Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 10:02:21 -0700 From: Pasi Ahonen <pahonen@UVic.CA> To: H-VERKKO@sara.cc.utu.fi Subject: NEWS: Federalists win 50.5%-49.5% in Quebec Secession Referendum
>Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 06:13:47 -0600
>Reply-To: H-NET List on Ethnic History <H-ETHNIC@MSU.EDU>
>Sender: H-NET List on Ethnic History <H-ETHNIC@MSU.EDU>
>From: "Josef J. Barton" <texbart@merle.acns.nwu.edu>
>Subject: NEWS: Federalists win 50.5%-49.5% in Quebec Secession Referendum
>To: Multiple recipients of list H-ETHNIC <H-ETHNIC@MSU.EDU>
>
> [AP] - By a perilously narrow margin, Quebeckers heeded pleas for
> national unity and voted against secession Monday, sparing Canada
> a traumatic fracture but leaving the French-speaking province
> split down the middle. With 99% of the 22,400 polling
> stations reporting, the federalists led by 50.5% to the
> separatists' 49.5%.
> Federalists celebrated raucously at their headquarters, while
> separatists - who came closer than many had dreamed just a few
> months ago - wept. Quebec's separatists, who lost a 1980
> independence referendum by a 60-40 margin, improved their
> performance so dramatically this time that they are sure to shake
> off their disappointment and launch another try.
> About 82% of Quebeckers are French-speaking, and roughly 60%
> of them voted for separation. As expected, roughly 90% of
> English-speaking and immigrant Quebeckers voted No.
> The vote will leave scars in Quebec. But it will hearten the
> throngs of Canadians from other provinces who joined marches,
> rallies and vigils last week beseeching Quebec to stay. A
> separatist victory would have spelled economic turmoil for Canada
> - and perhaps the greatest political crisis of its history. The
> nation would have lost one-fourth of its people and one-sixth of
> its land. The federalist victory will leave Quebec bitterly
> divided, with defeated nationalists likely to seek scapegoats and
> plot a future campaign to achieve a sovereign, French-speaking
> nation. The turnout was exceptionally large: 92% of the 5 million
> registered voters. The separatists' most charismatic voice,
> parliamentary opposition leader Lucien Bouchard, said Quebeckers
> should take pride in the campaign - one of the few times in world
> history where citizens were offered a vote on whether to secede.
> [(C) 1995 by Associate Press. Fair Use reprint for scholarly use
> only.]
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------- Pasi Ahonen PhD Program Department of History University of Victoria University of Victoria Research Fellow P.O. Box 3045 Academy of Finland Victoria, BC fax: +1 (604) 721-8772 V8W 3P4 email: pahonen@uvaix.uvic.ca ---------------------------------------------------------- **** "Se on tuo kulttuurj vaha monjmutkanj juttu." ****
Severi Suhonen