Well yeah, all issues can be resolved via negotiation. But the key is both parties have to negotiate in good faith. And many times secessionists want to have their cake and eat it too.

I’m Canadian and we’ve seen this kind of thing with both Quebec and Alberta. Alberta is basically Canada’s Texas (right wing, they got oil) and like Texas the secessionist tendencies aren’t all that serious.

With Quebec it’s a little more serious. But people still have weird ideas about what being a country means. We’ll still have Canadian passports, right? No you won’t. The federal government employs a lot of people in Quebec, those jobs aren’t going away, right? Uhhh… those jobs are leaving to go somewhere in Canada. Also there’s indication from the private sector from companies like Air Canada that they will be moving their head offices to somewhere in Canada. Oh, and by the way, Quebec is going to have take on a percentage of the national debt equal to the the percentage of Quebec’s population in Canada.

A lot of these things are just about emotion. I feel pride for Texas! I hate liberals! We should be our own country! But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, it takes all the fun out of it and it goes away.