For Albertan separatists, is Quebec a model or a warning?
6/15/202635 min
A common refrain among those who support Albertan separatism is that they would like a deal similar to what Quebec earned through its decades-long fight for greater autonomy.
So as Alberta heads towards its own referendum on a separation, we wanted to try and answer the question: What did Quebec actually get?
Chantal Hébert is a longtime political reporter, commentator and panellist on CBC’s At Issue. She also wrote the book, “The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was”. She’s our guide.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:29
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Jayme Poisson· Host0:33
[upbeat music] Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. October 30th, 1995, the day when 4.5 million Quebecers, more than 93% of eligible voters, cast their ballots to decide whether or not the province would separate. Obviously, the separatists lost, but it was a razor-thin margin of just 54,000 votes. The referendum was really the culmination of a decades-long fight for greater autonomy. The demands, recognition, and concessions made in that time have become a kind of model for separatists in Alberta. A year ago, when we went to cover separatism in rural parts of the province, one message that we heard a lot was, "We want what Quebec got." So as Alberta heads towards its own referendum