Well well, pity I didn't catch that thread earlier. As a French Canadian myself, I guess I have to clarify a couple of things.
First, the separation movement is largely motivated by the cultural (and, to a lesser extent, legal) aspect of Quebec, and we're not only talking about language (it is a pretty good argument, just not the only one). Just look at the recent elections; Canada as a whole elected the conservative Harper, giving him a confortable majority, while Quebec massively voted for the very much leftist NDP. Even when the Bloc Québécois out of the picture (which is good imo, they were the most crybabies of the lot), Quebec still doesn't see eye-to-eye with the rest of Canada. And let's not forget the inindependenceovement is largely fueled by a very active class of artists (seriously, I think cultural products from Quebec alone have more recognition than products from Canada as a whole). There's also lots of legal reasons, like the fact we have different codes of law (yes, it counts for something) and Quebec didn't even sign the current Canadian constitution since the Liberals exploited a loophole allowing them to circumvent the need for all 10 province's approval.
On the economic side, no, separation would not bring ruination to Quebec or force it into a military dictatorship or something (indeed, since by separation we would have no army to speak of, that would be a huge spending to make to at least have a basic defense force, lots of people ignore this however). That's because the vast majority of Quebec's trade is with the US, and the Americans pretty much don't care if they get wood and minerals from Canadians or Québécois. Indeed, most of the rest of the province's tade comes from overseas (mainly due to Montréal's key position on the Saint-Laurent), and with no federal government to collect taxes on such good I suspect Quebec could become even more popular economically. Even better, Quebec has spent the last 60 years developping a stong local business class, to some amounts of success. That said, the sudden lack of support from Canada would be a huge hit on the economy, but that's what the Caisse de Dépôt (a very rich and powerful organisation that invests in local businesses) is for, it was created explicitely in the case of a separation, when Québec would need tons of money to take over old federal roles.
So, no, the want for independance is not the whim of a group of petulant chiildrens, it is an organized movement with strong bases in reality. That said, there are three major obstacles. First, the Federal has passed a law that states for their them to even consider accepting separation it would need a ''clear majority'', note the very vague term meaning they could refuse pretty much anything short of a 90% which is a score impossible to get in a society that has known freedom of opinion and whose citizens have very various backgrounds and ideas. Second, the population is just way too confortable as of now to want any kind of chance. For all our whining, Québec is very well off, possibly more than most other provinces, not really a good basis for change. Third, we would need a strong leader to spearhead the movement, someone like a local Charles de Gaulle, and the world would turn upside-down before the utterly flavorless political class we have now would spawn that.
Personally, I would really like not to be in Canada anymore (no offense, but bar Toronto, British Columbia and the Rockies, there's just nothing of interest), but I am also aware that it's going to be very hard, and it only gets harder as the separatist movement loses steam. I think it will resurface again, in a few decades possibly. For now, I would be content with the Canadiens winning the damn Stanley Cup already.
TLDR: independance is somewhat viable, but impossible in he current political situation.
PS: wow does the spellcheck not agree with accents. Sorry for any errors there.
