I’ve done a couple of posts on my Gazette blog about the desire by people in Quebec for sovereignty. I haven’t posted them in this blog because most of my readers here don’t live in Quebec.
The first post has become the most popular one I have ever written in terms of hits and shares — more than 16,000 views and about 7,400 shares on Facebook.
The followup is doing well, too.
I have received a lot of very nice feedback on Twitter.
If you are interested in reading them, click on the links below (they are both in English despite the French titles).
2. Quebec, je ne pleure pas maintenant
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
Of course you meant to write ‘Je suis une Québécoise’. Like you, I too, grew up here and lived through the violence and the alienation and the disaffection of the English community here. I remember the bombs in the mail boxes. I remember “Mortes’ aux Anglais’ painted in red on the walls of my elementary school. I remember the kidnappings, the troops in the streets and Laporte being found dead, strangled, in his car, just nearby. I remember the language laws, the sign laws, the failed referendums, the hostility and mean spiritedness shown by the separatists. I remember their excuses, the ‘money and the ethnics’ comments, they way they have rewritten history. Never once, have they been inclusive, never once have they said, ‘lets all work together to build a better nation (country, state, province, home)’. They have failed me.
I am proud to be a Canadian, and my Canada includes Quebec.
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lol.Yes, I did mean to write it the way you have it. You are the first person to point out the error — after 16,000-plus other people saw it.
Smiles . . .
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I haven’t really gone into it, but I suspect that “Quebec sovereignty” is something on a par with “Scottish independence”. If they should get it they won’t have a clue what to do with it. With regards to Scotland, which I feel a bit more able to comment on: If they get independence then they won’t have a currency, because they have been told they can’t have Stirling; they won’t have the Bank of Scotland (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) or the Royal Bank of Scotland (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26455655 and http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/carney-rbs-may-have-to-leave-independent-scotland-1-3335972). They will not automatically be a part of the EU, in fact Spain would be certain to veto any attempt by an independent Scotland to join the EU for fear that it would encourage the independence movement in Catalonia (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scottish-independence-eu-bid-extremely-difficult-says-jose-manuel-barroso-9131925.html), and doubtless they wouldn’t get all the North Sea oil revenues they are hoping for, either (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/08/independent-scotland-debt-thinktank). As one bloke put it on the BBC news this weekend, Alex Salmond has said that if the “yes” vote wins then they will negotiate… but there is nothing to say which way the negotiations will go
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It’s hilarious how the Scottish seem to be fed the absolute same lies the Québécois are being fed about independance. We got the “You won’t be allowed to use the Canadian Dollar” one too, except that’s just not how real life works. Money is a commodity just like any other and any country can use any currency they like and no one can do anything about it.
“You won’t be part of [insert an international military/economic alliance here]” when it would be in the interest of everyone to make sure Québec is part of it because business is business and safety is safety.
“You will lose your business with ______” when the reality is that money is what talks.
“Canada won’t negotiate with you” when in reality, they better do because Québec is in no way obligated to take its debt when leaving and Canada.
Anti-separatists seem to share the same delusions about the way the world we’re living in works.
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Well said. I do plan to write more about the sovereignty issue in Quebec.
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By the way, perhaps I should give my “pseudo-Canadian” credentials: my sister was born in Toronto in 1970, though she has been raised in New Zealand from about the age of five. My sister’s mother (my “step-mother” should mine and my sister’s father have bothered to marry her) was born and raised in Manitoba. Unfortunately I haven’t been to Canada since 1969 when my grandparents took me to Toronto to see my father. He omitted to mention that his girlfriend was in the apartment above, pregnant with my sister, while we were there. I have very fond memories of m y trip to Ontario in 1969, and particularly of Algonquin Park. Delightfully for us in England, my sister and her two delightful daughters are over from NZ to visit in August for my younger son’s wedding. Life can’t get much better!
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