Do you think it is a good or bad idea for Quebec to become an independent nation? Explain. (Please use RACE when answering this question.)

Yes, Quebec should be a country.

Canada is a federation, meaning that its citizens have to pay taxes for both the federal (canadian) government and the provincial (quebec) government. This split makes it harder for the people of Quebec to strategically invest in its own industries. For example, Quebec has long ago nationalized hydroelectricity making the state a leader in green energy. When Quebecers decided to do so, the canadian government refused to invest even a single dollar in the project. Quebec’s prime minister at that time had to go see the americans to ask for a sufficient loan. What a shame it was to the canadian government going against such a nice project! Fast forward to now, Nova Scotia government (another province located next to Quebec being part of the canadian confederation) has the project to built all the infrastructure to export hydroelectricity to the US… and guess what? Canadian Government is totally in favor of the idea and willing to fund the project with fresh capital, part of that capital coming from taxes paid by Quebecers. So Quebec taxes will help fund a competitor since Quebec is already exporting a lot of energy to their US partners while it had absolutely no help when they built their own hydroelectricity project.

This example is just one of the many examples that Quebecers have had to endure over the past decades. When the financial crisis happened in 08-09, Ontario’s auto industry have been bailed out for more than $10 Billion from the Canadian Government (again, part of this money - roughly 20% - came from Quebec’s taxes paid to the federal government). At that same time, Quebec was struggling with its paper/pulp industry and the federal government injected less than 100M$ in the industry to help it. Now Bombardier, one of the great engeneering business of Quebec is struggling, and guess what? Quebec has to inject all of the money to help them since canadian government won't do a single thing.

A lot of the people in Quebec stand against the building of pipelines that would allow dirty oil sands to cross the eastern part of the country for international exportation. Canadians want Quebec to accept the pipeline since it would help the western part of the country to export/sell its dirty oil internationally. As a province, Quebec doesn’t have any legal capacity to oppose to such project while this goes a lot against their willingness. If Quebec was a country, it could oppose to such thing and participate to a greater extend to a cleaner planet. Quebecers have all the capacity and knowledge to invest massively in clean energy and stop using oil for transport over a short timeframe. The only things that is keeping them away is the fact that it does not have control over all its revenues while the federal government have a totally different gameplan.

Being a country would allow Quebecers to gain 100% control over their taxes and would leave them with more money to do good things for the whole planet. We would be leaders in clean energy instead of subsidizing the dirty oilsands in the western part of the country. Our army would be one of peace keeping and territory protection and our peace keeping message would be heard amongst UN and UNESCO. We would be a much better leader amongst nations willing the reduce greenhouse gas instead of financing oil sands. Our engineering firms like Hydro-Quebec would be venturing project like electrification of transport.

Not only Quebec should be a country but people all around the world should support them in their quest for the building of a great new country.