to the bad old days. >> patrick: when the parti québécois, the first, uh, sovereignist party to be elected, was elected in 1976, it didn't come out of a vacuum. it came out from a couple of decades of awakening and struggle. >> anthony: 50 years from now, will people be still speaking -- >> patrick: french. >> anthony: -- predominantly french in montreal? >> patrick: yes. >> anthony: no doubt about it? >> patrick: no doubt about it. >> anthony: "french first" is something most would agree with. how far and how rigorously you want to go with that, well -- do you think there was ever any possibility or real majority or a plurality of québécois who would have voted in separate nation status? >> patrick: you know, in english you guys say timing is everything. >> anthony: right. >> patrick: and timing was never better than in the period of 1990, 1991, '92. because in '95, this country came inches from being broken up. >> anthony: close. >> patrick: yeah. >> anthony: do you think it'll ever happen in the history of the world? >> patrick: i don't know. but i know one thing. anybody who says separatism is dead in this country, in this province, is a fool.