They voted 3 times to stay with France. At a certain point, you have to admit independence is a minoritarian position. This is also a vote where people who had

They voted 3 times to stay with France. At a certain point, you have to admit independence is a minoritarian position. This is also a vote where people who had recently moved (e.g. in the last 30 years) to New Caledonia were ineligible to vote (including people born on New Caledonia if their parents couldn't vote). If Quebec had had similar restrictions on the franchise, they would have easily become independent from Canada.