THE IMPOTENT SOVEREIGN

In Quebec, everybody is familiar, at least ostensibly, with the notion of sovereignty. In fact, the notion has been so widely used by independentists that it doesn't seem to bear any semantic ambiguity, as if its meaning, as well as its conceptual implications, had become a no-brainer. By becoming a sovereign state, Quebec will at last, have they been harping on for the last fifty years, be able to take charge of its own destiny. But by focusing constantly on what they expect from the thing to yield, i.e., total legislative, judicial and executive power, they have neglected talking about the thing itself, where it comes from, where it goes, and how it works. Yet, there is already an effective sovereignty in place in Quebec, and it is very possible that, despite their subversive work, they have not been able to make it less immanent there than in the rest of Canada.