During my QPAC days in Quebec, the Journal de Montreal liked to refer to me in their headlines as l’Anglohone Juif Galganov. In translation: Anglo Jew Galganov. Where was the Human Rights Commission then?
The Journal de Montreal can best be described as a sensationalist tabloid that mixes gossip, sports and news. It should also be noted that more than a million French Quebecers read the Journal de Montreal every day.
The reporter expected me to answer her question with a degree of outrage towards this coalition, so imagine her surprise when I told her that I was all for it?
There’s an audio version at the link (upper right corner)
h/t Debbie
We’re tired of feeding the separatists our tax dollars to keep guys like you gruntled. By the way, I was born and brought up in Quebec, I’m bilingual, two of my children were born in Quebec and I spent more than half my life there. Don’t preach to me.
Above message at 7:50 was meant for Aussie cum Separatiste, JLC.
ET writes of the Quebecois: “They are also quite stunned when you tell them how disinterested in Quebec the rest of Canada is…”
Interestingly many people in English Canada have an equally difficult time understanding how disinterested in the rest of Canada the people of Quebec are. Frankly, I don’t see the problem. One of the great things about Canadian patriotism is that it is expressed by love and loyalty for our home provinces and communities. People in Quebec who are quite content to be Canadian may have no interest in anything in Saskatchewan or PEI, and the feeling is often mutual.
The co-dependent elites of Ontario and Quebec have been the major proponents of some elusive “Canadian identity” that is as artificial as Katimivik and Joe Clark.
jlc- I lived in Quebec for about 20 years. I think I have a reasonably good, non-idiotic, sense of the place.
Don’t make generalizations about the people; the ones who steal cars, steal from the homes of people on vacation, confront anyone who wants to set up his own business without a union…they aren’t all ‘warm, generous and kind’.
I suspect you live in Montreal. You ought to know that Montreal is not Quebec. It’s an island unto itself.
Montreal as an isolate entity lives in its own postmodern surreal aura; it doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on outside that bubble.
And kindly remember who is paying for all this warmth and kindness. Is sure isn’t the Quebecois!
jema54 – yes, I agree. I think that official bilingualism should be stopped; provinces should be unilingual. If they choose to be bilingual, they can pay for it themselves. After all, Quebec is unilingual; it rejects English. The only bilingual province is NB. My point is that WE, the taxpayer, should not have to pay to put some bored bilingual postal agent sitting in the postoffice in Saskatoon…or pay to have all our documents translated into both languages…or pay to have Air Canada always have to have someone on board speaking French..and so on.
jlc shrieks: “How many of you idiots have actually ever been to QC.”
I have. Several times. Montreal, Quebec city, and the boondocks too. Chicks dress nice, food is good. Other than that its pretty annoying trying to get anything done, and a high percentage of the people I ran into had a crappy attitude.
I prefer Arizona. Less attitude. Nicer weather.
Part of my job is having to make bilingual announcements.After one such announcement a man approached me to ask me this,”Har you da won ooo speak da french”,I responded that indeed it was me making the french announcements.He then said to me ,”your french no good”.I then asked him if it was as bad as his english.The incredulous look that crossed his face,he could attack me for my language skills but I couldn’t attack him for his,which I might add was far worse than my french.
Being preached to about Quebec by a freaking Aussie,just when you think that you’ve heard it all,along hops crocodile la pew.
i grew up in quebec and left in 1977 – just one part in what can be described as the single quickest and largest mass migration in the history of north america. i no longer felt welcome in the province that was my home. the friends i grew up with are mostly anywhere else but quebec. i moved back to montreal in 1998. it is a great place to live and work (aside from the taxes – but we’re working on that).
back in the sixties a considerable number of quebecois jumped onto an idea that was fueled by romance, bitter twisted militant unions, money from BIG unions, subsidised artists, and marxism that replaced traditional jesuit philosophy during the defenestration of the church. one thing remains constant throughout this test of national will despite the confusion caused by indepedantistes, sovereignists, nationalists or separatistes or whatever the f*** they choose to call themselves and that is that they remain a minority.
