MONTREAL FEARS SECESSION

"Everybody I saw today clearly felt they were voting with their lives and they were generally scared about the outcome," McWhirter adds. "Whatever the outcome, you can be sure that pro-federalists in the province of Quebec and in Montreal cast their votes to the very last man. But the results in Montreal may not reflect the sentiments of the rest of Quebec. This is a very highly educated internationalist enclave, even as it doubles as the capital. It will be interesting if you have a brand new country called Quebec that does not have the support of its business community or its cultural capital."