If ever it really did look like Québec was coming close to separation, I'd move back in a flash. There'd be no way I'd let the province secede and me be without my home and the Péquistes without the thorn of me in their side. I'd also be there because I like what Québeckers are demanding. But separation isn't going to happen. Québeckers want a better society, a better representation of their views. We could do worse than look for an example to a territory that, using whatever tools circumstances have placed in its reach, demands the change that elections can bring.

For decades, the province has been sleepwalking in the illusion of its success as a social democracy. Tragically, that dangerous mindset has become entrenched in the minds of a new generation that has known nothing else. Should the PQ emerge victorious in the upcoming election, and successfully negotiate a separation, Quebec could become far worse than Greece -- and without a European Community equivalent eager to bail it out.