let’s face it – in our “messy” democracy they have legitimate access to power and use it to divide canada. stephen harper pushes back hard when he makes it known that taxpayers should not be funding the objectives of private political organisations. the bloc, under duceppe (a maoist even into his thirties – yikes) stands to lose the most and that is the good news.
many here at kate’s sda do not have unfiltered access to the changes taking place in quebec – it’s just the language thing. the truth in any language is – if a political party cannot deliver – it will die off. and that is what is happening because the bloc under gilles duceppe has never delivered anything. nothing. the same with the left wing parti quebecois – they are socialists and couldn’t manage themselves out of a paper bag.
the blanket message “get the hell out of my country you ungrateful insert-nasty-characterisation-here” is angry and (justified or not) fodder for the left’s propoganda machine and ensuing emotional response. i, like many others, would prefer that the message continue with calling the movement out on canadian terms, reinforcing that residents of quebec can be quebecois and canadian at the same time (apparently some 65% of quebec’s population knows this) – that the two are not mutually exclusive. the electorate in quebec needs an alternative to the bloc who present themselves as protectors of quebec. what bullshit!
i no longer refer to this group as indepedantistes, sovereignists, nationalists or separatistes or whatever the f*** they choose to call themselves – they are secessionists and THEIR message needs to be marginalised as rhetoric rightly deserves to be. the nonsense that stephen harper was damaging the national fabric by calling the bloc “separatists” is a false accusation coming from tired old liberal thinking. yes, we need to go straight at them – because they are damned secessionists but only as long as they can garner votes. get rid of the $1.95 subsidy.
or let’s get rid of newfoundland because of danny williams or saskatchewan because of tommy douglas or british columbia because of dave barret or ontario because of bob rae.
jlc I don’t know what part of OZ you are from but with the comment you made I doubt like hell it was Western Australia. Most of them have about as much use for the east we have here, Perth is like Alberta on the ocean, same go getem attitude.
Name a French speaking country on the planet you would truly like to live and work? (First or second language).
Yea, learning French as a second language is a very important issue.
“I am Australian by birth and a Quebecer by choice.”
What is he, nuts?
Ah – roseberry – wait just a friggin minute here. You are going to compare Quebec’s “love and loyalty to their home province” to Saskatchewan’s or any other “province’s” love and loyalty to their province. Don’t even begin to make that comparison. Quebecers will never refer to their ‘province’ as a ‘province’. They will always refer to it as their “patrimoine”. Quebecers call their legislature the “national assembly”. Hello, they do not have “nationhood” but no matter.
Do not ever compare any of the nine (or ten – who knows these days) provinces to that piece of land called “Quebec”. If you really take a critical look at our country you cannot but come to the conclusion that “one of these things doesn’t belong here – one of these things isn’t the same.”
Posted by: ET
“dizzy – how does a ‘blast from the past’ align with the current Coalition Agreement, which sets up the Bloc, a political party out of the reach of over 80% of the electorate, as the sole party in charge of confidence (and other) votes in the House of Commons? (Coalition Dec 1/08)”
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Glad you asked. I think Canada has been muddling along in the general direction of coalition governments ever since the regionally-based parties [BQ; Reform] had their initial success.
Locally concentrated power is the one thing that can render our first past the post system inoperable and force proportional rep. But there is a long road to travel towards legitimacy . And the present battle is over just that — legitimacy.
This wasn’t the first step. Reform & the PC remnants formed a sort of coalition, right? Remember the C.R.A.P.? [but the acronym stank]
And then there was this [to be kept in mind for next month] —
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Sept 9, 2004
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson,
C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.
Governor General
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A1
Excellency,
As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government , you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government’s program.
We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before excercising your constitutional authority.
Your attention to this matter is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Harper
Duceppe
Layton
http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2008/12/04/deceiver/
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A final note. Ottawa ambassadors are apparently nonplussed by this uproar — coalitions are a fact of life in most modern democracies, and certainly not considered undemocratic.
[Its our electoral system that they consider undemocratic]
Posted by: Ghost of Ed
“Dizzy has to refer to a nine year old article to make a pointless point.”
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You don’t deserve an answer, but it’s Christmas.
