Western Standard - April 18, 2024


'We Should Stop Trying To Fight Against Quebec’s Independence'

Mentioned
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
'Trudeau government sticks to soft fiscal targets — but this is no cause for celebration' Southern Alberta Prepares for Drought Emergency

Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

203.73

Word count

849

Sentence count

55

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In 1995, a referendum on Quebec's independence from Canada was held, and the results were not good for the separatists in the rest of the country. This week, a new Prime Minister, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has promised a referendum in Quebec if his party wins the next election.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Now let's talk about Quebec separatism. Yes, it's coming up again. It's been in the news.
00:00:05.080 And the independence movement in Quebec, I mean, it's never been gone. It's only been slumbering.
00:00:10.180 And the secessionists within the Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois, they've just been biding their time
00:00:15.020 and working to create the conditions for a successful independence referendum since 1995.
00:00:20.720 And you look at the other parties within Quebec, whether they're liberal or whatever they might be,
00:00:24.120 ADQ, soft separatists within other parties in Quebec have been doing the same thing.
00:00:27.600 They've been building the conditions for a successful referendum.
00:00:31.040 The separatist movement in Quebec, it's real. And the supporters of it truly want to go.
00:00:34.980 And I know I've talked to lots of people, many in the West, to dismiss the movement saying Quebecers don't really want to go.
00:00:40.420 They think Quebec separatists just want to use the threat of secession to squeeze more concessions from Canada.
00:00:45.540 And I'm sure a few are of that sort. And while politicians in Quebec certainly shamelessly use the threat of secession for Quebec's benefit,
00:00:53.000 you're making a really grave error if you think that threat isn't real.
00:00:55.880 I mean, I had the opportunity to meet with some Bloc Quebecois members back in the late 90s when I was leading the Alberta Independence Party at that time.
00:01:03.040 And it didn't take long talking to them to realize, no, they really want a fully independent French-speaking nation and nothing less.
00:01:09.560 They don't care about the fiscal costs or the challenges in leaving the federation they just want out.
00:01:15.040 Now, the Parti Quebecois is poised to win a majority in the next provincial election in Quebec.
00:01:19.300 The third place party in the polls is Quebec Solidaire, which is also a separatist party.
00:01:24.960 So, I mean, more than half of Quebecers support one separatist party or another.
00:01:29.980 The Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has now promised another referendum on independence will be held if his party takes power.
00:01:37.180 If there's one thing that the separatists of Quebec learned in 1995 is that they can't pull the trigger on another referendum until they're confident they're going to win it.
00:01:45.440 A referendum loss sets back independence efforts by decades, even if it's on a narrow loss like last time.
00:01:51.160 Some Western independent supporters pushing for a referendum in the West would be well served to keep that in mind, too.
00:01:55.280 So, if Plamondon is promising a referendum, it means he's confident that the independent side will win it.
00:02:01.980 After decades of chasing non-French speakers from Quebec through oppressive policies, coupled with antagonizing the rest of Canada to disrupt national unity,
00:02:10.660 Quebec could finally have the winning conditions it sought for an independence referendum.
00:02:15.040 I remember watching the Quebec referendum from afar, of course, as a young Albertan in 1995.
00:02:20.280 Politicians, personalities, and legacy media all worked overtime in begging Quebec not to leave.
00:02:24.460 Delegations crossed the country to wave flags in Quebec and at rallies and let Quebecers know,
00:02:30.360 we didn't want them to go. We love you, Quebec. Stay with us.
00:02:32.860 It was an almost humiliating sort of groveling at the feet of Quebecers. 1.00
00:02:36.740 It was successful, though, as Quebecers chose to stay within Canada with a meager 1% margin.
00:02:42.580 Now, as another Quebec referendum is looming, Canada's in a different place.
00:02:46.900 Legacy media, they don't have that stranglehold on information anymore,
00:02:49.500 and Western provinces aren't as solidly federalist as they used to be.
00:02:52.380 The reaction to another referendum in Quebec can, and should, be much different.
00:02:57.120 The West shouldn't beg Quebec to stay. 0.97
00:02:58.980 We should loudly come out and encourage them to leave.
00:03:01.840 We can't hold a referendum to kick Quebec out of a confederation,
00:03:05.020 but we can certainly show enthusiasm for their departure.
00:03:08.500 Canada's broken. It has been for a long time.
00:03:11.400 The federation's slanted in favor of the Laurentian provinces,
00:03:14.320 and even then, Quebec still wants to leave.
00:03:16.340 The Charlatan and Meech Lake Accords from 30 years ago,
00:03:19.140 they failed to change the constitution.
00:03:20.660 The only way we can change this system is to tear a province free from it,
00:03:24.440 and Quebec is right now the best poised to do so.
00:03:27.060 If a referendum on independence was to be held in Alberta or Saskatchewan today,
00:03:30.960 the independent side would be lucky to garner 25% support.
00:03:34.140 If the same referendum was held six months after Quebec voted to go, though,
00:03:37.420 I think Western provinces would be out the door.
00:03:40.180 Once one province separates, the deal's done.
00:03:42.740 There's little sense in staying within a federation that is no longer figuratively broken,
00:03:46.820 but has become literally broken.
00:03:48.940 Provinces will work to break free and seek their own deals and destinies.
00:03:52.200 This can be a positive evolution for Canada, Quebec, all the West, all of us.
00:03:56.080 It needs to be framed as such.
00:03:57.980 So let's not decry Quebec's efforts at independence.
00:04:00.520 Let's celebrate and support them.
00:04:02.220 Quebec is the linchpin, and once it's pulled,
00:04:05.220 Western independence will be soon to follow.
00:04:06.840 So yeah, I'm probably going to mispronounce it, but viva le Quebec Libre!