How Scotland's 'No' vote resonates around the world （2）

Canada

- Lee Carter

The victory for the "No" vote will please many of Canada's editorial writers, most of whom came down firmly on the side of Scotland staying with the union.

As the vote got closer, many other stories were gently shoved aside by major TV news networks, which had correspondents on the ground in Scotland providing minute-by-minute results. The interest was not surprising.

Nearly five million Canadians identify themselves as Scottish. And Scots have had a huge impact on Canadian culture and history.

Many of those who migrated to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) did so because they were forced off their land. Opinion in some of the communities there tilted towards the Yes campaign.

The Scottish debate seemed to have much more traction in the French-speaking province of Quebec. Referendums on separation from Canada were twice held there (1980 and 1995) and twice rejected, albeit by an extremely narrow margin in 1995.

A group of Quebec "sovereigntists" who'd made the trip to Scotland to watch and learn from the process said they were hugely impressed by the precision and clarity of the "Yes" campaign.

But the group's leader, Alexandre Cloutier, admitted that the next referendum in Quebec could be a long way off. In April, the pro-independence Parti Quebecois was swept from power in the province by the federalist Liberals. And support for separation in the province wavers at around 40%.

Group members insist that despite the result, there are still many aspects of the Scottish vote that could inspire a new generation of Quebec separatists.

But weighing into the debate, Quebec's Premier Philippe Couillard said that while Scotland's referendum was an example of the same kind of healthy tension that exists in Quebec, all comparisons after that were "risky".