Two-thirds of Quebecers call Maple Leaf flag source of ‘personal or collective pride’
By Andy Blatchford - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 0 Comments
MONTREAL – A new poll on Quebecers’ attitudes toward the Canadian flag is being…
MONTREAL – A new poll on Quebecers’ attitudes toward the Canadian flag is being released as the provincial government attempts today to remove the Maple Leaf from the legislature.
The survey suggests that the flag the Parti Quebecois wants to remove is viewed as a source of “personal or collective pride” by two-thirds of Quebecers.
The online poll commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies asked respondents whether they considered different national symbols very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not important at all as sources of personal or collective pride in Canada.
The survey said that when it came to the flag, 66 per cent of Quebec respondents answered yes — with 29 per cent calling it very important and 37 per cent calling it somewhat important. Twenty-two per cent said it was not very important, and only 10 per cent said it was not important at all.
The Leger Marketing survey of 2,207 respondents — 656 in Quebec — explored how much pride Canadians have in 16 different symbols, accomplishment and events.
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If a flag doesn’t flap and nobody makes noise, is it a flag flap?
By Paul Wells - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 1:26 PM - 0 Comments
Quebec’s new Parti Québécois government is getting right down to delivering on the priorities of Quebec’s voters by removing the Maple Leaf flag from the National Assembly’s Salon Rouge. Reporters in Ottawa promptly went to the NDP to seek reaction, and there were some titters on Twitter this morning because two of that party’s MPs, Alex Boulerice and Charlie Angus, declined to touch the question with a barge pole.
This prompted me to wonder aloud — well, a-Twitter — what the Government of Canada thinks about the subject, because we do in fact have one and as of today it’s not run by the NDP. This is an evolving quirk of the low-level ambient neurosis in Ottawa (from which I’m obviously not immune) over the election of a PQ government: everyone keeps running to the NDP to test its bona fides on national-unity questions, while ignoring the actual government of actual Canada. Tom Mulcair spent the weekend explaining his position on the appropriate referendum majority needed to procure the secession of Quebec. Stephen Harper spent his weekend not having to do that.
But this time, my colleagues did put the question to the PMO, and Mercedes Stephenson over at CTV received this response: “We do not believe that Quebecers wish to revisit the old constitutional battles of the past…Our government will remain focused on jobs, economic growth and sound management of the economy.”
A few notes on this controversy that refuses to be a controversy, despite our best efforts. Continue…
