It’s not just because Québec residents don’t like Canada. Instead, let’s take a look at the 4 main periods of Canada together…

Canada was claimed as the “Nouvelle-France” by Jacques-Cartier in 1534.

Several settlements were attempted to be made, none of which really survived the harsh Québec winters and it’s only 74 years later, in 1608, that Québec city was really settled for good.

This means that Québec city was continuously occupied for now 409 years, while Montreal is getting ready to celebrate its 375th birthday.

Canada’s 150th birthday pales in comparison to the age of both of our biggest cities, but it’s not just that…

In 1760, Canada was militarily conquered by the British, after 152 years of being a French colony.

We remained more or less occupied by the British for 107 years. The Québec Act of 1774 was an improvement to the military rule in place since 1763 , the Constitutional Act of 1791 was an attempt to assimilate us by giving more powers to the English minority present in Lower-Canada, and the Act of Union of 1840 was a direct attempt to join Lower-Canada and Upper-Canada in a way to benefit English-Speaking Upper  Canada.

In short, with the exception of the small 17 years period between 1774 and 1791, Québec was already more or less ruled by the British minority, not only in practice but also on paper. With rules put in place to keep the French-Canadians in check, in control or marginalized.

Put another way, we were second-class citizens.

In 1867, in theory, Canada was once again a friendly place for French-Canadians. Other articles such as this one on the French language under the 1867 constitution shows that the 1867 Constitution wasn’t a walk in the park, but still, Québec had a veto for the first time on constitutional changes and absolute control over its education and healthcare (both of which would be violated later, with our veto stolen in the 1982 constitution).

More importantly, we got 3 of the 9 supreme justice and 24 of the Senators, even if neither are nominated by the Québec government.

The important thing to remember, however, is that we were French colonists for 152 years, and we will have been full citizens of Canada for only 150 years come this July…

After 2019, then, finally, we will have been Canadian longer than we have been French Colonists…

Now, the remaining problem is that the 1867 constitution only lived for 115 years… Our current constitution is really only 35 years long!

But in all honesty, the Nouvelle-France received a new constitution in 1663, which lasted only 97 years, making the 1867 constitution still the longest…

So personally, I will be celebrating this summer, not so much the 150th birthday of Canada itself, but rather, the 150th birthday of a constitution I actually kind of like.

Of course, many Québec residents will celebrate July 1st another way…