They worry about secularism although Stockwell Day is a Baptist and the BQ supporters Roman Catholics. Quebec's grudge has been nursed most powerfully by those best insulated from the rest of Canada the vast timber country stretching north and east of Montreal. Canada has left them in poverty and, for many years, denied them equal opportunities with Anglophones in education and commerce. Nationalism, say proponents, becomes the only response. These movements have fundamental differences, too.
Independence entails far more headache and heartache than does devolution.
One movement favors cutting the bonds among citizens, the other seeks to forge a deep set of bonds inside one group. Many Canadian commentators have remarked that this election lacked a big theme. Certainly, no pressing issue like free trade with the US in 1988 dominated the headlines. But Canadians certainly had the power to choose not only the manifestation of their country but its basic roadmap. One hundred thirty-three years after it gained dominion status, Canada has not achieved consensus about its basic structure and values.