Quebec & France & Canada: One Big Happy Family

“I’ve always been a friend of Canada, it’s something very constant in my political life. … If anyone tries to tell me that the world today needs an additional division, then they don’t have the same read of the world as me,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “I don’t know why a fraternal, familial love of Quebec would have to be nourished through defiance toward Canada.” (link)

The quote comes from the current President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.  It is not exactly good news to the continued movement for an independent Quebec.  Between this, the sudden silence of the Bloc on sovereignty throughout the election campaign, and the decline in Bloc seats in the face of stronger Liberal and Conservative performances, Gilles Duceppe had a rough go of things last week.

We’ve come a long way from Charles de Gualle’s 1967 “Vive le Quebec libre” speech.

I spent my week in Ottawa and got to chat with some new friends from Gatineau trying to understand the current state of separatism in Quebec.  I’ve concluded I don’t know anything meaningful about how Quebeckers think.