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Majority of Quebecois want sovereignty

A decade after Quebec's failed referendum on cession from the rest of Canada, people in the French-speaking province are once again fired up about the possibility of going their own way.

Outraged over revelations of millions of dollars in kickbacks and money laundering in a program designed to keep Quebecois in the national fold, a new poll indicates a majority of them are so disgusted with the federal government that they would prefer sovereignty if a vote were held today. The national unity program that is under so much scrutiny -- and threatening to topple the current minority Liberal minority government -- was born from the narrow defeat of a sovereignty referendum in 1995.

Then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberal Party established a fund that is now alleged to have funneled millions of dollars to advertising firms to promote nationalism in Quebec, but apparently did little or no work.

A Leger Marketing survey showed 54 percent of respondents in Quebec would support sovereignty in a referendum that also offered some form of economic and political partnership with the rest of English-speaking Canada.

The entire country has recoiled from the government scandal, but nowhere has passion been more vivid than in Quebec. The most explosive revelations have emerged since the federal inquiry moved to Montreal, where it has been televised live, playing like a daily political soap opera to big audiences. The actors -- businessmen who benefited from the nationalism program -- are Francophone, leaving Quebecers doubly enraged at being portrayed as crooks.

"I had to see this with my own eyes," said Remy Laforet, a retired Quebec nationalist who was observing the inquiry in a federal building in downtown Montreal. "It's just one scandal after another."

Pollster Jean-Marc Leger said Quebecers "want to blow off some steam and they will do it the first chance they head to the polls."

But their anger likely will be directed toward the Liberals, and not focused so much on the renewal of independence. Provincial elections in Quebec are not due for two years. The local separatist Parti Quebecois then would have to overcome the majority of Quebec Liberals and others who currently rule the provincial assembly before they could call a referendum.

Even so, Prime Minister Paul Martin has found it necessary to plead with Quebecers not to turn their backs on the country over the scandal.

"The separation of Quebec is not the answer to abuses like this," he said, reminding them his first task, after elections last June, was to dissolve the program and order an inquiry into the corruption claims.

Quebec's Intergovernmental Minister Benoit Pelletier, however, said the numbers should not be taken lightly.

"Those who thought that the idea of sovereignty was a thing of the past are mistaken," he said. "We face a very strong movement."
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