Word: quebecers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...headquarters of the Sun Life Assurance Co. in Montreal was once the largest office building in the British Empire, the secular cathedral of the English-speaking business elite in the world's second largest French-speaking city. Now it is a symbol of panic in the face of Quebec's threat to separate from the rest of Canada. Last week Sun Life's 1 million policy holders voted by a 5-to-1 ratio to transfer the headquarters to Toronto, Canada's bustling financial capital. Sun Life (assets: $5.5 billion) thus became the biggest company...
When the plan was first announced last January, Sun Life blamed the Quebec government's determination to make French the official language of business; beginning July 1, even display advertising will have to be in French. Later, managers admitted that their main desire was to improve business prospects. Said President Thomas Gait: "The uncertainty that has arisen as a result of the policies of the current Quebec government to some degree has undermined confidence...
...Quebec politicians described Sun Life's move as "economic blackmail"; the federal government protested it would hurt "national unity." Still, some small companies have already quit Quebec entirely, and many big firms, including the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, Northern Telecom Ltd. and the Royal Trust Co., have simply moved key departments. As long as managers worry about the possibility, however remote, of one day waking up to find themselves marooned in a small nation, some will continue to flee...
...background, white-gloved waiters are busily setting out plates of oysters on the half shell when the guest of honor, tiny Rene Levesque from Quebec, strides in searching for hands. Bleary Canadian reporters tumble in behind...
...Quebec's problem, like all longstanding historical ones, can not be reduced to any simplistic solution. Nationalism is still alive and well in Quebec, although it is not clear that independence of the P.Q. variety will in fact offer any substantive advantages to French Canadians that could not be obtained within the present federal system. Against the potential benefit arising from independence must be pitted the question of economic cost. That question has already received the bulk of Quebec's attention precisely because the substantive benefits of independence are far from clear. Unless these benefits can be clarified...