When Quebec Premier Jean Charest walked into Zambri's to have dinner with the other provincial premiers in January, a table of buffoons broke into La Marseillaise.
They meant well, no doubt, and Charest smiled pleasantly. But I bet it occurred to him that British Columbians - well, a few Victorians anyway - are pretty out of touch with Quebec. Ours could be called the third solitude.
There have been times when people in B.C. were more than out of touch. We were encouraged by premier W.A.C. Bennett to hate that province and the government in Ottawa that seemed too accommodating to its demands.
This relatively prosperous province was being used as "a goblet to be drained" by the national equalization program, and Quebec's thirst was represented, or misrepresented, as the greatest.
When Quebec's premier, Robert Bourassa, was in Victoria for the opening round of constitutional talks in 1971, Bennett was contemptuously rude, tearing out his earpiece when Bourassa spoke French in the legislative chamber and turning his back.
Special status for Quebec in Confederation hasn't been embraced by many British Columbians. At the Meech Lake talks, Bill Vander Zalm as premier proposed that the Constitution recognize the uniqueness of all provinces.
The Charlottetown Accord, recognizing Quebec as a distinct society, was rejected by British Columbians in the 1992 referendum by 68.3 per cent, the strongest rejection by any province.
For a long stretch, since the federal government under Paul Martin embraced "asymmetrical federalism" and particularly after Charest learned how to exploit it, we've been assured that the separatist beast has been put to sleep.
But a month before last week's Quebec election, an Abacus Data poll of Canadians outside that province indicated that only 52 per cent would vote in a referendum to keep Quebec in Confederation, 26 per cent would vote to expel the province and 22 per cent didn't know how they'd vote.
Seventy-seven per cent would oppose giving Quebec more federal funding, powers or special status to keep the province from separating.
A Postmedia News/Global TV survey released just before the election found that if Quebec votes for sovereignty in another referendum, 57 per cent of Canadians outside that province think Canada should negotiate only "an outright breakup." Only 43 per cent think that continuing political and economic ties should be negotiated.
With a Parti Québécois government in Quebec City again, led by Pauline Marois, the troublemakers who run polling firms will be telling us before long how British Columbians feel about their compatriots there.
I hope they find that we understand Quebeckers better than we did during the period between 1975 and 1995 when it appeared that Canada was about to be sundered. I hope that they find in us a little more charity than we have exhibited in the past.
The distinctiveness of Quebec, more than anything else, is what gives Canada its own distinctiveness. We should acknowledge that and resolve to keep it.
Some think that the PQ wants nationhood, in Confederation or not, and it's up to us to make this marriage work. I don't think, though, that many of us consider why that party feels sovereignty, with or without association, is necessary.
Dave Barrett was no longer premier of B.C. when PQ leader René Lévesque was elected premier of Quebec in 1976. But he recognized a fellow social democrat when he saw one.
It's said that the party's nine years in power has dimmed the PQ socialdemocratic vision. But its commitment to full employment, based on educational reform, social sectorial partnership, cultural and linguistic nourishment requires strong leadership from the state.
Sovereignty would remove constitutional restraints from those who would create a society so truly distinct.
Marois has been given no mandate to take Quebec out of Canada. She's restrained by numbers in the National Assembly from doing all she wants.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being ill-advised to reject every demand Marois makes because he owes nothing to Quebec. Confederation demands engagement. Nonengagement is not leadership.
And if B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix meets Marois at some future premiers' meeting, he should embrace her. We should face the perils of Pauline with grace and generosity.
