As PQ talks independence, aftershocks of 1995 referendum still reverberate in Quebec and Canada

Thirty years after Quebec came within a hair’s breadth of voting for independence, the reverberations of the 1995 referendum rumble still.

They’re echoed in the promise of the resurgent Parti Québécois to hold a third referendum . They resonate in the “Vive le Québec” of an emotional Premier François Legault as his party presented its Quebec constitution. They’re shaking the political landscape as far away as Alberta, where factions threatening to withdraw from Canada hold up the 1995 vote as proof separation anxiety can coerce Ottawa to grant more powers.

The unexpected surge for the Yes side on Oct. 30, 1995, and the razor thin outcome meant that in many ways the vote ended in a “tie game,” with few real changes to the Canadian federation, said Guy Lachapelle, professor of political sc