The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada. Rev. ed.

Terry A. Crowley is a professor of history at the University of Guelph,
and the former editor of the journal Ontario History. He is the author
of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality and Canadian History to
1967, and the co-author of The College on

Amid all the teeth-chattering that attended the 1995 Quebec referendum,
one book stood out: Robert Young’s The Secession of Quebec and the
Future of Canada. Written before the referendum but in anticipation that
a majority of Quebecers would vote for independence, the book was
acclaimed for its bold conception and broad international perspective.
Following the narrow defeat of the referendum and the subsequent
re-election of the Parti Québécois under the charismatic Lucien
Bouchard, Young has written an addendum that his publisher has both
incorporated into a revised and expanded edition of his earlier work and
issued concurrently as a separate volume.

This level-headed and dispassionate volume considers the years from
1994 to 1997. Young, a University of Western Ontario political
scientist, tackles tough topics sensibly, summarizes complicated
research admirably, and generally reaches informed conclusions
judiciously. “The biggest threat to the integrity of the Canadian
state and the well-being of all Canadians is the possible secession of
Quebec,” he asserts at the outset. His first three chapters, which
analyze the events surrounding the 1995 referendum, make clear how
narrowly Canada avoided a cataclysm. Bouchard’s strategy of stressing
both sovereignty and economic partnership served to shift that small
proportion (3–7 percent) of undecided voters to the “yes” side.
The Parti Québécois government was so certain of victory that
elaborate plans were made for a Universal Declaration of Independence.
Young’s next two chapters consider the fallout from the cliff-hanger
result and how governments responded to it. A final chapter carefully
weighs the options available in the event that a future referendum on
Quebec sovereignty proves successful.

Readers who bought Young’s previous book will want to acquire this
addendum. Others will find the revised and expanded edition of The
Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada indispensable.