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Braid: Alberta and Quebec separatism — wildly different, equally insidious

Without fail, separatism divides society, pits people against each other and disrupts economies

Fate and a very long career in journalism have enmeshed me in the separatist movements of two provinces, Quebec and Alberta.

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I was in the newsroom of the old Montreal Star the day Rene Levesque’s Parti Quebecois won its first election in 1976.

The scene that night was barely controlled chaos. There were fears the separatists would sabotage the presses of Montreal’s dominant English newspaper.

Levesque carried 71 of 110 seats, a comfortable majority hardly anybody expected, least of all the new premier himself.

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History echoed, rather than repeated itself, on Monday, Oct. 5, when the PQ under Paul St-Pierre Plamondon won a minority, partly on the promise of holding a third referendum (but not until U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office).

When I arrived in Alberta later in the 1970s, separatist movements were just beginning to rise.

We saw the Western Canada Concept, Confederation of Regions, and the Western Independence Party; they fought each other as vigorously as they attacked Ottawa.

The anger today is more widespread. It will be tested in an Oct. 19 referendum........

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