Fear, relief, anguish: Reliving the emotion of the 1995 Quebec referendum

MONTREAL — Louise Harel cried only once during the 1995 Quebec referendum.

It was in the middle of the campaign, when she saw internal polling that showed the sovereigntists in the lead. Then a Parti Québécois minister, Harel said the numbers made her believe, for the first time, that Quebec might choose independence.

“It was possible, it was achievable, and it was certainly the dearest wish I had in my life,” she said. “I cried because we were winning. I never cried because we lost.”

Thirty years after the 1995 referendum, when Quebecers came within a hair’s breadth of voting to leave Canada, those who lived through it still remember the emotion of that time. They recall the drama of an unpredictable campaign, the fears and frustrations, and the relief — or anguish — when it was all ov