ABSTRACT

During a recent trip to Montreal, Québec, I spent a fair amount of time on the Metro, the city's underground public transportation system. My visit occurred a few months before a referendum in which voters would be asked about the sovereignty of the province, a step that would make Québec quasi-independent from the rest of Canada. Frequently, I encountered advertisements that attempted to explain the notion of sovereignty to the voters and to persuade them that it was an idea of some merit. In particular, this highly partisan campaign was designed to allay voters' fears about impending changes in the newly independent Québec. Each of these explanatory posters concluded with a phrase that I, equipped with at best rudimentary French, translated as 'We have the right to be different'.