Partition Nonsense Again

I really don't blog a lot about Quebec politics, because, well, I don't know a lot about the topic. That said, here I go again on Quebec politics. Charest apparently got caught in some sort of gaffe over partitioning Quebec after a hypothetical "Yes" vote on a referendum (HT). He says it was a slip of the tongue, but who knows? Once again I'd have to reiterate my point from yesterday: it might be emotionally satisfying for federalists to talk about partition of Quebec, but I cannot see it working.

What regions, municipalities, neighbourhoods would get to stay in Canada? How could the governments of Canada and a sovereign Quebec manage territory that would look like a bunch of patchwork farms on a political map? There are a variety of things that federalists can do to create disincentives for separatism, partition is not one of them.

Who is Pure Laine? Does it matter?

Paul Wells has pointed out a quote that might embarrass Stephen Harper with his new buddies, the soft-nationalists in Quebec:

"'Obviously, given the ethnic and sociocultural make-up of modern Quebec society, only the pure laine Quebecois could arguably be considered a people,' Harper, who was then the Reform Party MP for Calgary West, told the House of Commons on Dec. 11, 1995, during a debate on Quebec's right to self-determination.

"While they constitute a majority of the Quebec population, they do not constitute a majority in each region of Quebec. This produces a curious result, that if the Quebecois pure laine are a people and if they have a right to secede, they could not claim the right to territorial integrity."

Oh, well I can see how much fun that would be, sorting out what Montreal neighbourhoods we would need to partition. What constitutes a "region" in Harper's mind? Is Montreal a region? Is Westmount a region? Is every house where English is spoken a region? What about non-Pure Laine separatists? The BQ can win in Haitian neighbourhoods now, they have visible minorities as members. What about Maka Kotto, the Bloc MP who was born in Cameroon? Partition is a tempting tit-for-tat response to separatist threats, but that's about it.
Picture: Maka Kotto - Stephen Harper's head asplode!