Former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says Quebec “eventually” will become an independent country and that a victory for Scottish separatists in an expected 2014 referendum will launch a new effort by Quebec nationalists to fulfil their sovereignist dream.
Ignatieff, an author and academic who left the Liberal leadership after his party was badly beaten in the 2011 election, made the comments in an interview being broadcast Monday on BBC Scotland.
He also said Quebec and the rest of Canada have little to say to each other and that the two already are “almost” separate countries.
And here I thought that the PQ party was dieing on vine in Quebec and the separtists were getting fewer and fewer. Nothing like someone who had aspirations to become PM of Canada fanning the flames of separatism by giving them hope for the future.
I'm sure that quebecers would really like to not get the perpetual bailout that they get from the other provinces. I'd really like to see what would happen if they were to be given the right to leave, and then when the government actually needs to balance the budget.....
You think the protests over tuition are bad now (I don't have any sympathy for them there at all for that)
Quebec won't leave if they realize that they would suddenly become a banana republic with the highest unemployment rate in North America and no shared currency.
Any leader that faces a serious separation threat really needs to give a all or nothing proposition before any vote.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Rationally, independence is not in Quebec's interest. Yet they very nearly went for it in '95, so I don't put much faith in their being rational.
That's because we had a leader that dithered and didn't lay out the costs of seperation to the people of Quebec in hard and forceful terms.
when the Quebecois separatists are convinced that they'll keep all of their federal government jobs, shared currency and passports and trade agreements while being a separate country, there's a failure to communicate with them.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Whut? I thought this thread was necro'd from in 1995 or something because this is classic Ignatieff in London circa the 90s shortly after his period working as a UK television personality.
This is actually very interesting. How would something like that be handled?
Sudan recently handled a similar set of questions with a shooting war. I'd like to think we'd be friendlier about it, but it'd be a heck of a challenge.
Nobody who owns GoC bonds would want them replaced with Gov't of Quebec bonds.
haha..I hope that at least he is genuine in his opinion and isn't just saying this to get speaking engagements offers for high $$$ in different cities throughout N.America
Quebec is headed for independence, Michael Ignatieff tells the BBC
