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I am sure some are, but people move around all the time. It's hard to pinpoint who moved for what reason. Not everybody who moved from Quebec in 1977 moved for political or linguistic reasons. And some people may have moved in 1988 for political or linguistic reasons.
I think it's pretty hard to account for the primary reasons why individual people move - jobs, family, boyfriend/girlfriend, sick parents, school, etc. Unless the political situation really takes a dip south (i.e. election of Hitler-like character with mass deportations), people are usually quite static (actually even when Hitler was elected in 1933, the vast majority of German Jews never bothered to move, and stayed put in Berlin until 1943/44 when things got unbearably intolerable). I'd imagine the separatist politics of Quebec were a lot more mild than the conditions in Nazi Germany.
I think large multinational businesses were the more likely casualties of separatist politics in Quebec from the last century.
The outmigration of Anglophones from Quebec in the 1970s and 1980s. Anyone here a descendant of "Quebexitors"?
My Anglophone family left Mirabel during the Trudeau years, but it was mostly because there was a lot of keen interest in Vancouver at the time. Being bilingual with good jobs, language and politics weren't the major factor.
I was a Quebexitor in 1977 along with dozens of my fellow employees. The multinational conglomerate I worked for had to stay for political reasons but played it safe by moving out its finance and treasury functions to Toronto in case Quebec should separate. I knew many, many people from other corporations in Montreal who were transferred to Toronto over a period of about 3 years. Separation was considered a real possibility.
I enjoyed my 7 years in Montreal (much more youthful and fun than staid Toronto at the time where you couldn't even order a beer on Sunday) but was sick of the constant political talk and looked forward to a new adventure. The company offered me an interest-free 5 year second mortgage so I was able to afford to buy a condo in Toronto.
I had several friends in Toronto & Ottawa who were Jews and fled Montreal. The separatist movement was not only hostile to Anglophones but down right racist to the Jews. There was a lot of bigotry and anti-semitism in the PQ and they made no effort to conceal it. It was all part of the "pure laine" mentality of the party and much of the population which effectively meant unless you were a French Canadian you weren't a "real" Quebecer. The fact that you may have been able to trace your roots back in the province hundred of years or were a Native was irrelevant as the PQ made it very clear that you weren't wanted.
I remember the biggest single trauma for Montrealers was when the Bank of Montreal moved it's headquarters to Toronto.
My mother's family left in 1976 or 1977 from Dorval to Belleville, ON.
My father finished his B. Comm at McGill in 1978 and started law school at Queens the next year. My grandfather (who was still in Chomedey) wasn't pleased about this, but he and my grandmother ended up having to move to Toronto anyways a few months later as Canron moved their head office from Montreal to Toronto.
My parents didn't meet until they were both living in Toronto.
I hope the anti-semitism has gone away. I'm not Jewish, but I cannot stand those with anti-semitic views.
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