The péquiste pick

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

For most Montrealers, the reach of municipal politics extends only as far as the trash can and the snowplow. As long as both are taken care of, the people don’t much care who’s in charge: in 2005, barely a third of eligible voters bothered casting a municipal ballot. This November’s election was going to be a variation on the theme, pitting Montreal’s charisma-free mayor Gérald Tremblay against fussy upstart Benoît Labonté. Early polling suggested Tremblay would ride into a third term on a wave of indifference.

Not anymore. Labonté recently ceded his spot as leader of Vision Montreal to Louise Harel, a former Parti Québécois minister with a well-known taste for the jugular. Much to the chagrin of Mayor Tremblay, Montreal’s politics are suddenly dominated by a familiar Quebec staple: language politics.

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Dion and Duceppe, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s….

By Philippe Gohier - Friday, October 10, 2008 at 6:21 PM - 0 Comments

There’s a delicious irony in the thought of Gilles Duceppe coming to the defense of Stéphane “Clarity Act” Dion in the middle of an election campaign. But the sovereignist leader did just that after CTV‘s cheap broadside against the Liberal leader on Thursday, one that Stephen Harper was only too happy to repeat:

During a radio interview in Montreal Friday, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe called Mr. Harper’s comments a “low blow” that only serves to illustrate the “double standard” that endures when it comes to Canada’s official languages.

Mr. Duceppe says Canadians demand that French political leaders speak English fluently, but that English-speaking leaders can get away with mangling French.

Thing is, I’m not so sure I follow Duceppe’s logic on this one. It’s certainly true that party leaders haven’t had to be anything approaching fluent in la langue de Molière to get where they are. (Alexa McDonough, anyone?) But it’s also true that not speaking French has severely limited their usefulness. (Again, Alexa McDonough, anyone?) Take Gerard Kennedy’s bid for the Liberal leadership, for example. Or Stephen Harper, when he first got to Ottawa—his spoken French is leagues ahead of where it was back then. And, on the flip side, consider how mightily people like Maxime Bernier and Josée Verner have struggled to build a profile outside Quebec, even when they were in cabinet. Although I definitely detect a whiff of bigotry in some of the attacks on Dion’s English, I also think a person’s ability to communicate to both solitudes is a legitimate leadership issue.

Anyway, despite the flawed logic, kudos to Duceppe for standing up and denouncing this low-rent bully routine; I’m 100% with Potter on this one.

"I think they're quite proud of being Anglo Québécois and not just another Anglo from Minnesota."

By Martin Patriquin - Monday, September 8, 2008 at 11:15 AM - 13 Comments

Recently, one half of Deux Maudits Anglais spoke with Angry French Guy (real name unknown) who writes a spiffy little Quebec issues blog from somewhere west of Atwater Avenue in Montreal. As the quotation above his blog suggests (bless you, Chuck D) he is about as angry as we are goddamned – that is to say, very. He recently recounted a lovely yarn that smelled of 1970s-era language politics: a Montreal car dealer who refuses to translate his website into French. Nice guy that he is, Angry wrote him a note in his impeccable English. Much hilarity, and a complaint to l’Office québécois de la langue française, ensued.
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They're just like 'nous'—part deux

By Philippe Gohier - Monday, July 28, 2008 at 4:01 PM - 0 Comments

Shouldn’t we all be able to speak ENGLISH. Let the world know with this bumper sticker!

Make a bold statement this year — and every year. This magnetic, permanent yet removable bumper sticker measures 15 by 3-3/4 inches. It’s perfect not only for your car, but for your refrigerator, file cabinet – any magnetic surface where you would like to make a statement.

Cost is $5.95 for one, but we offer 5-packs, 10-packs and 25-packs. They make great gifts!

I thought I recognized that smell

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 2:24 PM - 0 Comments

I’m willing to give credit where credit is due: For better or worse, Howard Galganov has single-handedly debunked the notion distance makes the heart grow fonder. He’s been out of Quebec language politics for a while now, and I haven’t missed him one bit.

But just in case I ever find myself getting nostalgic for his goofy antics, I’ll keep this article in my back pocket to remind me why Montreal (and any other city/province/galaxy) is better off without him.

Galganov’s latest campaign has him focused on Russell, Ontario, a small town of 14,000 about a half-hour’s drive outside Ottawa. Canada’s resident “angryphone” is peeved because officials in Russell, a town he doesn’t even live in, have mandated that all new businesses who set up shop there would have to put up bilingual signage. (For what it’s worth, Russell’s population is almost evenly split between native Anglophones and Francophones, with a majority speaking both French and English.)

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Technotronic breathes a sigh of relief

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

So politicians are supposed to mandate more French music be played during Habs games at the Bell Centre now? That’s what book publisher Michel Brulé was calling for earlier this week. And he had a petition-yes, a petition!-to boot. Apparently, it’s high time the government step in and forcibly remove the C+C Music Factory CD from the arena DJ’s cold dead hands collection and replace it with, um, some Mononc’ Serge perhaps? Or maybe some Claude Dubois would be more appropriate, especially after the “racist and insulting” CBC did away with Dubois’s performance at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Thankfully, Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre quickly poo-pooed the idea of getting involved in the Bell Centre’s musical selections. That’s not to say it couldn’t use a bit of a makeover. But good taste isn’t exactly the Charest government’s forte.

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Paul Martin: Canada's Jimmy Carter

By selley - Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

Must-reads: Margaret Wente on two-tier justice; Christie Blatchford on the army reservists trial.

Forty-nine and feelin’ fine!
As Stephen Harper blows out his candles, the pundits pay an inordinate amount of attention to his predecessors.

“Ottawa is as intellectually barren as the Manitoba steppe,” Lawrence Martin writes in The Globe and Mail—not a very nice thing to say about the Manitoba steppe, but we agree about the intellectual barrenness in the nation’s capital. The political class “talks a big game but plays small ball” when it comes to benevolent internationalism, he argues, and it’s time for someone to change that. Someone named Paul Martin. Says Lawrence Martin: “Despite the difficulties he experienced as prime minister, he still commands goodwill and respect.” (Pause for passing tumbleweed.) Continue…