Dumb and Boringer

www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=2a647f1c-e0a2-4037-a179-d77afb0340f7

"Many of them believe that they are settling in a bilingual state. It's not true. Quebec is a francophone state that respects the rights of its anglophone minority. And when you live in Quebec, you live in French," she said.

Yawn. This again? I know the PQ need to play this game but there's something terribly pathetic in this type of thinking these days.

All this middling pontification yet, Quebec demands that Canada remains bilingual. Such a quaint and queer state of contradictory - if not hypocritical - affairs here in Quebec.

Quebec is always demanding respect but shows little of it back. It's a two-way street. That's part of the immaturity exhibited by politicians. Let's take an example.

For many years, we've observed how border provinces and states have taken the added step of offering road signs in French. This happened in recognition of the many Quebecers who travel into these regions. Coming back into the province the sullen glow and stench of 19th century romantic revolutionary rhetoric dominates. Not one sign is in English. If there is one place we Quebecers should show class and respect for it's on the road. Safety knows no language and Transport Quebec needs to be sensitive on this issue.

Quebec is French-speaking. No one disputes this. But to play games with tourists and citizens alike is most unbecoming. Many Quebecers have even begun to reconnect with their French roots - a country that abandoned them - we get it. It's all part of a neo-nationalism gripping all nationalities these days.

The PQ and its apologists are always out to justify this and that. That they are "democratic" in their philosophies and so on. No one who possesses a progressive and outwardly thinking brain actually believes this but we do mysteriously tolerate it. For most, it's "oh look honey, the dorks are at it again. Let's go buy some blueberries."

Quebec does respect anglophone rights - up to a point. The day they muzzle the twirpy L'Office de la Langue Francaise and its absurd power to fine people for "breaking" our archaic language laws is the day I will accept this statement outright. Real democratic principles we have here. Furthermore, while great strides have been made to actually offer some services in English in the civil service, for the most part it remains a work in progress.

In any event, what's she complaining about? The destruction of English institutions have pretty much been accomplished. Many new parents of the so-called allophones (of which the Italians represent the largest block) are sending their kids to French - or at least immersion -school. Not that this pleases the pure laine hardliners but this is the compromise the people want to make for cultural and linquistic peace.

Ms. Marois, many live in Quebec and many do not live "in French." They live as they see fit. The majority want to live as a bi-lingual and sometimes tri-lingual citizens of Quebec and Canada and there isn't a damn thing you can do about this. Well, there are but that would mean a police state.

Keep your own people in a "lobster pot" as one of your former colleagues cunningly once quipped. The smart ones swim away from the PQ current.

Quebec is divided in two: Montreal and Quebec's outlying regions where the PQ gets the bulk of its spiritual support. Montreal is a major economic and cultural center that must live and breathe in both languages. This is how Montrealers want it.

Note to PQ: It's over. Modernity blowing them right out of the water. The PQ are like the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan: where's the relevance? Times are-a-changing and the answer is blowing in the wind but the PQ are deluding themselves with sister morphine.

These days, the PQ have a new themse song and wear somber black:

"I fell in to a burning ring of fire. I went down, down, downand the flames went higher. And it burns,burns,burns the ring of fire. The ring of fire."

Here's an example of what the PQ are up against. We went to a local restaurant in a part of the city that is strictly French-speaking. The waitress came to take our order and we began to speak with her. As she waited, she listened to us discuss the menu in English. When I turned to her to give my order in French she immediately switched to English. "I want to practice my English," she said. "Great" I said. "I will perfect my French then."

This is just one example of classy interludes initiated by the people. I have witnessed several and this is what makes us special. The PQ, with their rhetoric, only contribute acid and bitterness between French-Quebecers and everyone else. Who gains in the end?

This is the spirit of cooperation and accomodation many people want now. The PQ can't deliver on this. The ADQ are not ready to take this bold step and the Liberals missed their chance.

So it's the people taking the lead. The question is are the politicians listening?

I await the day when a leader has the balls to say in both languages that the time has come to truly cease the language bickering and to encourage all Quebecers to become model citizens of language tolerance. Where Quebecers are sufficiently strong and mature enough to look at someone in the eye and say "Hello" without feeling as though they have compromised their identity.

Slowly we're getting there.

I'm Kent Brockman. Good night.

*For those of you unfamiliar in the socio-political vernacular of Quebec the province is divided into franco-phones, anglo-phones and allo-phones (minorities that fall under neither of the two solitudes). All Quebecers are we?