The number of Natives is not going to ever matter. One, they represent a very small portion of the population in most riding and two, many actually do not vote in provincial and federal elections.

“All of which to say that, contrary to Wawanoloath, Cleary, Payne and Alfred, Mourani, Barbot and Kotto could not have been elected without at least some support from their ridings’ significant non-francophone populations.”

I never said anything to the contrary.

The population makeup of a riding does matter though. Wawanoloath and Cleary’s ridings contained a miniscule number of natives. The same is true of blacks in Alfred’s riding and anglos in Payne’s riding.

But in the case of Mourani, Barbot and Kotto, their ridings’ demographics mean that they couldn’t have gotten elected without at least some support from non-francophones. Although old-stock francophones are at the very least a plurality or perhaps even a bare majority in these ridings, you never get anywhere near 100% of this group to vote for the BQ or the PQ. The vote of the francophone group does tend to favour the BQ/PQ, but not overwhelmingly so, and is generally much more segmented than the anglo vote, for example. All of which to say that, contrary to Wawanoloath, Cleary, Payne and Alfred, Mourani, Barbot and Kotto could not have been elected without at least some support from their ridings’ significant non-francophone populations.

http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/apqc/95_96/drouilly/drouilly.htm

Scroll down and you will see the native results and this fascinating comment: “En fait, si les anglophones et les allophones du Québec avaient appuyé le OUI dans les mêmes proportions que les Amérindiens, le OUI aurait remporté le référendum avec 52% des voix environ.”

Even though 90% of Natives voted NO, if Anglophones and Allophones had supported the YES side in the same proportion as Natives, the YES side would’ve won with 52% of the vote!

Wow.

Well, I am not sure what this has to do with the discussion on Natives… but never did I say that I thought Abitibi was a PQ riding because it was rural. I have actually lived in rural Quebec, so please, I do know that these places are not full of crazed sovereignists…

Where does this 68% figure come from, obviously not from official voting results. Is it from a poll?

Actually, alyhough it might have been the consequence of anger over the lumber crisis, Wawanoloath beat a Liberal cabinet minister in a very red ridding:

http://angryfrenchguy.com/2008/03/01/alexis-wawanoloath/

The illusion that support for sovereignty is only the result of those backward habitants out in the woods is a persistent one in Canada. Actually, the most militantly indépendantist subgroup of society, a group that voted 68% in favour of sovereignty in 1995, is French-speaking Montrealers. Urban, multicultural, bilingual and cosmopolitan Montrealers…

I am not talking about ridings here. I am not sure how competitive Wawanoloath’s riding is, but I assume it’s not since it is Abitibi. What I am saying is that one person’s party affiliations do not say anything about that person’s ethnic group’s relations with that party. I believe the only black MP in the French parliament (maybe in the last term, perhaps not in the current one) is/was a Front National deputy. I can assure you that most Africans do not vote, or have good feelings towards the Front National in France.

In the same way I think the Liberal Party of Canada is very grateful that Western Montreal Anglos and Allophones elected Lucienne Robillard (soon to be replaced by Marc Garneau), Bernard Patry and Stéphane Dion, helping maintain the illusion that the party has support in French-speaking Québec and is still a national party.

Really, how many Liberal MPs were elected in solidly francophone riddings? Denis Coderre and Pablo Rodriguez?

However, Bloc MPs Vivian Barbot, Maria Mourani and Maka Kotto (now a PQ MNA) were elected by more diverse ridings in Montreal.

“Currently, the only aboriginal member of Quebec’s National Assembly (and only its second native representative ever – the first and last was in 1924) is the Parti Québécois’ Alexis Wawanoloath…”

Yes, I know he is the only one. I don’t think that says anything about relations between Quebec political parties and Natives. The PQ has already had Jewish and Anglo MPs as well. The guy after all, is just one person. Now, before you say something about how Natives also dislike the Liberals, I am not really saying that the Liberals have a better relationship with Natives than the PQ, I am just saying that this guy’s party affiliations do not necessarily say much about Native-Quebec government relations.