Recently, Québec and Catalogue established bilateral exchanges. The party Catalan (CIU) has received 4.6% of the popular vote at the last elections and negotiated his support to the Popular Party being headed by Mr. José-Maria Aznar, most important leader in Spain.

I question the pertinence for Québec to exchange mainly at less at the political level with Barcelona instead of Madrid. Far from political offices, someone could ask if an approach has been first made toward Madrid, the central government and if yes which degree of collaboration was obtained

Negotiations could have been easier with Catalogue due to personal contacts established by the Québec government or others parties. Dealing with only a prosperous part of Spain in lieu of the whole country trough Madrid have been preferred.

Catalogue a prosperous region but is-it a serious enough reason to grant them such attention !Theirs autonomous claims as commented by a professional in technical development are closer to those of canadian provinces than souverainistes and secessionists propositions put forward by Québec.

I wonder if the impact of relations Spain-Québec have been seriously evaluated in political, economical, .. terms of these particular relations with Barcelona instead of Madrid. Québec seems to prefer exchanging with citizens of only part of the Spanish territory as representatives of one of the two canadian ethnic groups or of a portion of the canadian territory (province of Québec) as opposed to the Québec territory.

In principle, a souverainiste party at Québec could envisaged dealing with Barcelona and Madrid and in first instance with Madrid, if they so desired ! Is Québec leaving access to Ottawa at the Spanish capital, as a capital to a capital ?

Some Quebecers must have developed personal and business relations, … with others sectors of the Spanish territory and namely the madrilène area. For example, representatives of Jiménez Astorga Abogados law office of Madrid and Valence were recently in Québec. Spain is greatly appreciated by Quebecers especially during our cold months.

The few questions raised with regard to this visit could be explained possibly by the small number of Quebecers either interested or knowledgeable to debate international affairs because this topic is mainly of federal interest actually. A parallel could be established, I suppose, between the situation in finance where every body discuss expenses of thousand of dollars but few people debate of projects which value exceed millions and billions of dollars. This often being left to specialists.

Could we generate more jobs, business opportunities in working with Madrid than Barcelona or both of them simultaneously ? Knowing the existence of the continuous political wars between Ottawa and Québec, one could hardly expect harmonious and effective exchanges with both capitals if a similar situation exists in Spanish.

Nowadays, Quebecers are becoming more and more interested to the international affairs and particularly business milieus. I have witness activities in professional services and material commerce. Even if the Québec government does not want to play directly an active role as a jobs creator but prefer to act as a conditioner of the economy, its leadership and political and logistic support could influence greatly international exchanges.

Odilon Talbot, P. Eng., M. Sc.(Birmingham, UK) Commonwealth Scholar 861, rue Jean-Collet Boucherville (Québec) J4B 3J1 514 655-2899 518 492-7094 E-mail : tabi@mlink.net

Written on the 14 of September 1996 Translated on the 25 of November 1996

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