Pauline Marois downplays non-francophone exodus

Premier PaulineMarois saysshe is not worried about an exodus from the province, following the publication ofa CBC-Ekos poll that foundhalf of non-francophones surveyed have considered leaving Quebec duringthe past year.

The poll results suggested that 51 per cent of anglophones surveyed had seriously considered leaving Quebec in the last year.

"I have great respect for the Anglo Quebecers. This community is important in my perspective," said Marois."I have always have a great respect of this community and I will continue to as leader of the government."

Marois said she believes theParti Qubcoishas always been respectful to the anglophone population and that theyare just as important as Quebec's other founding communities.

Other ministers say they've seen these results before and are not concerned about the numbers.

Anglo Quebecers are part of this nation. They co-founded this nation. They make a great contribution to Montreal in particular, the Townships and other places. Their place is here," said Jean-FranoisLise, the PQ minister responsible for Montreal.

I have great respect for the AngloQuebecers ...and I will continue to as leader of the government.- Premier Pauline Marois

But the opposition says the findings are more worrisome than the government is letting on andthePQis to blame for dividingQuebecers,

When you see what the PQ is doing to Quebec, people who can leave have a reason to leave, said Quebec Liberal Party MNA, Yves Bolduc.

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Quebec'sHealth Minister, Rjean Hbert, admits that when the PQ is in power,unease among non-francophones is inevitable. However, he said, he still doesn't believe a mass exodus is coming.

This government has always been fair to the anglophones and allophones,and it's going to continue,but I cannot do anything about the anxiety of some people, said Hbert.

Charter divide

Non-francophonesfirst started leaving Quebec in large numbers duringthe late 1970s when over 100,000 anglophones fled in the wake of the election of the province'sfirst PQ government.

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Today, opposition parties pointto the proposed secular charter as the type of legislation that could push morenon-francophones to leave.However, Coalition Avenir QubecleaderFranois Legault says he believes there are stillstrong reasons for non-francophones to stay.

These are numbers we've been seeing for a long time andwhat is reassuring is, although we've been seeing these numbers, Anglo Quebecers stay in a very huge majority. And that's the result we want,

The PQ government, however, says it believes the charter would unite not divide Quebec.

About the survey

A total of2,020 Quebec residents were interviewed by phone betweenFeb.10 and18, 2014,as part of this CBC-commissionedEkosstudy.The margin of error for a sample of 2,020 is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Those surveyed included782 anglophones(with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points95 per centof the time), 1,009 francophones(with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1percentage points95 per cent of the time) and223 allophones(with a margin of error of plus or minus 6.5 percentage points 95 per cent of the time).

Anglophones are respondents who identified their mother tongue as English; francophonesare people who identified their mother tongue as French; and allophonesidentified their mother tongue as "other."

Percentages for total respondents have been weighted to reflect linguistic population make-up of Quebec.