CHAPTER 12

Questions about the process

 

“If the PQ wants a united, peaceful Quebec it should sign a social contract with all communities before any referendum, not afterwards. It couldn’t do it, some would say, because Anglo Quebecers will never accept to swap Canada for Quebec.”[106]

-Jean-Claude LeClerc

Contrary to what Jean-Claude LeClerc says above, you’re saying that Anglo Quebecers will swap Canada for Quebec via the Two Question referendum procedure, in which the people who now live on the territory that will become Quebec West only get their own province in an independent Quebec -- and control over their civil rights -- if they neutralize their no block vote. Is that it?

Yes. And it is this combining of two issues -- independence and getting their own province -- and the fact that Quebec West residents vote by themselves on a day prior to Quebec Proper voting that is the key to the success of the Two Question Referendum.

Why is it necessary to have two questions over two days?

Separating the vote-taking for the residents of Quebec West and Quebec Proper over two days ensures that each community lives up to each side of the bargain. The format ensures that the non-Francophone community, if they vote a majority "yes", gives the nationalists what they want: neutralization of their “no“ block vote. It also ensures that the nationalists give the non-Francophones what they want: full civil rights and self-determination status. Both communities thereby live up to their respective sides of the bargain.

You're making the nationalists out to be generous philanthropists when it comes to giving the non-Francophone back their rights.

They won't give them back without some pretty stiff conditions attached.

In effect, the format of the Two Question Referendum enables the PQ to say to the non-Francophones: You can have your cake but you can’t

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