Lessons in Secession for the Quebec Election

Separatism was a hot topic for the latest Quebec election. Quebec’s separatist party was defeated, but regardless of the outcome secession will remain one of the most important controversies underlying Canadian confederacy.

Hoppe writes:

Secession increases ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural diversity, while in the course of centuries of centralization hundreds of distinct cultures were stamped out.

There are also economic reasons to favor secession. Although Quebec receives transfer payments from Ottawa, these ultimately make Quebec’s economy weaker. This kind of provincial welfare creates an environment where people have stronger incentives to get money from the government (because there is more loot up for grabs), either through welfare or cronyism, rather than serving one’s fellow man in the market and truly benefiting society.

Furthermore, smaller countries have a stronger incentive to favor free trade, and reject protectionism. It is surely correct that if Quebec maintained its same economic policies post-separation, it would be a disaster for the citizens. But there would be far greater pressure to actually liberalize the economy if there was less subsidization available. Additionally, any of Quebec’s wealth that is currently sucked into the black hole of Ottawa would remain in Quebec.

It would be an advance in Canadian civilization for the country to split. But it would not be enough to stop there — there should be hundreds, or thousands of Canadas, which would create a land of amazing prosperity and happy coexistence. There can still be a “Canada” — but Canada should be a coalition of cooperating territories, not a exploitative system where some groups use Ottawa to rip off other groups.