[goldstategop]

Exactly. A lot of people in Quebec, even many who aren't leftists, have parked their votes with the Bloc in the name of defending Quebec's interests. The majority of French-speaking Quebecois want to remain in Canada. They want an equal partnership. They will leave Canada if they're treated like they're not wanted but it will take a lot to make the separatist cause an accomplished fact. It is indeed the Liberals who have undermined with corruption and graft, the unity of Canada. Now English-speaking Canada has a decision to make about whether to continuing its reward of the greatest single gift the separatists have had up til now: the Liberals whose decades long rule destroyed a nation's trust.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Mongeaux]

Q> Why did they raise the drinking age to 35 in Quebec?

A> To keep the High School students out of the bars.

[GMMAC]

In many respects I agree with you.

IMHO, most English Canadians make 2 fundamental errors when trying to comprehend Quebec:
1. They see Montrealers as representative of all Quebecers which is as realistic and makes about as much sense as forming an opinion of English Canada based upon Torontonians.
2. They're seemingly incapable of differentiating between the relatively small group of hardcore separatists and the far larger one of nationalists.
Given that most English Canadians exhibit little or no pride in their own language, history and culture, it's hardly surprising that they have great difficulty in relating to Francophones who are willing to stand up for themselves in these areas.

Along with shameless pandering, divide and conquer and playing various groups off against each other have long been standard liberal operating procedures on both sides of the border. As they're now well on their way to losing large vote blocks like the Blacks and French respectively, both are now heavily into playing their all too familiar evil games within assorted immigrant communities.

[Heartofsong83]

Good point.

In some rural Quebec ridings, the Conservatives were either a respectable (for Quebec standards) third - or even second in a couple (behind the Bloc Quebecois). The key is to ensure that they become the voice of federalism, and to try to make Quebec embrace Catholic values once more (they did until the mid-1960s with the Quiet Revolution). All is not lost; it is unfortunate that the separatists tend to be the rural and small town people, who have the most to gain in a united North America. Nothing says that they need to give up French if they became a US state (there are no official languages in the US). The big problems tend to lie in the big cities, especially Montreal (North America's most liberal city).