If the separatists win the elections, there will be another mass exodus from Quebec. Thousands have fled already. I still remember the first mass exodus from Quebec in the 1970's. Those were ominous times.
I think the separatists will pass laws to try to keep people from leaving. The Federal Government might try to impose human rights laws. Do we have any? Imagine the possibilities. Does this sound paranoid? Time will tell.
As we anticipate the future, we should remember the past. Remember Quebec in the 1970's. If you are too young to have been there, read the newspapers of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Read the books of history. I need not review the events that are set in stone - the tombstone of Pierre Laporte, for example. But let me report my own small experience of the day.
At the time of the first exodus, I tried to transfer some funds from my bank account in NDG in Montreal to a new account at a branch of the same bank in Ontario.
The Francophone clerk at my bank in NDG - where I had been banking since I was a teenager - told me that if I wanted to transfer money to Ontario, I should go live in Ontario. I can still see him standing there behind the counter when he said that -although I can't remember his face - just his arrogant stance. A cold chill went through me.
I closed my accounts at that bank immediately and deposited all my savings in a different bank just down the street. At the new bank, I had no problem arranging for the transfer of some money to a new account at a branch of this bank in Ontario.
Strangely enough, only a few months ago, a friend doing a routine search on the net came upon my account in Ontario. After all the decades of life's events and turmoil, I had completely forgotten about that money. I gave my friend all the funds in that account. She found it. She deserved it. I was so happy I had that windfall to give to her.
Don't expect a separatist government to let you take your assets out of a separate Quebec.
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