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Hello Anthony. I've been following your referendum comments with interest and pain. I think M. Parizeau's comments helped me understand the situation, too. Yes, it's about turmoil caused by the changing faces of Canadian society. Yes, it's a horrendous reality to suggest that what the referendum is about is saving Quebec for white francophones. (I heard a CBC analist several weeks ago suggest that this referendum was French Quebec's last stand; the allophone/angophone vote next referendum will outweigh the francophone vote.) But there is some comfort (insert tongue in cheek symbol here) to think that the francophones are not alone in their feelings. I suspect that these tensions are being played out right across Canada. It's difficult in Saskatchewan, for example, to face the reality that the place I grew up in has changed. It is no longer the place where we sing about "Rule Britannia" -- "In day's or yore, from Britain's shore/Wolfe the dauntless hero...etc" I see the same feelings displayed by the francophones expressed in the struggle a few years ago in Prince Albert when one of the Cree nations set up a reserve within the city limits. Or the comments about the Chinese in B.C. when I visited Vancouver last weekend. Is Canada, too, caught in the insidious web of tribalism? Anyway Anthony -- welcome back to Canada! /sam robinson