The Partition Principle

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

In the first lines of this important manifesto, Montrealer Trevor
McAlpine states his thesis: “Quebec cannot secede from Canada and
expect to retain its present borders. This is the position of those who
advocate partition, and it is the focus of this book.”

The bilingual author, born and raised in Quebec, is a quality engineer
and management consultant. He does not advocate partition but examines
it as “Plan B,” one to be invoked only if the Quebec government
actively pursues secession and if all other strategies to keep Canada
together prove unsuccessful.

McAlpine warns that separation would profoundly and permanently affect
the lives of all Canadians, and that the possibility needs to be
examined in advance by concerned citizens, since the media provide very
little analysis or synthesis, and the federal government has so far
failed to provide leadership.

Why now? Because the federal government has never challenged separatist
claims that separation would be easy, legal, and total. Because it is
time that Canada took action to reduce the uncertainty under which its
citizens have been living and to stop the resulting erosion of the
quality of our lives. McAlpine examines the concept of partition,
strategies for implementing it, and problems arising from its
uniqueness.

Advance consideration, McAlpine argues, would act as a deterrent, “a
sobering reminder” of the high costs of dividing Canada and Quebec.
The Partition Principle is a book whose size belies its importance.
Canadians would do well to take its arguments to heart.