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"I've been following this a little more closely than I should (being an American, not Canadian)..."

Hey, we should be flattered, given the realities of this world it's rightly far more often the other way around!
Anyway here's another perspective as to your question as expressed in response to a similar one on FR a couple of weeks ago:

Posted by GMMAC to ken5050
On News/Activism 05/03/2005 10:15:05 AM EDT · 11 of 14

Just to play Devil's Advocate, one could argue that the majority of Quebecers are actually ahead of the political curve in their now long-standing repudiation of the morally bankrupt Liberal Party.

Two mistakes, IMHO, that many outside Quebec make in trying to understand it:
1. they view Montrealers as representative of all Quebecers when this is likely as realistic as forming an opinion of English Canada based solely upon Torontonians.
2. they fail to differentiate between the relatively small number of authentic separatists and the probable majority of Quebecers who are actually nationalists. (sometimes wrongly called "soft separatists")

In the latter case, the error most likely finds its basis in the fact that, as a group, Canadian Anglophones take no pride whatsoever in their own language, history and culture and accordingly have great difficulty in comprehending people who do.

I'd argue that people who do deem these things worth standing up for are more deserving of our respect than those who plainly don't. Sometimes - as with "French Only" sign laws - you have to go too far to go far enough.

Personally, I'd support similar legislation in English Canada and would even go a step further: 50+% of the wording on any public sign should be in EITHER of our Official Languages. (reading French really isn't that tough) I'm sick of seeing signs totally in foreign languages because they tell me that those who display them want nothing to do with anyone else and simply want to occupy territory while contributing nothing in return!

........
To this I'd add:
Worry more about the socialistic tendencies of a lot - but not all - of the Bloc MP's. Most of the fear-mongering concerning them is just so much self-serving Liberal/NDP propaganda. The Mulroney Gov't was essentially an alliance between the former PC party and what's now the Bloc and it wasn't half as corrupt or socialistic as the slimeball gangsters now running the nation!

as a group, Canadian Anglophones take no pride whatsoever in their own language, history and culture and accordingly have great difficulty in comprehending people who do.

This is my impression of the generalization of all Canadians, Anglophonic in particular. It seems to me that Canadians have this 'to each his own' attitude to the pont where the definiton of what it is to be Canadian is 'not American' or 'not ... (fill in the blank).'

This can only lead to the inevitablity of Quebec's separation, as the Quebecois, at least, have an identity to gravitate toward, regardless of the politcal leanings of the champions of that identity.