But years of cuts in Quebec and little of the economic good fortune that other provinces have enjoyed have made the PQ vulnerable.
This is popular in rural areas, where immigrants are few and PQ support is strong, but extremely unpopular in Montreal, where most of the province's newcomers live.Canada's multiculturalism is not perfect.
This was a clear signal to the two remaining mines, which are both closed, that the federal government can no longer be counted on for support.The newly elected Parti Québécois (PQ) government in Quebec is already preparing to withdraw a lifeline offered to one of the mines by the former Liberal government of Jean Charest.
After two years in government, the latest poll put his Liberal party 19 points behind the opposition, the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ), and showed four out of five respondents unhappy with Mr Charest.
Whatever the reason, in the final few days of Quebec's provincial-election campaign, voters swung away from the ruling, secessionist, Parti Québécois (PQ), and handed a swingeing victory to Jean Charest and his Liberal Party.
Radicalising the PQ "would be a recipe for marginalisation, or even extinction," she said.
After all, the PQ is still two years from the first hurdle of winning the next provincial election.
The timing is uncertain, but at some point the PQ will return to power in Quebec.
Recent polls suggest victory for Lucien Bouchard, premier of the province, and his separatist Parti Québécois (PQ).
PAULINE MAROIS, leader of the separatist Parti Québécois (PQ), was in the middle of congratulating supporters on the party's narrow election victory on September 4th when a gunman entered the theatre where she was speaking, shot two people (one of whom died), then set fire to the building.
A hundred or so were still marching in the rain on election night near the ill-fated PQ celebration.
