I know not to many people have answered your question and my answer may cause many to react with great animosity...
the province of quebec has nothing to brag about for it is not so very different from the rest of canada... other than the fact that most people living in that province have french as a first language... one has to remember that over 15% of all french-canadians live outside of that province and have kept alive most of what being french-canadian was all about, while many a resident of the quebec province have forgotten what french-canadian means... especially after the "tranquille revolution" of the late 60's early 70's...
they also forget that by "achieving independancy" (if it was to occur), it may mean the end for the french language in all of northern america... there best garanty lies in the fact that the french language is garanteed by the canadian constitution... if they seperated from canada, the rest of the french-canadians living in other provinces would would no longer be protected and, even if they thought they would be able to better protect their language, they forget that they would then be forced to learn english even more that they have to nowadays...
at the same time, the rest of non-french-canadians would no longer feel the need to learn french being that canada would most likely no longer be officially biligual... therefore, they would be on their own...
the same may be correct about the way they defend the "integrity" of standard french... by doing so, they forget that languages such as french, italien, spanish and portuguese all derived from latin and that latin has become an "extinct language"... if they do not accept to let the coloquial language evolve naturally, they will play a great role in the decline of their language... everyone knows (linguists especially) that a language has to evolt and adapt to new realities in order to survive, just like any person/animal/plant has to adapt in order to garanty the survival of the species...
the coloquial language in french-canada is suffocating under the pressure of the purists of standard french... may "joual" (the most commonly used name for coloquial french in canada) live long after the extinction of the standard french language... levelled by the openness of the french-canadians who will not accept to be "brainwashed" by the elitists who believe in the standard and independancy of the province of quebec, independency which is based on old narrow-minded nationalist thought of the 18th century...
may they grow-up once and for all and learn to live in the present time which has so many presents to give to humanity...