CHAPTER 9

The 20% no block vote

 

“Comme dans toutes les consultations au Québec, le facteur linguistique est le facteur déterminant pour expliquer les comportements électoraux.”[89]

-- Pierre Drouilly

In the last chapter you outlined which characteristics any solution to the plight of Quebec Anglophones would have to incorporate and avoid. Now tell us what the solution is.

The solution is the Two Question Referendum.

The Two Question Referendum is a political strategy that I have developed for the Parti Québécois to adopt. The goal of the Two Question Referendum is the restoration and guarantee of full individual and minority rights for the non-Francophone community of Quebec.

That's a mouthful. How can you possibly propose a formula that, on the one hand, will be adopted by the PQ and, on the other, the Anglophones will participate in? At first glance it would seem that both parties would reject such an approach.

The Parti Québécois will become the government again. When they do, it will be in their interest to adopt the Two Question Referendum format because it will ensure a "yes" result in a sovereignty referendum. In fact, I contend that not only will it be the only way in which a "yes" majority vote can be achieved, but that subsequent to that win it will be the only way in which independence will come to pass. Achieving a “yes“ majority in a referendum and actually getting an independent Quebec are two very different things. The Two Question Referendum will achieve both.

The Two Question Referendum is in the interest of the non-Francophone community because it will provide their full individual and minority rights, something that they do not currently enjoy living in a Quebec within Canada.

How exactly does this formula work?

In the Introduction, I mentioned the principle of exchange.

The Two Question Referendum will enable the non-Francophone community to obtain full civil rights status within their own newly created geo-political territory in exchange for something the PQ nationalists desperately need from the non-Francophones: neutralization of the non-Francophone 20% no block vote.

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