Brexit and the Sovereignty of Québec

Briefly, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quite correct in asserting that the Brexit vote by British voters on separation of the UK from the EU cannot be exported to the Canadian/Québécois context to evaluate the threshold by which a sovereignty vote in Québec could be legitimated by Ottawa. It is one thing for a sovereign nation-state to determine democratically that it seeks to leave a free-trading zone, which, notwithstanding the expansive regulatory powers assumed within Brussels, was all the EU ever really constituted to Britain. It is quite another thing for a sovereign nation-state to democratically break apart into new sovereign national entities. To the detriment of Mr. Trudeau, Britain will, in all likelihood, witness the appropriate comparison to a Québécois sovereignty referendum when the Scottish National Party and the government of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon place the question of separation from the United Kingdom before the Scottish electorate, an outcome that I am guessing will be answered overwhelmingly in the affirmative! The United Kingdom is going to break up, as a result of Brexit. The future of Canada and Québec might be slightly murkier, if only because, to my knowledge, Parti Québécois has been utterly incapable of mustering support from marginalized constiuencies, especially among foreign-born newcomers in metropolitan Montréal. As yet, the Péquists do not seem to have constructed an appropriate set of arguments to make a persuasive case for inclusive Québécois nationalism. As a descendant of Québécois lineage on both sides of my family, I anxiously await a good answer from the Péquists that will sway the immigrant folks in Maisonneuve, Côte des Neiges, and Cartierville with something more compelling than old-timey nostalgia about la révolution tranquille. Until the defenders of Québec sovereignty actually make a winning case, no example from abroad will ever turn the tide. However, Mr. Trudeau would be wise to remember that history is something more than a set of idle remembrances contained in school textbooks - it is a continuously lived experience! As the UK breaks off from the EU and Scotland breaks apart the UK, so, one day, may Québec formally define its distinction from Canada by constitutional declaration.