These articles were written at a time when political temperatures in Quebec were much higher than now.
Ranters like Galganov pranced like “Alberta Libre” types in the early 80s.
Yet the articles showed that Anglo Quebec was healthy, increasingly multilingual, and becoming ever more integrated into general cultural life.
Since then things have cooled considerably. Even Islamic families want to attend Cabane à sucre .
But not Galganov — he still steams away.
And as before he has cheeleaders from similar types outside Quebec — who only need a shot of politically interesting times to climb aboard their manure spreaders.
Do you consider Galganov part of your anglo identity? Perhaps the black cowboy hat has convinced you?
Join me for a beer sometime — http://www.bieresetmonde.com/actualite/2004/1001mil.gif
Posted by: johnnyonline
A fine and entertaining analysis.
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“Or Alberta because of …” oh never mind.
Despite not agreeing with your solutions at the end, I enjoyed your post immensely.
Want to tell these people how important Howard Galganov is?
pleased to oblige dizzy –
mr.galganov is a more provocative than interesting voice on the fringes of the debate and enjoys a small following. he introduced the idea of partitioning quebec into the mainstream. wants the gatineau – montreal – eastern townships – south shore corridor to be known officially as “laurier”.
for this reason he is vilified by most secessionists and the really rabid ones actually made him take their threats seriously. he now lives in ontario and continues to kick up dust – most recently in embrun.
imagine his frustration with individuals who could not understand that partitioning quebec was no different than partitioning canada.
the clarity act calls for a clear question in case of a referendum (known affectionately here in quebec as neverendums) and mandates the feds to negotiate in the event that a majority want to opt out of confederation. i love that word negotiate.
the official line from the indepedantistes, sovereignists, nationalists or separatistes or whatever the f*** they choose to call themselves is that quebec’s borders are inviolable.
with any luck we’ll never need to find out.
jlc – your comments belie any understanding you think you might have about the dynamics of Canada. You are in Quebec and appear to like the place. Bully for you. Now come live awhile in some other part of Canada and see it from our side of the window.
On both an economic and a social basis Quebec is quite different from the roc. Your adopted province is a leech at best and a threatening bully at worst. We, especially in the West, are calling them on it. They will never separate so long as the money keeps coming. Many of us are saying that the gravy train has to stop and Quebec has to fend for itself. If they want to pick up their ball and go home then so be it.
Enough is enough.
Funny.
Quebecers telling the rest of us “you just don’t understand!”
What you lot don’t understand is that a growing number of people in ROC don’t care. We don’t care about the “interesting” changes which are happening in the montreal ridings which elect trudeaus and dions. We don’t care about your culture or ambitions. We don’t care that things are “less heated” or have calmed down.
We only care about hearing your plans when they consist of and exit strategy with a commitment to follow through for once.
The only other issue I have is how to force you to take Toronto when you leave.
I’ve been to Montreal (many times) and Quebec City (once.) Had a lot of fun in Montreal every time I went there. Quebec City is the most beautiful place to hate all the residents. They’re rude, bigoted and mannerless. This I noticed as a kid in the supposed tourist areas where you figure the least intolerance people would be. Kids shouldn’t notice the adults being nasty.
i have worked in quebec and have had people work for me in quebec. the best thing that could happen to the people of quebec would be a definate decision to separate. they would come to the realization that not being part of canada would result in third world poverty. all those people who have property in flordia and the bahamas would have to go to those countries and work to stay alive. stupid i say, stupid. why do we listen to or give credence to such nonsence.
The charade of Quebec separatism is another in a long list of myths foisted on the Canadian people by a very few rabid bigots and racists from Quebec, and parroted by the terminally stupid agents in the MSM in the ROC. The myth of Quebec separation from Canada is just that, a myth. Now we’re told by the MSM to not call Separatists, Separatists, or what? They might actually separate! In another world it would be funny. My advice to the bigots and racists who live in the protective bubble of Quebec, and continually vote for the PQ and the BLOC is to take you’re separatist ideals, and you’re 130 billion dollar debt and go already. When you’re gone, see how fast you’re pretend,manufactured culture lasts without someone else paying the bills.