Students rally behind vote for united Canada

High Rise East's Rooftop Lounge erupted into cheers and a stirring rendition of "O Canada" as the final results of Quebec's sovereignty referendum handed the province's separatist movement defeat by the slimmest of margins. More than 30 students gathered last night to watch Canadian television as the votes rolled in, as part of an event sponsored by the Canadians at Penn group. The students were decidedly opposed to an independent state of Quebec. As predicted throughout the previous weeks, the results were very close. The federalists, who opposed the Quebec referendum, led the separatists 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent with 99 percent of the 22,400 polling stations reporting. Over the past decade, the sovereignty movement in Quebec has grown markedly in Canada's second-most populous province, which has a French-speaking majority, about 60 percent of whom voted to separate. "I couldn't be happier," beamed College junior Derek Smith, prime minister of Canadians at Penn, after the outcome grew clearer. "I couldn't imagine a Canada without Quebec. It wouldn't be Canada." In HRE, the group of Canadians waited anxiously as the lead gradually swung from the separatists to the federalists. As the evening wore on, the hum of casual conversation eventually gave way to more serious discussions of the referendum's possible consequences. Engineering and Wharton senior Tim Rauenbusch of Toronto was most worried about the economic implications of an independent Quebec, since he plans to work for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which has operations in New York and Toronto. "I'm calling a guy tomorrow to tell him where I want to work next year and it's all based on this," he said as he pointed at the red and blue bar graphs on the television screen. Others were more optimistic about the impact of separatist victory. Princeton University freshman Homayoun Saleh, who hails from Montreal, attended the gathering in support of the federalists but doubted that his family would leave an independent Quebec. "We figure we'll stay awhile to see what happens," he postulated about a separatist victory. "But if all hell breaks loose, then we'll leave." Despite their elation at the federalists' win, many of those huddled around the lounge's small television believed the victory would not be permanent. "Separatism will always exist," Smith admitted. "But at the end of the day, I hope they'll realize that they're a part of the best country in the world. Quebec is interlinked with Canada, and Canada is interlinked with Quebec." Leora Aster, a College senior from Montreal, said she believed that change was imminent in Canada. "I think that there will be changes agreed [to] between the federation and Quebec, in terms of political status," she said.