Québec still has the third highest GDP in the Canadian provinces [1]. Québec lost a lot of manufacturing and automotive sector jobs in the last decade or two. So has most of the western world. I don't think it has much to do with the language.
As for the infrastructure, I'd posit that crappy infrastructure at high costs is largely due to corrupt politicians (ever hear of another place where money played too big a role in electoral campaigns?) and construction companies being run by the mafia [2].
Which, of course, all are problems of their own, and in no way is Québec a utopia. It's just a bit tiring to always hear the easy intellectual shortcuts that blame everything on law 101.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_provinces_and... [2] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/the-c...
From wikipedia
I think Quebec has pretty much forever been a have not province.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/time-for-quebec-to-end-equ...
To add on that, people always think Québec is more corrupt than anywhere else because of a number of events in the last years, but I'm quite sure this is not unique to Quebec and you have the same phenomena everywhere else. We only heard about corruption in Quebec because people were interested to investigate.
It's not perfect here but it's good.
My maple syrup is slightly more expensive than it might be. Boo hoo. Wake me up when you have sorted out all the corrupt banks that make UK land hideously expensive, then you can get onto small stuff like this.
> derailed by a bunch of terrorist lunatics in the 70s.
Do you mean the FLQ?
> The same regionalism plays out across the country, but their "leaders" just have the benefit of a language barrier to maintain their position and fables.
What do you mean by that?