Last month, as part of its platform in the recent Quebec provincial election, the Parti Québécois announced that, if elected, it would have moved to separate Quebec from the federal cultural agenda.

As my colleague and Playback correspondent Patricia Bailey reported, that would have entailed removing Quebec from the jurisdiction of the CRTC and demanding a portion of the monies – $300 million was PQ leader Pauline Marois’ estimate – directed to Quebec through agencies such as the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada.

Of the Quebec-based producers I approached prior to the election, none was inclined to comment on so speculative an outcome. They were too busy with the real world of producing films in tough economic times – although, for the record, Kevin Tierney of Montreal’s Park Ex Pictures said he wants to be made Quebec’s ambassador to Ottawa.

No one at Telefilm was available for comment; no surprise there, given the renewed – although, at present, tenuous – mandate for Stephen Harper. Federal culturecrats are nervously minding their Ps and Qs.

But the pleasure of a column soap box is to explore the hypothetical questions of the industry. What would have happened if the PQ had in fact won?

PQ culture critic Pierre Curzi took my call prior to the election. Given that Telefilm currently apportions one-third of its investments to French-language films, wouldn’t the PQ be effectively reducing its overall budget, given that the province has only one-quarter of the nation’s population?

Not at all, according to Curzi.

‘Ontario has been asking for money for the auto industry and no one questions that. So why shouldn’t the same rules apply in the very active field of cultural development in Quebec? It’s the same kind of negotiation. It’s not ‘You have 24% [of the population], you will get 24% [of the money].” Besides, he said, ‘If federalism means something, it means it can apply differently to every part of that federation.’

By the standards set by Canadian Heritage under the infamous 5% Solution – which had a target of Canadian cinema accounting for 5% of the country’s overall box office – English-language film production has not risen to the challenge.

Thanks to Paul Gross (and, of course, the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who bought tickets to his Passchendaele), the English share of the indigenous box office for 2008 rose to 1% as of Nov. 20, according to data supplied by MPTAC and Zoom Services. While Quebec films did not reach the C.R.A.Z.Y. heights of 2005, when the province’s share within its own market reached 18%, this year’s share will likely still be 10 times that of English Canada’s.

Among this year’s top 10 Canadian films at the domestic box office (see Playback Annual 2008 for the complete list), Passchendaele was number one with a take of $4.2 million as of Nov. 20, while Blindness reached eighth spot with nearly $730,000 – but the other eight films were made in Quebec. In all, Canadian films in 2008 had grossed $22.5 million by Nov. 20, of which Quebec films have accounted for $13.8 million, or more than 60%. La belle province may only have one-quarter of Canada’s population, but it accounts for two-thirds of the money earned at the box office.

Curzi’s point is cruel but fair. Using a strictly Canadian yardstick, Quebec film does much better than the rest of Canada. A dollar spent in Quebec provides a much better ROI in terms of domestic cultural enrichment.

‘We would be able to decide what our priorities are and how those monies should be spent,’ said Curzi. He said the film and TV money should be put into the hands of SODEC, where, he added – and I don’t think he meant to be patronizing – ‘We’ve been getting some experience for quite some time.’

Yes, it would be complicated, he said, particularly in prizing apart Radio-Canada (I hadn’t realized this, too, was part of the mix, but in for a penny…), however, ‘if we want to be intelligent, we must look at every aspect of what should be reintegrated into Quebec’s jurisdiction. If it’s cultural it should be all linked.’

The synergies would not have been mutual, however. The feds would not have been free to pursue an English agenda (pace Nunavut); after all, the rest of Canada would have remained officially bilingual even if the PQ had gotten its way.

But Jean Charest’s Liberals won, and change will still be in the wind. As C.R.A.Z.Y. producer Pierre Even of Cirrus Communications told me in an 11th-hour phone chat, ‘The PQ is just taking Charest’s platform and making it a constitutional issue. Charest has already said he will explore getting more power in the cultural sector.

‘No one wants to lose Telefilm money, but everyone is concerned by what the Conservatives will do.’