Philippe Couillard blames Parti-Qubcois for Anglo-Franco divide

Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillardsays he's "worried" by the results of a CBC-commissionedEKOS Research poll, which suggest that half of Quebec's anglophone and allophonepopulation have considered leaving the province in the past year.

Couillard said anyone who lives in the province is a Quebecer no matter what language they speak.

I dont want us to start raising barriers between anglophones and francophones, he said.

He blamed the Parti-Qubcoiss government for creating division with its proposed secular charter.

"Its not good news," Couillard said.

He blamed the separatist government for creating "instability" andsaid in order to keepQuebecers here, the government needs to focus on restoring the economy, rather than divisive policies.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, leader of theParti-Qubcois, would not comment on the poll when questioned by journalists on Tuesday evening.

However, provincial Health MinisterRjean Hbert did speak publicly this morning and said the government has treated non-francophone communities in Quebec well.

He said anxiety among those groups is inevitable and there isn't much the government can do about it. He also said there's been no exodus from Quebec and that out-migration happened "years ago."

No. 1 reason anglophones stay

In the second part of CBC's Stay or Go Series, the EKOS survey asked more than 2,000Quebecerswhy they choose to live in the province.

Among those surveyed, almost half of anglophones and allophones who live in Quebec said that their loved ones are what keep them in the province.

The poll suggested that 47 per cent of anglophones and 41 per cent of allophones are staying in the province because their family and friends are in Quebec.

That was the case for Meghan Low, who grew up on Montreals West Island.

Low moved to Toronto for work, but was back in Montreal before long.

It's a great city but I think what makes it home, for me, is just the people, Low said.

Longtime Montrealer Janet Torge left the city in 1991 to move back to Ohio, where she grew up.

Torge saidher son had learning disabilities, and she felt it would be best for his education to move to the United States.

There was a bit of anger in me. I felt like I had to leave for my kid at least, she said.

But Ohio never felt like home. Six years later, Torge had found her way back to Montreal.

I missed the coffee, I missed the terraces Montreal fit with me. It fit better even than where I came from.

Torge saidshe has advice for those who are fed up with Quebec politics:

Leave! You'll either find a comfort level somewhere else, or you won't and you'll come back, Toge said.

Work and quality of life

Our exclusive poll found that after loved ones, work was the second most common reason anglophones said they are staying in Quebec.

About 19 per cent of anglophones saidthey are staying put because of their jobs

Quality of life was the main reason cited by17 per cent of those polled.

For allophones, the results were reversed quality of life was cited by17 per cent, while 14 per cent said work was the reason they stayed in Quebec.

Of the francophones who were polled, 29 per cent said they continue to live in Quebecbecause of family and friends, while 23 per cent said quality of life is the main reason they stay.

Just 13 per cent of francophone respondents said theirjobs are what keep them in Quebec.

About the survey

As part of an exclusivetwo-week series, CBC Montreal will look at what is pushing people to consider leaving Quebec, what is keeping them in the province, and what hopes they have for their future in Quebec.

A total of2,020 Quebec residents were interviewed by phone betweenFeb.10 and18, 2014,as part of this CBC-commissionedEKOS study.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.