Celebration Gets Rowdy In Downtown Montreal

Federalists celebrated their narrow victory raucously at their headquarters Monday night, waving Canada’s maple leaf flag amid a flurry of balloons.

But not all was civil: a crowd of 1,000 Yes and No supporters pushed and shoved each other in downtown Montreal after the results were announced.

Some attacked passing cars or threw firecrackers into the crowd. Looters smashed the windows of a downtown shopping center and grabbed items from the stores. Bottles were tossed at riot police, but no injuries or arrests were reported.

Other separatist campaigners - who came closer than many had dreamed a few months ago - wept on each other’s shoulders. But they came to life, cheering proudly, when separatist leader Lucien Bouchard congratulated them for improving so dramatically from a 60-40 percent defeat in a 1980 independence referendum.

“We roll up our sleeves and we try again,” said Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau. “We won’t wait 15 years this time. … We want our country, and we will get it.”

Even if another referendum is not imminent, there will be immediate calls for constitutional reform.

“Canada on paper may still be a country - but there’s something wrong with this country,” said Louise Beaudoin, culture minister in Quebec’s separatist government. “We had 9 percent more than we had in 1980 - something has to be done.”

Some leading backers of the federalist side also said the narrow result should fuel the nationwide call for reforms that would end decades of constitutional wrangling.

“We have to put an end to to this business, the referendum,” said Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow. “We have to make accommodation with respect to the province of Quebec. My part of the world wants change.”

Comments like that will place heavy pressure on Chretien, a Quebecker committed to national unity, to develop some strategy to meet the demands for change.