I'll admit that when the Bloc Quebecois were comprehensively wiped off the political map in the last federal election, I thought we had finally gotten over the whole mess of Quebec's separatists trying to split off into their own country. From an outsider's perspective, it offers very little real gain for a lot of real headaches, and the only result is a Quebec which would have a diminished economic power on the world stage.
By ousting the Bloc and going with a mainstream, national party in the last federal election, it appeared to me that the province had gotten over the idea of independence and decided to finally try to be part of the nation as a whole. It was exciting, because after growing up in a nation that was sometimes defined by a French temper tantrum to the east, it would be nice to move on and have a nation that actually can work together and discuss issues without one province getting a bee in their bonnet about some historical issue that isn't really that big a deal for most people in their daily lives.
Well that hope is short lived. The Parti Quebecois, for whatever reason, has decided to bring separation to the forefront yet again, making it a central issue in the upcoming federal election in the province. It's possible simply because that's their thing, and a Parti Quebecois with no separatism in their mandate is just a bunch of disparate elements that only really agree on their desire to form their own nation.
Thing is, forming their own nation is a tricky business, and since the economy is counted as one of the most important issues in the province, it's also going to be a dangerous business. The relative stability of being affiliated with a country like Canada is appealing to a lot of business, because you really don't have to worry about Canada, it's a nation that is relatively predictable. This is a great thing if you want to focus on what you do instead of worrying about any instability in the place where you have set up shop and are doing your work.
A new nation, by contrast, is going to be a somewhat dangerous proposition. Which is not to say a separate Quebec would be good or bad in the long term, just that it's more volatile than if things just stay the same. Volatility is unappealing for most companies, who will be very tempted to ship off to a country where they know what things like taxes and the currency are going to do, and they know how the world will react to their nation of residence. The short version, a separate Quebec would likely see a large number of companies pack up and leave rather than risk dealing with the challenges of an untested and rather tiny country.
On April 7, I do predict that we're going to see a final response to the pressures from those who talk of independence, and I personally hope the response is similar to that of the last federal election, and Quebec finally decides that working together is more advantageous than their previous policy of being stubbornly apart from everyone else, whether or not it benefits them. Nobody wants to change Quebec as a province, if anything the rest of Canada has bent over backwards to prove that we like Quebec as is. What we want is a united Canada just because that makes it easier to get things done. Hopefully we'll see that Quebec voters agree.
