October 30, 1995: The Close Call of the Quebec Referendum

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, leading the "Non" side

October 30, 1995: The Quebec sovereignty referendum fails by a razor-thin margin, with 2,362,648 people, or 50.58 percent, voting "Non"; and 2,308360, or 49.42 percent, voting "Oui."

The number of "spoiled ballots," unusable for whatever reason, is said to be greater than the margin of victory. Nevertheless, it is a win not for Quebec nationalism, but Canadian nationalism, and for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who, though a Francophone from Quebec, wanted the Province to stay.

Despite the anger of the separatists, angry over their perception of victimization at the hands of the federal government in Ottawa and the English-speaking establishment – an absolutely ridiculous notion, since the Provincial government has been dominated by the ethnic and linguistic French for most of the last 100 years – the Province will remain a part of Canada, but there is still bitterness on both sides.

The Parti Québécois, dedicated to the Province's independence, held the Provincial government from 1976 to 1985, and lost a referendum in 1980, 60 percent to 40. They held the government again from 1994 to 2003, launching the nearly successful 2nd referendum. After launching the referendum and failing, Jacques Parizeau resigned as Premier and as PQ Leader. He died in 2015.

The PQ held a minority government from 2012 to 2014, and knew they couldn't get a 3rd referendum to pass, so they didn't launch one.

Splits in the party, including defections to new parties on both the left and the right, have dropped the PQ, or "Péquistes," to a mere 7 seats in the 125-seat National Assembly. The current government is led by the conservative Coalition Avenir Québec, and its Leader, Premier François Legault, has said that there will never be a sovereignty referendum launched by his party.

It's just as well: Would you be the one who has to tell the Montreal Canadiens, the greatest cultural institution in Quebec, that they had to change their name?

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October 30, 1995 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 2 days before, with the Atlanta Braves beating the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. The NBA season wouldn't start for another 4 days. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings, 14-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars, 6-1 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

October 25, 1993: Canada's Tories Are Nearly Wiped Out

October 25, 1993: Canada holds a federal election. Brian Mulroney had resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party 4 months earlier, because he knew that the PCs, or "Tories," were going to get clobbered. So he asked the Party to approve his Minister of Justice, Kim Campbell as Leader, thus making her the 1st female head of government in North America. She was also the 1st Prime Minister from the Province of British Columbia.

If Mulroney thought this might gain the Tories some female voters, he was very, very wrong. The Liberal Party gained 96 votes to achieve 177 seats and a majority, and make their Leader, Jean Chrétien, the new Prime Minister. The Tories went from 156 seats to only 2 -- and Campbell's, for Vancouver Centre, was not one of them. Nor was Mulroney's, in Charlevoix, Quebec. They fell from 43 percent of the popular vote to 16 percent.

Campbell's 133-day tenure as Prime Minister was one of the shortest in the nation's history, and it was not her fault at all that it ended so soon. After 9 years of Mulroney, the countries was sick of the Tories. They went from the most seats in the House of Commons to 5th place.

The Bloc Québécois, essentially representing the interests of people who didn't even want to be in Canada anymore, were now in 2nd place, and thus the official Opposition, with 54. The Reform Party was now the leading right-of-center party, going from just 1 seat to 52. And the New Democratic Party, the largest openly socialist party in North America, actually lost seats, retaining 35. Left parties now outnumbered right parties 266-54, getting 75 percent of the popular vote.

Chrétien remained in office for 10 years, his party for nearly 13. The PCs and the Reform Party would merge to form a new Conservative Party, and it would regain power under Stephen Harper in 2006.

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October 25, 1993 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended 2 days earlier, with the Toronto Blue Jays, Canada's own, repeating as World Champions, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6 in Game 6 of the World Series at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 19-12 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

The NBA season wouldn't start for another 11 days. There were 3 games played in the NHL that day:

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 4-1 at the Ottawa Civic Center (now the TD Place Arena) in Ottawa.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary. Ted Drury scored the winning goal with 2:03 left in overtime.