Charest says Quebec is nation period
Montreal Gazette:
QUEBEC CITY - Premier Jean Charest said Saturday it doesn't matter if Canadians in other provinces don't agree that Quebec is a nation.
"For us, Quebec is a nation," Charest told reporters after a regional meeting of his Quebec Liberals to prepare for a party convention next March.
"There has never been any doubt in my mind," he added. "And by the way, neither do I believe that Quebecers have any permission to ask from anyone to be who they are. Period."
Reporters raised the nationhood issue after recent polls suggested the federal Liberal party's ongoing debate over whether Quebec is a nation has little resonance with Canadians.
Leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff has said publically he wants to formally recognize Quebec's status as a nation within Canada.
However, while a Leger Marketing poll for the Association for Canadian Studies indicated 48 per cent of the 1,500 respondents agreed that Quebec was a nation, an equal percentage said the Metis are a nation and 65 per cent said aboriginals are a nation. That poll was accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
"All of that is a very theoretical debate," Charest said. "I don't comment on polls for a very good reason because they are done in a vacuum."
Charest told about 400 members of his party that Parti Quebecois leader Andre Boisclair is proposing a new referendum on sovereignty "as soon as possible."
He said the issue in the coming provincial election is simple, "A referendum as soon as possible or re-electing a Liberal government."
And he reminded his members they have work to do before the next election, recalling that in 1998, his first election as Liberal leader, the party took more votes than the PQ. But Liberal votes were concentrated in the Montreal area, and not Quebec's regions, and the PQ was still able to form a majority government.
A recent CROP poll showed the Liberals and PQ tied with 37 per cent each, but the projection was a majority PQ government because Charest's Liberals trail the PQ by 23 percentage points among francophone voters.
Charest raised the spectre of a new PQ referendum in 2008, the 400th anniversary of Quebec City's founding.
"A referendum on separation would be divisive for Quebec society," Charest said.
That's Right Jean
But if these separtists are really that intent on leaving, Blog MyyyyyAsssss wishes them a bon voyage. Do not forget that you will need a passport to get into Ontario. You may not use Canadian currency. You will not receive enormous sums of money from Ottawa in the form of taxpayer dollars. The list goes on....
But you Will Be A
Hmmmm - maybe then this country could have a Prime Minister from British Columbia, or Alberta, or Saskatchewan, or Manitoba, or Ontario, or ...................... Hey, this gets better every minute.
