Quebec Sees the Energy Tide Turn

MONTREAL, QUEBEC: Here in the normally frigid climes of Canada, the snow is melting. I arrived here last week to celebrate the dawn of 2007 in North America’s French metropolis, and amid the cheerful soirees and greetings of “bonne annee!” I learned just how pivotal energy is to this unique corner of the continent.

Canada is America, but it is not the United States. Many of my countrymen take the attitude that there is but one voice in English-speaking North America, and that we somehow have a right to the adjoining boreal territory and its resources.

This raises the question, then: What of French-speaking Canada?

This issue is tops in the political and economic landscape for the francophone majority in the province of Quebec as 2007 begins, as well as for their linguistic and cultural brethren in places like New Brunswick (where French speakers constitute a large minority of nearly 27%).

Energy and Capital