Quote:
Originally Posted by Allan83
With the election of the PQ for the first time in 1976 the threat of separation became very real, and that’s when the major exodus started. The PQ was formed for the purpose of pushing for Quebec separation, and when the people of Quebec elected them it seemed very likely they would also vote for separation. When that didn’t happen in 1980 the flow of people out of the province slowed down a bit.
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Well according to the statistical office of Québec, significant departures from Québec to the rest of Canada started in 1966, 10 years before the PQ came to power. The outflows didn't rise after the PQ came to power in 1976. It's the inflows from the rest of Canada into Québec which decreased significantly when the PQ came to power. As a result, in the 5 years from 1976 to 1980, the cumulative net migration between Québec and the rest of Canada was -153,674 (i.e. during those 5 years, there were 153,674 more people who left Québec to the rest of Canada than people from the rest of Canada who moved to Québec).
As you can see, the figure wasn't much for a province which had 6.4 million inhabitants at the time. It's a negative net migration of only -0.5% per year. Not negligible, but certainly not an "exodus", especially considering that most of it was due to a decrease in people moving to Québec from the rest of Canada, and not an increase in the people leaving Québec and relocating to the rest of Canada (from 1966 to 1975 on average 58,500 people moved from Québec to the rest of Canada every year, and from 1976 to 1980 on average 56,000 people moved from Québec to the rest of Canada every year; hard to believe, and yet it's the stats).
So the only effect of the PQ victory in 1976 seem to have been to deter people from the rest of Canada to move to Québec. But let's not forget that there is also international migration. After the PQ victory in 1976, the inflow of international immigrants into Québec remained unchanged. On the other hand, the outflows decreased in 1971 and remained low even after the PQ victory in 1976 (the reason for that I believe is because the great migration of French Canadians to New England stopped in the late 1960s). So although Québec lost 153,674 people to the rest of Canada from 1976 to 1980, it gained 83,646 people from abroad during the same time period.
The grand total, which is the net migration (interprovincial + international) of Québec from 1976 to 1980, is thus -70,028, i.e. on average -0.22% per year.
So no exodus, and figures of a magnitude way too small to explain the shift between Montréal and Toronto, which had its own momentum going back way before the PQ even started to exist. But simplistic explanations are always more simple for the average public I suppose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allan83
As far as the Charter of Values goes, it’s been very controversial and many people have said publically that if it passes they’ll leave Quebec. It hasn’t passed yet, (and even if it does it could also lead to the defeat of the PQ government and the subsequent repeal of the law), but a lot of those people could easily be serious about leaving Quebec if it passes. This has happened before, after all, except this time they’d probably be moving to the west instead of to Toronto.
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I'm ready to bet 1,000 dollars the French-speaking Maghrebans won't move from Montréal or Québec City to Calgary or Saskatoon. It's all talk. Having to learn English and adapt to a new environment would be way more demanding for them than having to live with a secular state in Québec. They cried a lot in France too before the laws banning veils in public administrations (well, I should rather say "a small but very vocal minority" cried a lot), and then when the laws were passed it was all soon forgotten, and women unveil when they have to go to a public administration, and the world hasn't stopped or the banlieues collapsed. Same will happen in Québec I predict. In fact even 'multiculti' Britain is studying French secular laws now, after recent scandals and controversies in various British schools. That says a lot!
PS: The only thing that I find disputable with this Charter of Values thing is the fact they leave the crucify in the National Assembly of Québec. For the sake of equality and impartiality, and also to show the immigrants that the law is for everybody and not just for immigrants, I think they should remove the crucify, even it means changing a tradition. After all the Révolution Tranquille changed many other traditions in Québec.
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