20 years; An entire generation ago.

For those who remember, the memories are bittersweet.

For those who don’t, here’s a little history lesson.

The tension. The frayed nerves. The feeling that everything was on the line and, yes indeed, it was.

We came so close, so close to a point of no return.

On October 30th, 1995, a nation was in question and no one knew until the very end who would prevail.

The campaign for the Yes side was stuck in first gear for weeks. Interest was low and the No side was clearly in control.

I personally remember being with the Yes campaign somewhere near Rimouski.

Jacques Parizeau was speaking to the local Chamber of Commerce or some group, while all the reporters were in another room watching the O.J. Simpson verdict. Even the sovereigntist-leaning reporters had other things on their minds.

No one believed the sovereigntists had a chance until the Lazarus of the separatist movement, Lucien Bouchard, was brought in to effectively take over.

Then it all changed.

 

After October 7th all bets were off. Overnight the polls flipped and the Yes took the lead. Bouchard was a game changer.

Quebecers were told they could feel safe with Bouchard as their chief negotiator.

And on the night of October 30, at the Palais des Congres shortly after 8 p.m., a younger and better looking reporter told viewers that the Yes was certain of victory.

“I just talked to Jean Royer, campaign organizer for the Yes side, and he says with a participation rate of over 90 percent they have the Yes winning at 52%,” I reported on that night.

The numbers were so close they were razor-thin.

All these years later it is still so hard to describe the sheer magnitude of the moment.

History was being made before our eyes and it became so much more than just a story about others.

It was about all of us.

Sometime around 10 o’clock, the federalists managed to eke ahead just enough for a victory.

As Lloyd Robertson reported “As we said a little while ago the No side is going to prevail. There it is 50.4%, 49.6% with 96 pecent of the polls reporting.”

We would only later, much later, learn of Jacques Parizeau’s nefarious scheme for a unilateral declaration of independence with consequences no one could predict.

But how much was settled that night?

Promises were made, promises were broken.

Bouchard, Landry, Marois. They all contributed to denying Quebec and in particular, Montreal the future it could have had.

Now the mantle has been passed to the capricious Pierre Karl Peladeau who seems ready to fight for a separate Quebec at all costs.

He often acts like a religious zealot.

But there is hope.

Many, if not most of the die-hard sovereigntists are from another generation and as Bob Dylan might say, “Their old road is rapidly aging.”

It was heartening this week to see a CROP survey putting support for Quebec independence at just 36 percent. It’s even lower for young people under 35

So twenty years later we have survived.

Quebec has not flourished as it might have.

Sometimes it feels like the sore that just won’t quite heal.

But despite everything it seems the future for the federation is promising, so much more so than it did on that October night in 1995.