Vast numbers of residents contemplate leaving Quebec

A spring election is looming in the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec.

The current minority government of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) will be seeking a majority, If they succeed, the threat of another referendum on separation from Canada is possible. This has lead to concern among a large segment of the population.

With this in mind the domestic public broadcaster commissioned a poll on attitudes from the firm Ekos.

The firm found that fully half of non-Francophones in the province along with 11% of Francophones have “seriously” considered a move out of the province in the past year.

Over a million residents have looked at leaving Quebec

Thus, the combined number of Anglophone, Francophone, and Allophones (those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French) who have considered leaving adds up to well over a million people.

“The results are actually quite surprising. That’s an awfully large number,”  said Frank Graves, president of EKOS research, whose firm polled over 2000 people.  “It’s a pretty drastic decision to actually vote with your feet and leave your place of residence. I was frankly a little surprised at how complex the reasons were.”

Although linguistic tensions are undeniable in the province, most cited reasons for a possible move as being the high taxes in the province, the weak economy and job situation, and political uncertainty.

In terms of the provincial economic situation, the Montreal Economic Institute puts the current Quebec debt at over 264 billion dollars.  Last year McLeans’ magazine published figures from Public Accounts, RBC, and the MacDonald-Laurier Institute which showed Quebec has the highest debt per capita among all the provinces and the highest debt to GDP ratio by far.

In terms of political uncertainty, this inevitably involves the issue of separation from Canada and is also to some extent tied in with language issues and tensions.

In light of the survey, the provincial opposition Liberal Party leader is blaming the PQ government for creating divisiness with its proposed secular charter.

Philippe Couillard says he’s “worried” by the survey numbers and also blamed the government for creating “instability” . He said in order to keep Quebecers here, the government needs to focus on restoring the economy, rather than divisive policies.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, leader of the Parti-Québécois, would not comment on the poll when questioned by journalists on Tuesday evening.