Canada sans Quebec Canada Remapped, How the Partition of Quebec Will Reshape the Nation, by Scott Reid, Arsenal Pulp Press, $14.95. accompanying the nation’s current constitutional A MID THE political posturing and bellicose rhetoric crisis one voice is conspiculously absent: the voice of reason. Ottawa journalist Scott Reid ap- pears to constitute a party of one in his willingness to think about _ the unthinkable — Canada without Quebec — seriously and dispassionately, and to consider how the separation and partition of fa belle province might be ac- complished, if not exactly amicably, at least without ter- rorism or civil war. in this amazingly clear, concise and cool-headed work, Reid or- ganizes his analysis around rele- vant historical models. Ireland and Yugoslavia illustrate bungled successions with whose bloody results we're all familiar. As a positive model, he offers the creation of the Swiss canton of Jura out of the former canton of Berne in 1979, in which similar ethnic, linguistic and religious dif- ferences were at issue, yet the rioting and terrorism resorted to even by the philegmatic and dem- ocratic Swiss was quickly defiised by a heads-up government that developed a practical, results-. oriented plan that deprived ex- tremists of a sympathetic au- ” dience. Reid examines and demolishes the existing plans for the secces- _sion of Quebec, all of which hinge on the legalistic reduction of the renegade republic to a rump only slightly larger than the original colony of New France; a comic- strip country along only the north -_. shore of the St. Lawrence from Quebec City to Montreal. John Moore BOOK REVIEW With a perfectly straight face, he notes that Quebec might hang on- to its precious northern territories by the ironic stratagem of declar- ° ing itself, not a republique, but a constitutional monarchy, and swearing allegiance to Her Majesty Elizabeth I! It's hard to say which of these suggestions would be more likely to provoke a food-fight at the next constitutional power-breakfast; the proposal of a eunuch republic, a Francophone Ruritania or the spectacle of PQ.-istes taking oaths of fealty to'the Queen of the “maudits anglais,” but the CBC might finally whip CNN in the television ratings of the fallout. As Reid warns, existing Cana- dian plans are, at worst, punitive, guaranteed to produce acrimony and violence; at best they are not intended to work but to intimidate Quebec into abandoning its na- tional ambitions. The real danger ~ Reid sees is that plans not intend- ed to work will not work and CONTINENTAL CUISINE Dinner Tues-Sat. 5pm Lunch Tues-Fri, Sundays 11:30am —11:30- AT ITS BEST Brunch: 30pm Dine and Dance to the music of Michael THE: AMBLESIDE -INN Cummings FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS. Dine in air conditioned comfort. Add a new address to your choice of Restaurants to recommend to your best frien 1495 Marine Drive, West Vancouver nothing worse can happen to a person or a nation than to be forced to back up an idle or ill- considered threat with actual force. Because Reid avoids the emo- tional quagmire of history (analyz- ed by Peter Brimelow, who wrote the foreward to this book, in his book The Patriot Game), Canada Remapped is unmuddled by the inflarnmatory hectoring that comes down, like an old Len Morris car- toon, to someone named Rodney offering the ‘‘froggies’”’ another go on the Plains of Abraham. This is a sane, rational and pro- “foundly humane examination of the single most important issue facing our country today, so you can bet your last loonie not a single politician in this country will read it. If you don’t want to read it yourself, buy two copies. Send one to your MP, the other to the Prime Minister. If he gets 27 mil- lion copies of the same book, one might get past his secretary and he might even read it and save us all an unimaginable amount of grief. Wednesday, July 15, 1992 - North Shore News - 28 $10P° off the total food bill with this coupon when 8 or more entrees are aetna purchased. Valid for dinner, 7 days a week. & Seafood & Steak House cn 2070 Marine Dr., N. Van 980-2611 vaLuE | = ' AUG, 3/92 . TT Tggf SEU Toh FE A WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE TOO BUSY TO LOSE WEIGHT You don’t need a lot of time to lose weight. What -you need is Quick Control,™ the Weight _ Watchers food plan that puts you in control right from the . start. 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