No…not now, but back to 1978 again. From The Economist, October 21, 1978, Vol 269.

Canada Votes for Separatism
If Quebec still rejects the tories while the rest of Canada turns sour on Mr. Trudeau, the coming general election may break the country

Canada now stands poised for a fateful choice: a choice that will determine whether it continues to exist. Monday’s mini-election…revealed the perilous weaknesses both of Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal government and of the opposition Progressive Conservatives… [Mr. Joe Clark’s] own party, while triumphantly capturing no less than five Ontario seats formerly held by Liberal minister, failed once again to penetrate Quebec.

…the separatist tide that had swept Mr. Lévesque into office came up against a formidable barrier: the existence in Ottawa of a strong Liberal government. headed by a Québécois, committed to righting French Canadians’ ancient grievances….They held four fifths of the Quebec seats in the house of commons; his party held only three fifths of the provincial assembly seats, and it had won them on a minority (41%) vote.

…this is no time for Mr. Lévesque to beat the big drum. it is a long time since he has used such words as “independence” or “separation.” His party’s formula is “sovereignty-association,” and when he expounded this in the Quebec assembly on October 10th he emphasised that “We do not want to break our union with the rest of Canada, but rather to transform it radically.”

Posted by skooter at 2:08 PM This entry is filed under Canada, Politics, Quebec.
This entry is tagged: Articles, Pierre Trudeau, Quebec, Rene Levesque, Separatism