Liberals Side With PM on Quebec

Fine, Harper. Then move to put it in the Constitution. If it's not there, expect another referendum.

a nation within a nation ... ?

That seems odd.

let them go..it would save us SOOOO much money whats the horrible thing that would happen if quebec left? oh yeah que politicians would have to stay in quebec :)

how about something like "great britain" considting of 2 countries. canada and quebec (but no queen ..duh)

Not really a nation within a nation. Canada is a recognized nation state without actually having a national body unified by culture. Quebec is a Nation without a state, Canada is a state without a nation. Members of a nation are most often distinguished by having a common ancestry, heritage, and language. That is why it is a nation within Canada.

Quebec has been playing the separation card for so long other people are starting to believe it!

The fact is, Quebec benefits much more from being in Canada than Canada benefits from having Quebec.

*One* example of this is equalization payments, which you can look up in Wikipedia for an explanation.

An excerpt: "Quebec, the most populous of the "have not" provinces, is by far the largest single recipient of the payments. When BC and Saskatchewan are removed, approximately 70% of the 10 million Canadians residing in "have not" provinces are in Quebec."

The whole independence movement is arguably just a game the province plays to increase its power, unfortunately at the cost of national unity.

Welfare issue aside (no one wants to win the payments game), cultural, linguistic, or social self-determination is no longer a hot button issue, because it's not the institutions (church, pan-Canadian companies) in Quebec as much as education and living everyday work and life that perpetuate French identity.

It leaves the identity politics in Quebec the distinction of being a pretty expensive set of campaigns about nomenclature.

'Collective welfare' shouldn't however be misconstrued as 'national unity,' but at least this might offer a place for borderline separatists in Quebec to find their place in Canada's oft-touted 'cultural mosaic' and call it a day.

Rhodezone, I think your analysis here offers a lot of real insight, so...thanks for that! As for 'calling it a day, well....I doubt it. But maybe (and as I said earlier, as Harper hopes) it will offer a place in the Tory pantheon for borderline Quebec sovereigntists who switch back and forth between the Bloc and the Liberals -- but who still have a sour taste in their mouths from the sponsorship scandal.

To clarify, I certainly wasn't equating welfare to national unity.

The point is that Quebec stands to gain little by leaving Canada, yet it continues to threaten separation.

As a "new", smaller nation, an independent Quebec would unlikely gain political advantage. To the contrary, it has a greater influence as part of a larger, established and respected country such as Canada.

It would also unlikely gain an economic advantage. As the equalization payments issue demonstrates, Quebec isn't productive enough to fully support its population, and it doesn't have as strong an economy as Ontario, Alberta or B.C., which help prop up Canada's economy overall.

Culturally, Quebec has little to complain about either. Canada has one of the best living standards in the world and Quebec has nothing like the issues of the Kurds in Iraq or the Tibetans under the Chinese. In fact, you could argue all Canadians, including the Quebecois, are somewhat spoiled. So what's the problem?

The problem is that the threat of separation has been and continues to be a way for Quebec to extract concessions from the rest of Canada. And when, to meet your ends, you convince a large percentage of the population (amazingly, in this case, including the Prime Minister) that it is right to break apart the country, then you are clearly doing harm to national unity.