Okay...had an Idea...
Say that our oh so smart former PM, Joe Clark, does the math in 1979 and runs his government as a minority government instead of being a dick and trying to push through his budget. More concessions are made to keep the SoCreds on board and the budget passes. Furthermore Clark manages to form a reasonably stable coalition with the Social Credit party to keep the Progressive Conservatives in power.
The year is 1979, coming up would be the 1980 referendum on Quebec Sovereignty...
--Now would the referendum occur in TTL with Clark at the helm? I can't seem to find a reason for it not to... Let's assume that it does.
--Now there's no question that the Pro-Canada side is going to do much worse without Trudeau's re-election in 1985. In fact let's assume that due to no Trudeau and fewer Sovereigntist mistakes, the "Oui" side wins the referendum by a fair percentage (59%).
Now...the question is...where do we go from here? Does Quebec continue to push for all out sovereignty or does it push for what it has now (sort of). Does Clark recognize the outcome of the referendum to keep the So-Creds onboard? Does he send in Federal troops to secure Government property in Quebec? Does the whole situation boil out of control? Do the Maritimes jump ship and join the US?
Any thoughts would be welcome!