, de notre solidarité, de notre imagination, de notre détermination. Nous allons oser dire aux Québécois qu’il faut mettre fin au gaspillage de nos énergies et consacrer toutes nos forces et toutes nos ressources à notre développement national. Nous allons oser rappeler les valeurs québécoises de démocratie, d’accueil, de compassion, de chaleur humaine, de fierté de notre histoire et d’acharnement à durer. Nous allons oser continuer à expliquer notre projet au Canada anglais et à tendre la main du partenaire que nous voulons être. Mais nous oserons aussi croiser le regard de l’incompréhension, forts de la légitimité de notre projet. Nous allons oser nous comporter comme un peuple que personne ne pourra culpabiliser de vouloir s’affirmer et prendre sa place aux côtés des autres.

It shall be difficult, yes. But it shall be much more difficult if we do nothing. It is much easier to lift our heads and eyes and to choose by ourselves our future than to be subjected to the one others impose upon us.

Because at the end of the effort, I see a people at the measure of the country of which it is capable, of the country which it will make, of its country.

I see a new people of America, strong of the vitality of its culture and its French language.

I see a people respectful of the rights of aboriginal nations, recognized by freely negotiated agreements.

I see a people mindful of protecting the rights of its english-speaking minority. I see a people open like its large river which enriched it with all contributions.

I see a people with ambitions high and straight like its mountains. I see the country of Quebec, large like its forests, vigorous like its rivers.

This country, I do not wish to see it only as a promised land, I wish that we enter it all together, as soon as possible.

Notes

This is a translated excerpt of the Parti Québécois document Notes pour une allocution du Président du Parti Québécois monsieur Lucien Bouchard. This is an original and unofficial translation for this site.

1. . The title was given by the editor.

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