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| English: Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Français : Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal. Montréal, Québec, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
If Quebec Separates, The Fun Starts…
At least, according to Sun News commbox poster Dennis Peitzsche of Stayner Collegiate Institute. Here's Dennis' post:
Larry Winslow of Wycliffe College, Toronto adds:If Quebec should decide to hold a referendum and the Quebecois vote for leaving Canada, the fun starts.1. Aboriginals will refuse to give up their traditional territory.2. The St. Lawrence Seaway is jointly owned by Canada and the United States; Quebec has no claim to the lands set aside for the Seaway.3. Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence and may not be part of a new Quebec.4. All federal facilities (and English speaking employees) in Quebec would have to relocate.5. Air Canada could not continue maintenance operations in a foreign nation.6. The Port of Montreal would wither as Canadian companies would have to find an Canadian location for imports and exports.7. Airlines would cease landing in Quebec until they could negotiate landing rights with the new nation.8. The Canada Space Agency could move from Saint-Hubert to Calgary.9. Federally licensed financial institutions (all banks, for example) could no longer operate in Quebec.10. Bilingual courts and a bilingual federal civil service would be history.11. The Official Languages Act would be history.12. Thousands of translators we now pay for would be out of work.13. We would have 78 fewer Members of Parliament to pay for.14. We would have 24 fewer Senators to pay for.15. The NDP would lose 57 seats including Mulcair’s;16. The Liberals would lose 8 seats including Trudeau’s.17. The Conservative party’s majority would increase from 52% to 67%.18. We would save about $20 billion annually in federal transfer payments - which could be used to pay down the federal debt.19. We could save another $543 million in funds currently earmarked for bridges over the St. Lawrence and in and out of Montreal.20. We would no longer support Bombardier.21. All military aircraft work contracted by Canada would have to leave Quebec.22. Goodbye to the CBC French language networks.
Add to departure of Federal Facilities the fact that all Canadian Military Bases would relocate to Canada.
They would have to create a new currency that would be worthless worldwide.
All transfer payments would cease.
Quebec would have to payout its share of the Canadian National Debt.
Many corporations would relocate to Canada where they intended to be in the first place.
Logically, their departure would be with that with which they entered Confederation.
Canada would have to maintain a Canadian corridor to the Maritime Porvinces.I'm all for a "Canadian corridor" for to the Maritime Porvinces -- even if it goes through northern Maine.
Whatever it is, it probably won't be "fun" -- more like extremely messy and bitter. Mainly because Quebec will not be reasonable about either land or finances. It would only go smoothly if Quebec were to act like a responsible adult rather than a spoiled, petulant teenager. Will Quebec be able to "man-up"?
6 comments:
I really don't think it would be fun, but; their could be a few positive side effects. If their is to be a referendum inside Quebec, then their should also be one for the rest of Canada. In both cases the terms should be spelled out in clear language so both sides know exactly what they are voting on. Non of this BS language which is open to hundreds of interpretations. If it is a yes vote from either side then it should be quick and final....Steve O
A referendum from both sides would certainly change the dynamic. Quebec would, of course, be offended.
How about a third referendum for natives in Quebec, and a fourth for the island of Montreal? Quebec would squeal like a pig. Excuse me. Like un cochon. Or is it un porc?
As part of assuming their share of liabilities - pensions for Federal employees and MP's. Including Mr Chretien, Mulclair and Mr Trudeau. Also all francophone civil servants working in Quebec transferred to the Quebec civil service. Vive Canada Libre
10, 11, 12, and 22 are false. Canada is still a bilingual country with or without Quebec. New Brunswick is a bilingual province (and fiercely so).
Chuck T. "Canada is still a bilingual country with or without Quebec. New Brunswick is a bilingual province (and fiercely so)."
Depends on what you mean by a bilingual country. A province can be bilingual without a federal government being committed to official bilingualism. Official federal bilingualism is a relatively recent innovation in the overall history of Canada.
As much as I like New Brunswick and its people, I would have to say at some point its ferocity might not count for much given the costs of maintaining a bilingual federation and the effects on federal employment, i.e, the inevitable advantage gained by French-speaking Canadians.
What might be fair to other Canadians would be for federal Canada to provide bilingual services to New Brunswick as long as the New Brunswick people were willing to pay the cost.
I so badly want quebec to leave Canada. I pray for that everyday. But the real issue is that it don't matter if they leave or not. The rest of Canada (mostly Alberta) would still be financially supporting them except it would be in foreign aid as opposed to transfer payments. Quebec would still find some way to convince the rest of Canada that they are entitled to some kind of special claim and we in the rest of Canada would continue to fall for it.
I would just personally rather if Alberta would just leave Canada, take our resources with us and stop giving welfare payment to quebec, Ontario, and the Maritimes.
I'm a fifth generation Albertan and my family built this province only to watch the rest of Canada and quebec take it all away while I work my butt off just to send money out east.
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