A PQ victory has some Quebec residents considering an out-of-province move
I got an email from a friend of mine in Montreal on Tuesday, before the Quebec election results were announced, saying that a Parti Quebecois victory would speed-up her family's relocation to British Columbia.
Like a lot of Anglophones in Quebec, she isn't comfortable with the idea of a soveriegnist government.
And she wasn't the only one thinking about a big move. Many took to Twitter after the PQ victory suggesting the same thing:
if pq wins, im moving to ontario. this is awful. — Rebekah Dolmat (@rebekahdolmat) September 5, 2012
PQ won,and today is already starting to be hell. Looks like I'm moving to Ontario for real yo — Tehiya Gokhool (@BOLLYDIVA08) September 5, 2012
"Nooo not PQ... Bye bye Quebec it was nice considering you as a province" "Def moving to the states... Peace Quebec!" — stephanie (@habsromance) September 5, 2012
#qc2012 Moving to Vancouver!!! PQ shouldn't be in power — Valérie Bélair (@valbxchill) September 5, 2012
I was seriously considering moving back to Montreal after graduation....... until the PQ just got elected into office — Lauren Greco (@logrecs) September 5, 2012
While it's one thing to say you're going uproot your family, it's another thing to actually do it.
According to a CTV News report from last week, there were actually some people making the move prior to the election.
[ Related: What role will former student-protest leader Leo Bureau-Blouin have in new PQ government? ]
A real estate agent from Hawkesbury, Ontario, which is on the Ontario side of the Quebec/Ontario boundary, told CTV that many of her recent clients have been Quebecers.
"We're getting twice as many phone calls [from Quebec]," she said.
"The numbers have increased substantially. People just want to leave. They say they want to move to Canada — they don't feel Quebec is a part of Canada."
The PQ winning a minority versus a majority government, however, has likely tempered the resolve of many.
At least for the time being, don't expect a mass exodus down the 401.