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Article: Separation anxiety: Quebec fails to secede.(includes article about the ethic and geographic divisions in Quebec)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- December 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Even when it's finally over, it may not be over. That seems to be the consensus following October's hard-fought referendum on Quebec's separation from the rest of Canada. Those who sought independence failed by a slim percentage point. The Oui vote was 49.4 percent; the Non vote was 50.6 percent. By contemporary standards, the turnout was astronomical: 92 percent. Most Canadian elections manage to get something like 70 percent of eligible voters to the polls.
Canada is now back to square one. In a very real sense the vote was a resounding setback for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who, following in the footsteps of Pierre Trudeau, vehemently opposed any ...