I have no idea, but they've been threatening it constantly for decades now.

One of the previous presidents of France basically said "Well we ain't taking them back" a while back as well.

The last time this came up didn't the area south of the St. Lawrence, which IIRC is heavily anglophone and the First Nations in Quebec threaten their own secession bids because they both wanted to stay in Canada?

Plus there's a ton of immigrants who wanted to immigrate to Canada, not Free Quebec, and they can raise a stink in Montreal and Ville du Quebec.

Plus there are many First Nations' groups who aren't too keen in being controlled by Quebec; likely because their rights will get trampled on in the name of the French language and xenophobia.

basically, quebec secedes, then a whole lot of bits of quebec will secede from it.

though really, the polls show something like 20-30% more in favor of staying than seceding. That's a lot of people to win over.

And you can bet if the PQ wins a majority that whoever is in control of Ottawa will go on PR blitz.

What does the Canadian constitution say about seccession? Presumably Ottawa would have to grant permission for a Quebexit?

It's flat out illegal by Canadian and international law for Quebec to secede unilaterally. There's no mechanism for it to happen. However, if Quebec took a referendum and a majority of the people were in favor of secession "negotiations would be possible".

There would probably have to be a vote by the rest of the country at the least.

edited 11th Feb '14 3:53:59 AM by Zendervai

And it really pisses off the rest of the country whenever Quebec Succession comes up.

Basically it doesn't say anything either way but the Supreme Court has ruled that Quebec can't unilaterally separate without hammering out the details with Ottawa. Though it would set a really bad precedent (and might go somewhere truly nasty) if we ignored a fair vote in favor of succession.

Lac-Megantic lawsuit targets Ottawa for alleged failure to sanction railway

For those of you with short memory, Lac-Megantic is the small city in Quebec that got devastated by a derailing train carrying tons of volatile and chemical material.

I hope they succeed but something tells me they will, at best, get an out of court settlement with a media gag...

That's what I was thinking, really.

At the very least, I hope the administration in Ottawa gets splashed, that whole ordeal sounds like a major oversight/proof of incompetency.

Canada is killing a decades-old investor program that had allowed scores of wealthy Chinese to move to the country over the years.

edited 14th Feb '14 8:05:03 PM by DeviantBraeburn

The Liberals have passed a party policy resolution to implement Basic Annual Income at their party convention in Montreal. If it wasn't because of TV Tropes I wouldn't have known anything about what they were talking about but also I am surprised a major party chose to adopt this as policy. Now fingers cross they'll actually run with it. Which contrasts with this article about the government dismissing a report about the lack of government aid for middle income families.

edited 24th Feb '14 2:44:34 AM by latenight

Whoah, seriously? I didn't expect them to run to the left of the NDP!

A surprise for sure and lots of hurdles, before it's implemented throughout the country there'll be a pilot program. So hopefully the people who spearheaded this at the convention can keep momentum going.

edited 24th Feb '14 10:43:54 AM by latenight

Apparently this was tried in the late 70s in Manitoba. It was a success, but the Conservatives sort of sat on the results for 30 years.

If Harper can score points by giving people 1 or 2% off their taxes; this should get the Liberals major support. If it isn't completely mauled by the Tory libel machine.

edited 24th Feb '14 12:23:58 PM by Rationalinsanity

The very fact that it's a Liberal idea means that there's an enormous bloc in Alberta who will vote against it and anyone pushing it, for that reason alone.

Alberta is a lost cause anyway, the Liberals need to focus on Quebec, Ontario and parts of BC that they lost last time.

And compete with the NDP for the left vote? Push everywhere. Besides, Western resentment is born from feeling neglected and dictated to by Easterners. Never mind that a region that has a tiny fraction of the country's population isn't going to have as much representation as the country's population centres...

That said, in the case of Alberta, you're probably right. The NDP have a seat in Edmonton and are better suited to make inroads in that province than the Liberals.

Surprisingly the latest Ipsos poll shows that Albertans are much more receptive to the Liberals than the rest of Western Canada.

Huh, didn't realize Atlantic Canada was so staunchly Liberal.

Basic view in Atlantic Canada is that the Tories screw us constantly and the Liberals are the only ones who can stop them. Layton changed that a little but then he died and Mulcair ain`t Layton.

edited 25th Feb '14 3:05:24 PM by Rationalinsanity