Ok, so as a brief introduction to Quebec politics for those people not living in Canada. It looks like the Partie Quebecois (PQ) will win the next provincial election because the liberals got caught up in a financing scandal the proportions of which shocked Canada but wouldn’t even have been noticed had it all taken place in the US.

The PQ led the last vote on whether Quebec should seperate from Canada or not, and, even though they lost, the campaign had a number of side effects…

1. The leadership fo the PQ blamed their defeat on the ethnic vote

2. A number of companies were spooked by the idea of seperation and so moved out of the Province

3. The Canadian Government started to spend money promoting Canada within Quebec (money that was mismanaged - see liberal scanadal above)

4. Property values dropped.

Since moving back to Montreal I have spoken with a number of native Quebecois regarding the PQ. So far a majority of them agree that electing the PQ will negatively affect their personal financial situation and the overall health of the Quebec economy…and yet they still plan on voting for the PQ. They don;t believe that seperation will imporve the lot of health or education in Quebec, nor do they seem to think that it will provide their children with a wider range of opportunities…and yet they still plan on voting for the PQ.

I have been trying to figure out why rational people seem to be ready to make a seemingly illogical political decision and so far all I’ve been able to come up with is:

a. disdain for Canada, within much of Quebec, overrides personal feelings of preservation; or
b. people in Quebec don’t remember the events of ten years ago; or
c. Quebec is sick of losing it’s goalies to other North American hockey teams and so, the people of Quebec are willing to make personal sacrifices in order to safeguard their goaltending heritage.

I can understand ‘c’, and ‘b’ is demonstrated on the global scene every day (see Rwanda - Sudan), but ‘a’ seems entirely improbable…which makes me believe that it is true.