The Numbers

July 21, 2014 3:07 PM

In the 1995 Quebec Referendum - roughly how many grassroots volunteers/activists did each side have ?
posted by sgt.serenity to Law & Government (2 answers total)

It's probably impossible to arrive at solid numbers on this, as the definition of activist or volunteer is hard to pin down, and the numbers would be very different depending which side you asked.

Feelings were riding very high about the issue – you can see how close it came – and afterwards there was a lot of noise, accusations of illegal financing and destruction of ballots in bad faith and all manner of other shenanigans. The question of who was a volunteer, who was paid, what for and how much, created not only bad feeling but political scandals that are still reverberating.
posted by zadcat at 7:48 PM on July 21, 2014

Well, MacLeans Magazine mentions some of the groups, but no hard numbers.

John Trent mentions the specific groups and some numbers of the salaried/paid activitists (written in Sept, 1995). I suspect there were official filings under the Quebec referendum law (here) that indicated the amount of money at least, if not the number of activitists. I am having trouble finding them at the moment however - the online info appears to begin in 1995. (The non side certainly violated the amount legally allowed to spend with the last minute unity rally)
posted by saucysault at 8:21 PM on July 21, 2014