It only took them six hours to get most down. But they were moving polling boxes via fishing boat and helicopter. Scotland is remote, perhaps on par with Quebec (albeit some distances are shorter).
The other difference, if my understanding is correct, is there was only 32 places where they counted ballots. That is, all the polling stations have to physically deliver their ballots, then everything is counted up. In Canada, we count at the polling station and then aggregate which allows for much faster results.
It was a bit of an amateur display logistically to be honest.
There was fog and rainy conditions on the Islands so a lot of polling cards were brought by boat rather than by plane. The Highlands didn’t reveal their result until 8am with the polling finishing at 10pm the night before. Edinburgh, a geographically small and well connected city of only 0.5 million people didn’t come in until 6am.
Quebec is a net cash flow recipient from the rest of Canada (around 3% of its GDP), so the argument is not an economical one. It is an identity issue.
I grew up speaking French, spoke only French at home, went to school in French ; English is a second language to me.
Why would I want to live in a country where 75 % of the population not only does not speak it, but also mocks it ?
There is a difference in mentality. French - and English speakers usually have pretty diverging opinions when it comes to foreign and environmental policy, as well as the place of the private sector in a society. Just look at the demonstrations that took place a couple of years ago as a result of the Liberal government attempt to raise the cost of university tuition. In the rest of North-America, this was perceived as a bunch of pussies whining. For most Quebecois, access to education is a right, not a service that one should have to pay for. I, for one, would be willing to resort to violence to defend that right.
I could go on and on for hours, but I think that this is a good start.
Contrary to what the English-speaking media spreads around, nationalism in Quebec is NOT an ethnic one. Having lived in Europe for a while now I can tell you that the Quebecois people are by all means open to the world and willing to embrace immigration. Any French-speaker with Quebecois values can be one of us if he wants to.
Lastly, and for the record, I would like to stress the fact that I have nothing against our English-speaking friends in Canada. We are similar on many accounts, but our differences are just too great for us (the minority) to have the decisions taken by them (the majority).
An argument from the No voters was that independence wouldn’t really bring sovereignty as we’d spend a few years sucking up to the EU to be let in and we wouldn’t be able to negotiate any of the exemptions or the rebate that the UK has so we’d be just another small country controlled by the Brussels beaurocrats and with no control over monetary policy. This was one of the reasons I was dithering about voting Yes
I think the EU (Germany) would be happy to let Scotland in, it would immediately split open one of their historical rivals - Britain. Just a guess though.
what a fucking surprise, heard numerous rumours during the build up to the referendum about new technology discoveries and new oil fields being discovered not announced until afterwards.