Quebec’s got nine million people, a fifth of Canada’s GDP, Atlantic access through North America’s 9th busiest container port, a major international airport, abundant cheap electricity generation, massive geography with both national resource and agricultural sectors and a ton of potential for more, manufacturing, services, aerospace, tech, a pretty healthy and educated population and quite a lot of human capital…
It’s far from a panacea of economic greatness, but it’s also not some economic backwater doomed to failure. Obviously leaving Canada would do great harm, but don’t mistake equalization payment balances with overall economic importance and potential.