PERSPECTIVE ON CANADA : Love’s Labor Lost: No Divorce for Quebec : The French-speakers, embittered by losing their independence bid, see betrayal, not fraternal reconciliation.

Fifteen years ago, when the Quebec separatists lost their first independence referendum, their vanquished leader, Quebec Premier Rene Levesque, stood under the spotlights shrugging helplessly and holding his hands out while his followers cried and cheered. He was bathed in droplets of light and in an effusion of love that I rarely, if ever, have seen at a political happening. I remember feeling then, perhaps foolishly, that such love meant that anything and everything was possible for Quebec and Canada.

But, watching Canadian television’s coverage of Monday’s vote, I could sense no love in the aftermath of the second referendum in which the separatists lost, this time by barely a single percentage point. There was a truculent, bitter mood that seemed to sum up years of wrangling and no evident solution to the searing problem of Canada and Quebec.

Love, in fact, was openly rejected. Alluding to the recent outpourings from English Canada imploring Quebec to remain, Louise Beaudoin, the separatist government’s minister of intergovernmental relations, sent a post-referendum message to the rest of Canada: “Don’t just love us. Recognize us. Love is not enough.”

Premier Jacques Parizeau, the heir of the late Levesque, delivered the kind of hard-edged, ultranationalist speech that Levesque would have abhorred. Almost 20% of Quebec’s population comprises English-speakers and immigrants. In the democratic tradition, Levesque had always insisted that all votes were equal and that the separatists needed to allay the fears of non-French-speakers about independence. Monday night, however, Parizeau spoke as if the only vote that counted was that of the French-speaker. Since 60% of the French-speakers probably voted yes, Parizeau reasoned, the separatists had, in effect, carried the day. “We were defeated by money [a euphemism for English-speakers] and by the ethnic vote,” Parizeau told his followers. “Three-fifths of those who are us voted yes.” The premier thus divided his province of 7.3 million into “us” and “them.” Less than 24 hours later, he announced his resignation.

Both English Canada and Quebec still look at each other with a blind intransigence that does not augur well for reconciliation and compromise. Quebec has a special place in Canadian history, for it was the original Canada for 150 years, until the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City in 1759. Quebeckers believe that history has enshrined their province with a special status that English Canada must recognize. There is a gnawing fear that if they lack that status, their language and culture will be overwhelmed by the dominant culture of Canada.

Although English-speaking Canadians, under pressure from former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, reluctantly accepted bilingualism for Canada a couple of decades ago, they largely ignore the special history of Quebec and the fears of Quebeckers. When I was The Times correspondent in Canada, I once told a television talk show in Ontario that I was trying to cover those aspects of Canada that were different from the United States. In an aggressive, doubting tone, the host demanded that I name one single thing about Canada that was different. “Well,” I replied, “one-quarter of your people speak French.” He looked at me dismissively. “Oh, that,” he said.

There is a blindness in Quebec as well. It is true that Quebeckers have a historical grievance with English Canada’s refusal to recognize their special status and its mockery of their attempt to protect their culture and language. Yet they are hardly a repressed people in a repressed province. Quebeckers have held the post of prime minister of Canada for all but one of the past 27 years. Since the advent of Trudeau’s bilingualism policies, Quebeckers, who are more likely than English Canadians to speak both languages, have had a huge advantage in competing for jobs in the federal civil service. English Canada often feels that it is under the thumb of French-speakers who run Ottawa.

In view of this, complaints from Quebeckers often sound like whining to the rest of Canada. It is not clear what the Quebeckers really want. Do the French-speakers of the province really want independence? Or would they be satisfied with a special constitutional status that took account of their language, culture and historical place?

None of the politicians from either side came close to answering these questions on Monday night. For someone who admires and respects both Canada and Quebec, their mutual blindness is a despairing sight.