Mr. Speaker, it is an invention by the other side of this House that newly sovereign countries experience economic difficulties. This is far from the reality.
Claude Picher wrote this morning “When the former Czechoslovakia was divided, all observers felt that the Czech republic would be far better off than the Slovak. The opposite was what occurred.”
In fact, according to the OECD, the most successful newly sovereign countries have been the countries of central Europe that have had to make the difficult transition toward a market economy.
Another wrong idea being spread by the federalists is that the economic performance of the major countries such as the G-7 is better than that of countries of similar size to Quebec. The growth of the G-7 countries for 1990-98 was 1.8%, while that of countries the size of Quebec was, again according to the OECD, 3.1%.
A sovereign Quebec, as the 16th-ranking world power, would be true to this trend toward superior economic performances.