My chiropractor is Canadian (from Chatham, Ontario) and I live within walking distance of the border. I asked him about this while he was cracking my back this past week.
He said that it's cyclical, that PQ governments (and this is not a majority government; Pauline Marois is going to have to cut deals to govern) tend to come and go and that Quebec will never leave Canada...because they couldn't make it on their own. The "want list" they have to be "independent" isn't "independence" at all:
1. Still be covered under Canadian health care
2. All military hardware in Quebec turned over to them, including a major shipyard and a wing of CF-18 fighters
3. Still use the Canadian dollar
4. Still be able to use Canadian passports
5. Assume they will automatically be welcomed into NATO, NORAD, the UN...and the COMMONWEALTH (!)
6. Have full rights of employment/movement in TROC (The Rest Of Canada)
All this...but no contribution (taxes paid to Ottawa) from them. He called bullshit, some of my relatives around Kitchener, Ontario call bullshit, and I call bullshit.
Re Stephen Harper...he still doesn't come anywhere near being as far to the loony right as the Republican Party here. If he were to, for example, call for an American-type health care (non)system in Canada, he would probably be looking at a vote of no confidence so fast he'd shit himself. He won't be in forever...parties don't seem to be as dynastic in Canada as they are here.
The New Democratic Party, which is practically Marxist by U.S. standards (and which I would support if I lived in Canada), holds the position of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in Ottawa...and the separatist Bloc Quebecois lost all but four of its 47 seats.
Canada has a history of surprising political turnovers. After a more-than-decade-long (Joe Clark aside) of Liberal/Trudeau government, they elected the Tories and Brian Mulroney, who ended up being quite unpopular, then most of the '90s and '00s being under Liberal government (Jean Chretien, Paul Martin) again, then Harper.
Maybe it's just "the grass is greener" mentality, but I have more faith in the Canadian electorate than perhaps they do themselves.
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