The 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s founding of Quebec City has provoked a rash of disagreements about what the event signifies.

Federalists and sovereigntists have put their own spins on its meaning, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling Champlain the founder of Canada. But Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois insists Champlain founded Quebec; she says that event has nothing to do with Canada. And Max Gros-Louis, chief of the Huron-Wendat First Nation, asserts that Champlain was the first immigrant. The Huron-Wendat First Nation, originally established in Ontario, is wholly within the limits of Quebec City.

With disagreements like this, it’s no wonder Quebec’s immigration debate continues to simmer. French Quebecers didn’t feel threatened by immigration until the 1960s. With Quebec’s Quiet Revolution and oral contraception, Quebec women stopped listening to the priests and the birth rate plummeted. To ensure French Quebec would not be overwhelmed by newcomers, successive Quebec governments in the 1970s took steps to ensure that the children of immigrants went to French schools. What came to be known as the “Bill 101” generation, including immigration minister Yolande James, who is the daughter of Caribbean immigrants, went to French schools.

But debate on the role of immigrants continues, playing out in touchstone areas such as the storied Montreal Canadiens hockey franchise. The roster of Les Canadiens, as the Habs are known in Montreal, used to be filled with players named Richard, Béliveau, Lafleur and Roy. But while the team didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup this year, Montreal fans were pleased with the performance of players named Koivu, Kovalev, Kostitsyn, Kostopoulos and Komasarek.

Tradition was upset in other areas as well, with English Montrealers turning their backs on the CBC’s hockey coverage. Unable to stomach the openly anti-Montreal comments of Hockey Night in Canada’s Don Cherry, they wrote to the The Gazette to say they were watching the games instead on the French RDS sports network. And many Quebecers note that, while the Habs have few Quebecers in starring roles, outstanding goaltenders, top-scoring forwards, rugged defencemen and skilful coaches born in Quebec can be found throughout the National Hockey League.

The high-profile coming and going shows up in the entertainment business as well. The lineup at Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebrations includes two top Las Vegas acts who also happen to be Quebecers: Céline Dion and the Cirque du Soleil have their roots in the province, but they have gone global. And French-speaking stars from other countries are embraced in Quebec. French-Israeli singer Yael Naim, whose song “New Soul” is used in the television ad for the Macbook Air, is hot in Quebec now.

Change is also sweeping through business. The PQ is concerned that Montreal-based companies, such as Alcan Inc. and Abitibi-Consolidated Inc., have been bought by foreign interests. But Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. is a global player, selling its aircraft and trains around the world, and Paul Desmarais’ Power Corp. has huge holdings in Europe.

With Quebecers making their way in the world and people from other countries winning the hearts of Quebecers, concerns appear to be shifting from protecting French culture to keeping the economic wheels spinning. Premier Jean Charest has recently made it clear that he wants Quebec to focus on increasing mobility, both out of and into the province, or, as he says, expanding Quebec’s economic space.

He’s proposed opening Quebec’s doors to qualified professionals from other provinces and countries as part of reciprocal arrangements that would also make it easier for Quebecers to migrate elsewhere to work. He is aiming for an agreement on greater labour mobility within Canada by April 1, 2009. The arrangement would have the biggest impact in high-skill areas in which provincial barriers currently exist, such as medicine and law.

More ambitiously, Charest also wants a mobility agreement with France, making it easier for French professionals to come to Quebec and for Quebecers to take jobs in France. Charest recognizes the agreement with France would be a world first, and if it works, the premier wants to negotiate similar accords with other countries.

If high mobility works in the NHL, for Céline and the Cirque, why not open Quebec to the world’s best and brightest? And why not open the global village to migration from Quebec? IE