Canada's destiny was at stake Monday as 5 million Quebec voters decide whether their province - with one-fourth of the country's people and one-sixth of its land - should break away to form an independent nation.
Final polls indicated the outcome was too close to call. A separatist victory would thrust Canada into perhaps the greatest crisis of its history, while a narrow federalist victory would leave the mostly French-speaking province bitterly divided.Polling stations opened at 10 a.m., with crisp, clear weather prevailing across most of province. Voting ends at 8 p.m., and the outcome was likely to be known within an hour or two unless there was a virtual tie. No exit polls are allowed in Canada.
Long lines had formed at many polling stations before they opened, and there were widespread predictions that the turnout could exceed 90 percent.
Jacques Parizeau, premier of the separatist Quebec government, was the first campaign leader to vote.
"Quebec will win," he said at the polling station in the affluent Montreal neighborhood of Outremont.
Earlier in the campaign, the debate focused largely on whether Quebec would suffer economic calamity if it separated. But on Sunday, at their closing rallies, leaders of the rival sides played to emotions, not to pragmatism.
"Say yes to the people of Quebec," pleaded separatist leader Lucien Bouchard to 2,000 supporters in Beauport, near Quebec City. "We don't have the right to let this chance pass us by. God knows when there will be another chance."
Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a Quebecker committed to keeping Canada intact, was equally passionate at a rally in Hull, a city in western Quebec across the Ottawa River from Canada's capital.
"Tomorrow night, we Quebeckers, our home will still be Quebec, our country will still be Canada," he said. "We have learned that never, never should we take our country Canada for granted."
The flag-waving crowd, before dispersing, sang the national anthem, "O Canada" - the French and English versions resounding simultaneously through a packed museum auditorium. Thousands of Ottawa residents came over bridges from Ontario to join Quebeckers at the rally.
The last polls gave a slight edge to the separatists among decided voters. But pollsters considered the race a dead heat because most of the 10 percent undecided were expected to back the federalists.
Chretien and his allies sounded more confident Sunday than they had in recent days, apparently convinced that a wave of unity rallies nationwide had convinced wavering Quebeckers their compatriots cared about them.
Still, police mobilized Monday as a precautionary measure, particularly in bilingual Montreal and in Hull.
"We are a bit more touchy because it's more emotional than an election," said Hull policeman Yves Martel.
Montreal riot police were on standby: Following a 1980 independence referendum, defeated separatists marched through the wealthy anglophone enclave of Westmount, a bastion of federalists.
About 82 percent of Quebeckers are French-speaking, and a majority were likely to support independence, according to polls. But an overwhelming majority of English-speaking and immigrant Quebeckers are expected to vote to stay in Canada.