The Great Scottish FREEEEEEEEEDOOOMMMMM!!!!1!!! vote

[Hauldren Collider]

[Fake Boris]

It's cute how you pretend to know anything about this. You don't.

[Bereta_Eder]

Well a nice analysis I've read went something like this:

If scotland leaves that won't particulalry hurt the EU itself but:

the rest of the UK will be "demoted" to small-medium country status within the EU.
That is not something that the british elite would look forward upon.
Its leverage will be diminished.

Hence a independence victory for scotland could lead to the rest of britain actually going for an exodus from the EU with very clear focus this time.
Don't know what will happen but it's interesting.

[C0ckney]

i doubt that going down from 64.1 to 58.8 million inhabitants would lessen the UK's influence in the EU that much.

[Bereta_Eder]

you're probably right. i was under the impression that the population was a bit less than that.

[regexcellent]

Montreal had always been reachable by oceanic ships - it is the last natural harbor on the St. Lawrence. The seaway allowed them to go all the way to the Great Lakes. This hurt Montreal. It is not of any benefit to us.

Wow, you're ****ing retarded. Montreal's port had an IMMEDIATE increase in traffic after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and has grown steadily since.

[notyoueither]

That has nothing to do with the referendum.

The economic decline of Montreal had already started in the 50s with the opening of St. Lawrence seaway.

The 95 referendum was followed by the best growth stretch in 30 years.

The St Lawrence Seaway did not cause the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada along with many other businesses and 100,000s of thousands of people to pack up and leave. You're right though, it wasn't just the first referendum. It was a lot of things having to do with a loony-tunes nationalist party being on the scene for quite a long time.

It'd be nice if Scotland voted no and that was the end of it. Might not be though.

[kentonio]

"We tend to take the attitude that there isn't so much as a 'No' voter in Scotland, there are only deferred 'Yeses', and that's been one of the successes of our campaign."

Patronizing ****.

[C0ckney]

it will be interesting to see what happens to david cameron in the event of a yes vote. surely for the leader of the conversative and unionist party, scotland leaving would be a resigning issue.

[Fake Boris]

Wow, you're ****ing retarded. Montreal's port had an IMMEDIATE increase in traffic after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and has grown steadily since.

First state your source.

Second, compare the increase in Montreal with the increase elsewhere. If the local economy grows, Montreal will still get the increased local activity; however the leap would be larger in Ontario.

[kentonio]

it will be interesting to see what happens to david cameron in the event of a yes vote. surely for the leader of the conversative and unionist party, scotland leaving would be a resigning issue.

It should be, but I wouldn't hold my breath. He also has the safety of having stepped back and left the leadership of the BT campaign to Darling.

[Fake Boris]

The St Lawrence Seaway did not cause the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada along with many other businesses and 100,000s of thousands of people to pack up and leave. You're right though, it wasn't just the first referendum.

It has to do with several factors:

1) Nation building centered around Toronto. Look at the infrastructure (rail and seaways) built by the Canadian government since the 19th century. It has everything to with making southern Ontario the hub of the Canadian economy.
2) The abundance of direct and indirect high paying jobs generated by the federal administration in Ontario
3) Regarding immigration. The Canadian policy had always been to try to assimilate the Quebecois through massive immigration. This was even easier to do before air travel became the norm (i.e. the 70s). Quebec being the point of entry, many immigrants naturally remained there at first. This explains the negative net migration rate between Quebec and other provinces. High immigration drove down wages in Quebec. Eventually people who had settled in Quebec moved somewhere else.
4) Language. This is related with (3). Even an intermediate position in Quebec requires mastery of French and English. Thus the people most likely to leave Quebec for another province or the US are unilingual anglophones. Bilingual people are more likely to stay (and unilingual francophones too, for obvious reasons).

The so-called anglophone flight is a consequence of massive and artificial immigration, and the language situation (3 & 4). Then, of course people don't leave a place if there are no jobs to be found elsewhere. (1 & 2) explain why Toronto turned out to be a destination of choice.

It was a lot of things having to do with a loony-tunes nationalist party being on the scene for quite a long time.

Your POV has a lot do with loony-tunes ignorance and colonialism, I'm afraid.

[regexcellent]

It should be, but I wouldn't hold my breath. He also has the safety of having stepped back and left the leadership of the BT campaign to Darling.

Scotland leaving should also have the effect of securing a Conservative majority for a while.

[kentonio]

Scotland leaving should also have the effect of securing a Conservative majority for a while.

It's certainly a gain for them (Labour have 41 seats in Scotland currently) but it's not quite as clear cut as people might think. Labour are capable of winning by a big majority as they showed under Blair, and the Tory government is not doing itself any favours. Last month Labour were polling with Ipsos MORI at +10% over the Tories.

If Labour have the sense to dump Ed Milliband then they should win comfortably next year. Then again they are almost certain to stick with him until after the election despite his horrible approval numbers (last poll I saw was in June and he was at -39..). He just doesn't resonate at all with the British public, doesn't inspire any confidence or trust and basically reminds people of a public school prefect.

[Dauphin]

My abiding image of Ed.