Danielle Delaney grew up speaking French; her husband Andrew Middleton, an engineer originally from Toronto, grew up speaking English. On Monday, the Beaconsfield couple representing both of Canada’s founding nations voted Liberal.
“We are very pleased with the outcome,” said Delaney on Tuesday. “Not only that it’s the Liberals but that it’s a majority.”
“Our main interest is the economy and building a nice future for our children,” said Delaney, a mother of three children, ages 7, 9 and 12.
“We don’t want them to feel they have to leave the province for opportunity,” she said. “We want them to feel there’s as much here as anywhere else in the country.”
Delaney said when she and her husband married 15 years ago, they discussed “What if Quebec separates” scenarios and agreed that they would stay in Quebec no matter what. And that hasn’t changed.
Although Delaney said the divisive election campaign brought back memories and sparked family debate, especially when her 12-year-old daughter came home from school asking: “Are we going to separate?” She said it was the perfect opportunity to tell her children how sovereignty has always been something many Quebecers have felt passionate about even if their mother did not. She said she told them how she was 12 at the time of the 1980 referendum and, wore a ‘No’ pin even “though I wasn’t sure what it all meant” back then.
But she said: “For me and anyone who knows the economy, knows that boat sailed a long time ago.”
Now, she said, she and her husband are anxious to see a return to political stability, and that the Liberals set to work on repairing the province’s battered economy.
ccornacchia@montrealgazette.com
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