MONTREAL — About 200,000 French-speaking Quebecers lined the streets of the East End of this city Monday, blowing horns, ringing bells and shouting such nationalistic slogans as "We want a country!"

In theory, the Quebecers turned out to watch the official parade for the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which this traditionally Roman Catholic province regards as its national holiday. But in fact they were marking the turning of a page in Canadian history and celebrating the prospect of some new, still-undefined relationship with Canada's other nine provinces.

"I'm really hoping that we can negotiate a new approach with English Canada," said Ernie Parent, a typographer who stood by the curbside waving a six-foot blue-and-white provincial flag, "because we can't stand this any more. We're drowning in a sea of Anglophones.".

Quebecers feel poised for change now, thanks to the rejection last Friday of a package of constitutional amendments that would have given Quebec a special status within Canada. The amendments had taken on immense symbolic value here, and minutes after their defeat was acknowledged in the nation's capital, the province's premier, Robert Bourassa, went on television to announce that Quebec would always be a "distinct society," able to pursue its own destiny. The next day he promised to step up the formulation of a new political approach for the province.

Monday's religious parade gave Quebecers a chance to respond to this vague promise, and they expressed confidence and joy that over time their province will move away from English Canada. They also spoke with an inextinguishable idealism about what an independent Quebec might be like.

"We want to build a new country, a model for the world," said Philippe Giguere, a university student who like many at the parade was dressed from head to toe in blue and white. "My idea is a Quebec without an army."

Typographer Parent, meanwhile, was dreaming of a Quebec in which French-speakers, English-speakers, Indians and Eskimos would all participate as equals, proving to the world that racial justice is possible.

Many celebrants were quick to admit that they don't expect political change to come soon. For one thing, the holiday season has begun in Canada, and with politicians out of town, it is unlikely that Bourassa's new formula will be put together soon. Bourassa himself, moreover, is a longstanding federalist who fought the Quebec independence movement in the late 1970s. Given his background, many Quebecers are doubtful that he will be the one to lead their province to independence.