Is secession for Quebec passé?

Anyone with more than a passing interest in Canada knows that the French-speaking province of Québec has been flirting with secession, as well as other less extreme nationalistic options, for many years now.

In 1980, 60 percent of the province’s voters rejected the provincial government’s bid to negotiate "sovereignty-association" with the rest of Canada. Fifteen years later, another sovereignty referendum was defeated, but by a razor-thin margin of 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent. 

Whether Quebec should remain a part of Canada still bubbles to the surface from time to time. But in a recent column in the International Herald Tribune, Quebec resident Francisco Toro suggests that the issue has become largely inconsequential. Why? Despite its continued status as a Canadian province, Quebec has effectively achieved cultural independence, which may be all that really matters. 

Toro says “a shocking proportion" of Quebec’s French-language broadcast and print media "gives the rest of Canada only an occasional sideways glance.” Living in Quebec, Toro writes, “it’s often hard to shake the feeling that Canada is ‘somewhere else’ - a different country with a different culture, a different language and different priorities.” 

You can read Toro’s piece in its entirety here.