Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 36:3 (July-August/juillet-août 2003) 643-656 © 2003 Canadian Political Science Association (l’Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique Note Constituency Homogeneity, Economic Risk and Support for Quebec Sovereignty: A Research Note ERICK DUCHESNE University at Buffalo—SUNY MUNROE EAGLES University at Buffalo—SUNY STEPHEN ERFLE Dickinson College Introduction The Canadian province of Quebec is home to one of the most successful separatist movements in the advanced industrial world. Campaigning as the Parti Québécois, separatists have on several occasions formed provin- cial governments. In 1993, the Bloc Québécois took the sovereigntist mes- sage to the federal level for the first time, winning 54 seats and (ironically) forming the official opposition in the Canadian House of Commons. Most dramatic of all, however, was the narrow defeat of the sovereignist option in the referendum on Quebec independence in October 1995. While the BQ lost political ground in the 1997 and 2000 federal elections, the party still commanded a plurality of federal seats in the province and national- ism continued to dominate politics in the province. Acknowledgments: An earlier version of this note was presented at the annual meet- ing of the Canadian Political Science Association, Université Laval, Quebec City, 2001. We are grateful to Fred Cutler, our discussant at the conference, and several other participants in the session, as well as to the reviewers for this JOURNAL, for a number of helpful suggestions. The standard disclaimer applies. Erick Duchesne, Department of Political Science, 520 Park Hall, North Campus, Uni- versity at Buffalo—SUNY, Buffalo, NY, USA 14260; Duchesne@acsu.buffalo.edu Munroe Eagles, Department of Political Science, 520 Park Hall, North Campus, University at Buffalo—SUNY, Buffalo, NY, USA 14260; Eagles@buffalo.edu Stephen Erfle, Department of International Studies, Business and Management, Dick- inson College, Stern Hall, Carlisle, PA, USA 17013; Erfle@dickinson.edu