Author’s Note: Please excuse the non-sciency (technical term) angle of this post. Just something I thought was worth noting here regardless. And Happy Halloween all…keep safe!

Eleven years ago today, exactly at this hour, I was biting my fingernails into non-existence. October 30, 1995 was the night Quebeckers (a largely French-speaking province within which I am considered a minority) were deciding whether we wanted to split from Canada and form our own nation. The ‘No’ side prevailed–fortunately, from my perspective–by a sliver tinier than the bits I’d just chewed off: 50.5% to 49.5%.

The point of this story, beyond the Coles Notes history lesson, is what I remember happening on October 31. Absolutely nothing. Despite the contentious vote, there were no riots. There was no violence. Quebeckers, English and French, got back to doing what we usually do that time of year: Trick or Treating, watching hockey and complaining about politics over beers at the pub.

I wonder sometimes what it would have been like if we’d lived somewhere else. Maybe you do too. What if, after the debacle that was the 2000 Presidential election (and, come to think of it, the one in 2004 too), people responded the way they have recently in Somalia or Nepal?

My point is: after these upcoming midterm elections, be grateful whether your candidate wins or loses. Two weeks later, your Thanksgiving turkey will taste the same, the football games will be played as scheduled and you’ll probably complain about politics over beers at the pub too (some things are universal).

The way history seems to work is that, ten or eleven years down the road, you won’t really remember who won or lost, just whether life went on the same.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 4:52 pm and is filed under History, Society, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.