Never Ever

Quebec has voted twice against independence, but the question has never been settled or gone away.

On a recent summer's evening, along streets lined with onlookers waving the blue and white fleur-de-lis flag rather than the Canadian maple leaf, a parade was staged in Quebec City retelling the story of the settlement of New France.

Passing under the ramparts of the fortified old city were mock-ups of the sailing ships that arrived here in the early 17th Century to found a French colonial outpost.

Carrying muskets and swords, men marched dressed as combatants from the Seven Years' War between France and Britain, remembered here as the War of Conquest.

Women wearing period costumes, resembling extras from Les Miserables, sang Frere Jacques, and other French songs.

The festival celebrated Quebec's unique heritage - but doubtless many Quebecers would have gone home that night lamenting how, for all the French-speaking province's distinctive traditions, mannerisms and laws, it has never achieved outright independence.

Quebec has remained distinctively Gallic, from the bustling street cafes, with menus offering "poulet frit" and slower-than-American service, to chateau-style architecture, which is one of the reasons why Hollywood regularly uses it as a pretend France.

However, although the province has the feel of a nation within a nation, voters here have twice decided against independence. In English-speaking North America, it thus remains an anomaly but not a country.

The first referendum in 1980 produced a lopsided result, with 59% voting to remain part of Canada and 40% voting to follow a secessionist path.

A second referendum in 1995 produced a photo-finish, 50%-49%, but the federalists still edged out the "sovereigntists", as they are called here. The closeness of the result intensified the anguish of their defeat.

Stephane Parent, who helped organize the festival in Quebec City, exemplifies the separatists' longstanding dilemma.

"Are we still going to be with the Canadian dollar?" he asks. "Are we still going to trade with our neighbor Ontario? Is it going to be that easy to trade with the other Canadian provinces? How would the Americans consider us if we decided to split? Those were big concerns for a big part of the population."  Read more: