The Gods of the Copybook Headings:
Well Dan, that's not actually what John Robson was saying. The opening line refers to a poll in which 49% of Canadians said they didn't care if Quebec left. He was not saying that he didn't care. It's likely he would care as he lives in the National Capital Region and is married to a Quebecois. Rather than being some uninformed Anglo from the boondocks, Robson has a pretty close familiarity with our most recalcitrant province. As with so many Right-leaning Canadians he is utterly fed up with the traditional "Whine of the Quebecois Nationalist" we have been subjected to this last half century.The point of the piece, which is apparent to those who read instead of scanned it, was that Canada is at long last growing up. English Canada's neurotic obsession with the fate of the country should Quebec leave is fading. We don't care because we believe ourselves strong enough to survive any kind of shock-wave that might come after the declaration of a Quebec Republic. We've also become fairly comfortable in the knowledge that Quebecois nationalism is an elaborate bluff. For starters they'd lose about $7.4 billion in Equalization payments. Then tack on additional benefits funded through the Health and Social Transfers. The cost of independence would be very steep.
Richard Anderson rides to the rescue of John Robson (not that he really needs it). Robson is right, of course: the prospect of Quebec leaving, which filled us with such existential dread during the '80s, now draws little more than a response of "Meh" from most of my acquaintances.
Quebec's not going anywhere soon -- its economics resemble Greece's. Or possibly Somalia's.