I often repeat three numbers: 20-23-26. Quebec generates only 20 per cent of Canada's wealth; it represents 23 per cent of the population, but it does 26 per cent of government spending in Canada. That's incompatible with good financial health over the long term.

I've repeated it 100 times and I'm going to look you in the eye, tonight, Mr. Couillard: there will be no referendum as long as Quebecers aren't ready.

You can't stop a reform in the middle. You do it completely and pretty fast, or you don't do it.

A big mistake in politics is to think that because an issue appears to have been settled, it doesn't exist anymore. You just sweep it under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist.

Quebecers are happy in Canada. We are benefiting economically and fiscally from belonging to Canada. We're proud of being Canadian. It's a great country. Everybody on Earth envies our Canadian citizenship.

I belong to a generation that had so many choices available. In 1970, when [former premier Robert] Bourassa launched the James Bay development project, nobody in Quebec asked whether we had the means to do it. Today could we launch another James Bay? Imagine the debates we'd have? We were a young, rich society with almost no debt. The generation that comes after us, and which will lead Quebec, must also have choices. And for that, they'll need financial manoeuvring room.

Hey, the bait is here. Get in Quebecers, get in the lobster trap, and then we'll close the door. And you'll have a referendum no matter what.