Sacre-bleu-et-blanc! I seem to have confused the issue over at Section 15(see the comments thread) of where I stand on the Quebec Separation movement.
I'm not shy about it: I am no fool separatist. It's a non-starter for me, as I am a proud Quebecker who wants this province (and its french habitants - hell, all its inhabitants) to continue to thrive. Canada has been making that possible for centuries. At the same time, I feel very Quebecois - which I am reminded of whenever I venture out of province. In fact, I feel quite like a fish out-of-water just crossing the border to Ontariariario, where there are suddenly no Danseuses Nues signs in every small town. (And Leafs fans, yeesh! Habs are coming back, boy... This year, man,... you watch...!)
Because when you're english and live in Quebec, as I and four previous generations have, you learn to understand a bit about the truly fantastic french people you work and socialize with each day - including those who believe Quebec should go it alone. By and large, they are beautiful dreamers who try to tell themselves they have nothing against the ROC (rest of Canada); who - don't forget - are fed a completely different batch of news and culture every day than what is on the CTV, CBC and Global. They are justly proud of their achievements, and don't want their sense of "Maitres chez-nous" taken away. There is a power structure that works to pick at that fear whenever expedient.
That's the ugly side of the sovereignist/separatist "intelligentsia". At the same time, they are socially quite liberal-minded (the PQ/BQ I mean), a side of which I am quite comfortable with. I try to watch and read french-language media as much as possible, (but I cannot for the life of me get the humour of any french stand-up comics.)
Furthermore, I have never voted for a separatist and don't ever plan to. I have gone out to vote and ruined my ballot in more than one provincial election. Part of the reason I blog (and comment on other blogs) is to reach out to english Canadians who are too shy or unilingual to get inside the French-Canadian culture. I try to do what (little) I can to keep the hot-heads simmered-down. I've lived through two bitter referendum campaigns and don't want to go there again. This place is beautiful as it is, eh?
Especially Montreal: a great place for fostering a willingness of vastly different cultures to get to know one another. I guess the Jeffs of this country will never get it unless they can learn to stretch their minds some.
But in the meantime, I live for good conversation and I'm learning there is more life in the Canadian blogosphere than I ever knew. This is healthy for us, I think. And now I have a new goal: to be as consistently on-the-mark and coherent as Scotian!
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3 comments:
Thank you for your suggestion for reducing/eliminating the spam posts, it was greatly appreciated and has been enabled. As for your compliment regarding my writings, you flatter me greatly. *blush*
You know what I blame the separatists for? Robbing Canada of some of our potentially best federal politicians.
Rene Levesque was the one leftist who was a strong enough politician that he could have led the NDP to federal power, I think. Lucien Bouchard could certainly have defeated Chretien if he had been leading the federal Conservatives. Even Jean Charest was a much more impressive federal politician than Harper. Canada needed them all, but instead, we lost the benefit of their brains and leadership.
If Charest's poll numbers don't improve soon, we may just get him back on the federal scene.
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