Quebec And Cirque Du Soleil

Quebec has every right to be proud of Cirque. It's a smashing artistic success story in a province that lauds the arts. Cirque is an international phenomena that not only Quebec can cherish, but Canada as well.

Alas, at some point, entities like Cirque (and Celine Dion) eventually cease to belong to anything but mankind.

It's Quebec's gift and contribution if you will.

However, I'd caution against using it as a shining example as to why Quebec is capable of seceding from Canada.

It's gonna take a helluva lot more than Cirque to keep an economy going.

Whereas the Americans produce schools like the Khan Academy, Amazon, eBay, Twitter and Google (and the list goes on and on and on and on....and on) that shake and change the foundation of how we teach and interact in a global world, Quebec shouldn't content itself with one cultural example.

Technology and innovation is the key. Knowledge and assets are monumental.

In this way, Quebec does little or offers little. In fact, it damages itself for reasons we chose not to get into here.

Can Canada produce Google?

And then there's the whole issue of service. Service in Canada and in Quebec is a suggested part of running a business.

I can't tell how many times I have initiated a "hello" at a grocery store, or get treated as if workers are doing me a favor or have to defend myself for speaking a lousy language.

On that level, the Americans are The Enlightenment while we're stuck in the Dark Ages. I use the Americans because they're a legitimate comparison. We should strive for that sort of excellence in service.

Pick any industry and I'm confident we lag. Airline? Air Canada wallows in a cryptic, antiquated nether- region trapped between its haunting Crown Corporation days and a private enterprise. It has not seemed to figure out how to run its operation. Its workers are reminiscent of bitter union railroad workers scant a happy face we see while its executives acts as if they haven't gotten the memo from the 1980s that a business survival rests on SERVICE.  As in, bending over backwards keeping clients happy.

It's a tad unfair selecting the airline industry given it's a tough go to turn a profit but Air Canada is not an elite airline.

Spend a day taking a ride on the STM. Speak some English and see what happens.

I walk into a grocery store with $200 in groceries and the young cashier is either looking past you talking to someone about their lunch or doesn't bother to look up at all.

Wal-Mart? The best workers at Wal-Mart are the elderly - and left-wingers want them out of that racket because they don't earn a living wage according to their standards.

You can literally walk by four workers congregated setting up a shelf at Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart and no one will bother to say "hello, are you ok?" And heaven forbid you pull them off their task of cutting carboard boxes to ask them where the kleenex are.

That is not to dismiss the outstanding workers I have encountered but they're too far and few between. One kid at Canadian Tire was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his job I literally was impressed. Each time I walked in I would try and find where he is in the store in case I needed him.

Never saw him again.

My point is on matters of business, Quebec's model and philosophy lags other regions on the continent. 

Bah.