Word: quebecers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Late in the first period of hockey's version of Armageddon, Montreal winger Yvon Lambert, the pride of Drum-mondville, Quebec, stood behind his opponents net and contemplated the puck, untouched in front of him. Boston defenseman Mike Milbury, who relishes such opportunities, promptly skated, shoulders high, into Lambert and crushed him into the boards, snapping his head back against the plexiglass...
...little extra that has made him the West's longest-established leader. But he faces a public, disillusioned by high unemployment and spiralling inflation, which charges him with failing to deal with his avowed priority when he took office ten years ago: keeping Canada together, or more accurately, placating Quebec...
...other Western provinces feel alienated by the distant Ottawa government. The Maritime provinces are locked into a vicious economic cycle, with unemployment as high as 20 per cent in some areas, and despite federal investment incentives, practically separatist government clamors for "sovereignty association," a euphemism for secession. If Quebec were to secede, the Maritimes would be cut off from the rest of Canada. A chain of seceding provinces is not unforeseeable, for while Quebec is an enigma, it is by no means an anomaly...
...Quebec's chain-smoking premier, Rene Levesque, gained power in the late 1976, by deposing an anemic Liberal government with a stunning triumph. Levesque's separatist doctrine is the party's raison d'etre. He originally drafted the policy in his book, An Option for Quebec, soon after he left the Quebec Liberal Party in 1967. Only Trudeau's popularity in Quebec exceeds that of Levesque's. The Quebec leader has wisely chosen to keep a low profile during this federal campaign, secretly hoping for Trudeau's demise, while recognizing that support for Clark would label him a traiter...
...combine the unity issue with that of leadership, saying he is the only person capable of dealing with Levesque. Indeed, he is correct: negotiating with the separatists would lead to increased pressure from other quarters in Canada. Clark, who may not win any of the seventy-odd seats in Quebec (out of 264 total), would certainly not have a mandate from Quebec. And Levesque's most powerful argument would be implicit: if Canadians don't want Trudeau, then they don't care about Quebec either...