Quebec's Lessons for Conservatives

This side of the border, French Canadians don't tend to make political waves. Despite a sizable population in northern New England, they have collectively only once played a significant role in American politics. This was in February 1972, when the so-called "Canuck Letter" helped scuttle Ed Muskie's shot at the Democratic nomination for president. (The letter, now widely believed to be the work of Nixon staffers, alleged that Muskie had drawn a derisive parallel between New Englanders of French-Canadian extraction and southern blacks.)