Word: quebecs
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JUST HOURS AFTER THE QUEBEC REFERENDUM ON SEPARATION that came within a whisker of breaking up Canada--and may yet do so--President Clinton pronounced. "Ethnic diversity can be the hallmark of a strong and prosperous society," said his spokesman. "The President has often said that our ethnic diversity here in America is one source of our greatest strength..and hopefully it will be for the people of Canada as well...
...real problem of Quebec is the problem of all small peoples in a world of irresistibly globalized commerce and culture. That separatism may not solve the problem is beside the point. Separatism is a fact, the single greatest political fact of the post-cold war world. With external enemies removed, with hybrid states no longer held together by hegemonic superpowers, the petty annoyances and existential difficulties of living in mixed-ethnic marriages within nation-states has become increasingly intolerable. From the former Yugoslavia to the former Czechoslovakia to the former Soviet Union, from Sri Lanka to Quebec, the tendency...
Which is why Quebec's referendum is not the provincial story it seems. The 60% of French-speaking Quebeckers who voted to sever their political union with bicultural Canada are a herald of the death of diversity. They are a living refutation of the warm and cozy notion, based more on hope than on history, of multicultural harmony and strength. They are a warning...
After a boisterous campaign that stirred passions in Canadians from all provinces, Quebec chose to remain part of Canada, voting 50.6% against secession and 49.4% for it in a special plebiscite. The razor-thin margin consisted of just 52,448 votes out of almost 5 million cast; the 93.4% turnout was a record. One day later, Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois, announced that he would resign before year's end. But charismatic Quebec politician Lucien Bouchard insisted that the cause of secession is not dead: "The next time will be the right...
Nevertheless, the vote did have a huge impact in its expression of widespread discontent with the status quo in Quebec. If anything, the referendum should be read as a credible opinion poll, and serve as an incentive for action in the years ahead. But by no means should it ever have been read as a serious challenge to Canadian sovereignty. But then, not all things make sense in the emotion-driven world of separatist politics...