Ok I decided to use this thread to post a response to something Sheep21 asked me over Yahoo. My response got a little to out of hand and I didn't want to crash his im program.
Perhaps other Canadians want to weigh in. This is just how I see it.
Re: what do people in the rest of Canada think of Quebec and vice versa?
sorry about this novel dude, but it’s a bit complicated and I can’t sum it up any better.
as for Quebec, it's sort of split in the rest of Canada. People in Alberta (oil rich province) really dislike the financial situation with Quebec; they think that they get too much from the federal government. Basically most people outside Quebec think that to one degree or another, but it intensifies in Alberta.
See, most other provinces also get more from the federal government than they pay (including Manitoba, the one I am in). So the rich provinces (Ontario, Alberta, BC), basically give money to the rest of us to make up for the extra money they take in from resources. Resource money in this country gets divided up and shared with every province, even the ones that have none, since Trudeau. Tax money from resources I mean, other than hydro power they are not nationalized. So people in the provinces that get what are called equalization payments tend to be more sympathetic to Quebec than those in the rich provinces on the financial issue.
So basically Albertans hate this, they think because the oil is in their province they should get all the income. This makes no sense to me (The Yukon has no people but huge resources, should they all be billionaires?) Alberta is already disproportionately rich as it is, they would be the most backwards province if they didn't have oil, instead of the richest. Hell, they have two NHL hockey teams, my province has zero, and other than oil, our industry and trade is a lot more advanced than Alberta’s. So as I said, it's really split. The city I am from, Winnipeg has a huge French population, so I would say there is probably less people here who have a problem with Quebecers than some other places. I have no problem with them really.
The separatists are another story altogether. I think most people outside Quebec really dislike at least separatist politicians if not all people who voted for separation last time (49% I think). Personally I think they should be allowed to split if they had a clear mandate from the people, but I wouldn't be happy about it. We have French as our second language (can't work for the gov anywhere without being fluent) and do a number of other things to respect their diversity or whatever, and they want to pay us back by declaring independence, it's an insult to us. These people (separatists) are whiners to me, but the more I dislike the federal government of Canada, the more I see the case for independence.
I especially would not be happy about their plan last time around to keep using our currency and navy to protect them. If they split the government of Canada should not subsidize a cent of it. But that's just me, I'm in favor of more direct democracy, most people in the rest of Canada would probably want the armed forces to prevent quebec separation (which was the PM's plan if they had lost the vote last time it turned out).
Now if Alberta wanted to declare independence, then we would have to use the armed forces or whatever to prevent it. Different story completely.
Really, most Canadians either hate people from Quebec, or people from Ontario, or people from Alberta, or any combination of the three.
Or Newfies.
Oh, and people from Saskatchewan hate people from Manitoba. However that is mostly about football. And the fact they the all just wish they were Manitoba.