I
n the run-up to the last Scottish referendum, Jean Chretien, the former prime minister of Canada, warned British politicians of the need to win hearts as well as minds if their union was to stay intact.
Born in Quebec, he led his country the last time his home province held an independence referendum. The result was incredibly tight. The people of Quebec voted to remain a part of Canada by a margin of less than 1 per cent.
In the years that followed, he, like many Canadian politicians, had a lot of time to think about the nature of that result. I spoke to him in London in 2013, after he had been asked to give a speech on his experience in Whitehall.
