Mr. Speaker, Quebec separatists did not take long to react to a study published yesterday on the credit rating of an independent Quebec. The study, which is on the whole very positive for those who are promoting independence for Quebec, remains conspicuously silent on several important aspects of the question, as pointed out by Michel Van de Walle in his business column in the Journal de Montréal .
Another issue our separatist friends have tried to dodge arises from the confusion around the author of the report. The firm of Payne Webner, whose name was associated with the report, said in a press release last Wednesday that it neither sponsored it nor endorses its conclusions.
What, more accurately, should be referred to as the Albert Gordon study fails to clarify satisfactorily a question that is extremely complex. We can imagine that after a very difficult week like this one, Quebec separatists needed a new set of rose-coloured glasses.