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Quebec Sovereignty Movement

en.wikipedia.org

1–10 of 106 posts

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#2
Being a Québecois, I am divided on this issue. To heavily summarize :

Pro :

- Only one level of corruption instead of two to keep in check.

- A (sometime too zealous) protection of the language.

Against :

- Less international political weight

- Companies forced to to business in french by law might gtfo since it incur costs

- Weak military power (would we stay in NATO?)

Globally :

Our roads are already crap. Healthcare is free but your experience in quality of service might vary. We already selling our natural resources like there is no tomorrow and we store nuclear waste here too.

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#3
I'm Québécois from birth (Trois Rivières). I voted in the incredibly close '95 seperation referendum. In my view, separation or sovereignty would be bad for us.

Separation is mainly predicated on the idea that Québécois are culturally distinct from the rest of Canada, and that our values would be better represented independently. We mostly speak French, and the rest of Canada is predominantly anglo (my New Brunswick Acadian mother in law would have me point out New Brunswick is officially bilingual and has many Francophones). Separatists would argue that there are substantively deeper differences, but having lived abroad in several countries over a decade and returned, any differences seem to me razor thin. We have vastly more in common than separates us. Breaking from Canada to underline these minor differences would come at a tremendous cost.

But creating a movement around identity is easy. So every now and again separatist ideas gather steam. We'll pay through the nose for a Québécois Nation and be no better off for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Quebec_referendum

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#4
Even more interesting, if it went through the Western half of Canada would effectively be cut off from the bulk of the countries population and economic centers. For this reason, the Governor of Alberta at the time had planned to cede to the US had the referendum been a success. At that point there probably would have been something of a domino effect, with the other Western provinces doing the same.

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#5
post #4

Even more interesting, if it went through the Western half of Canada would effectively be cut off from the bulk of the countries population and economic centers. For this reason, the Governor of Alberta at the time had planned to cede to the US had the referendum been a success. At that point there probably would have been something of a domino effect, with the other Western provinces doing the same.

> if it went through the Western half of Canada would effectively be cut off from the bulk of the countries population and economic centers.

What? Quebec is east of Ontario, so the entire west of Canada is still connected to Ontario by land. Only lightly populated, economically minuscule (but gorgeous) eastern provinces would be cut off.

> For this reason, the Governor of Alberta at the time had planned to cede to the US had the referendum been a success.

Premiere of Alberta. Albertans threaten this regularly when one or another of their extractive projects doesn’t get approved.

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#6
post #4

Even more interesting, if it went through the Western half of Canada would effectively be cut off from the bulk of the countries population and economic centers. For this reason, the Governor of Alberta at the time had planned to cede to the US had the referendum been a success. At that point there probably would have been something of a domino effect, with the other Western provinces doing the same.

Could you clarify? Wouldn't this only cut Newfoundland and Labrador off from the rest of Canada? Can't see how this would affect Western Canada's access to the population/economic centre which is basically just Ontario, and to a lesser degree BC and Alberta itself. (Excepting Quebec, which I guess all of Canada would be cut off from to the same degree in this scenario).

Re: Quebec Sovereignty Movement

#10

I'm Québécois from birth (Trois Rivières). I voted in the incredibly close '95 seperation referendum. In my view, separation or sovereignty would be bad for us. Separation is mainly predicated on the idea that Québécois are culturally distinct from the rest of Canada, and that our values would be better represented independently. We mostly speak French, and the rest of Canada is predominantly anglo (my New Brunswick…

What powers does Quebec want that it doesn't actually have?
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