Is Quebec really that bad?

[gjts00]

I had Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with (among others) a Canadian woman probably in her late 50's or early 60's. The main topic of conversation was about the differences/likenesses between Canada & the US. I must say that the conversation was quite aimiable; until someone (i think it was me) mentioned Quebec in an off the subject manner. That's when the sh*t hit the fan. In a very rational, well spoken & articulated manner backed up with facts, she ranted about Quebec & it's people for about 20 or 30 minutes. Before yesterday I knew that there was animosity between Quebec & the rest of Canada (for lack of a better term). But, I'd never seen such bitter dislike conveyed before. It leaves me wondering if the majority of non-French Canadians share those feelings. Or, are the Quebec bashers in the minority among non-French Canadians? In a nut shell....Is Quebec really that bad?

 

[AMMP]

I live on the west coast of Canada where there are hardly any French Canadians but the animosity towards them exists pretty much everywhere.

The fact is that (most) of them would like to sepereate from Canada and it's kind of hard to like someone who doesn't want to be part of your own country. All of our signs and products have to have English AND French and some Quebecers are even trying to police the internet language of Canadian owned sites. Children must learn French in school even tho I would have been better off learning Japanese or Punjabi as we have a cultural mix here in Vancouver and those languages would actually be useful for me. It's just very hard to see your own federal government give salaries for members of parliament who lobby for support to leave the country. I'm not a very political person and I usually don't care too much about things on a political level but this topic conjures up some deep resentment for all Canadians, French or English.

 

[CornMaster]

Quebec.....ahhh....

Well...I'm from the East coast, and we also learned french in school even though 97% of the population is English, with 1% French and 2% Other. While I have nothing against French people, and the French in Quebec, I have something big against what they want.

In short (to my understanding) the French in Quebec (most of them) want to be reconized as a superior people than the rest of the English. They want to make their own laws, run their own province with no outside interference. Basically they want to have the perks of being their own country, but have the safety net of blaming someone else if something goes wrong. They want to recieve money from the Federal Government and distribute it as they see fit. No Federal Government interference is allowed. They want to outlaw English, (Which they have almost done now), create their own law, BUT keep our currency, passports, freetrade with the US/Mexico, BUT NOT pay their share of the National debt (Which is largely their's).

Now, the vote to seperate came about because the Federal government will not grant these conditions. So they decided seperation favoriable to staying. But both votes failed!!! So as much fuss is made about it, the people of Quebec don't want to leave. If Quebec gets all these conditions, then other provinces will want it too....and THEN Canada will be in crisis.

 

[Sodapop]

First, I want to tell you I'm not a separatist.

Now, I think you guys are just overrating the popularity of sovereignity. In fact, a (great) majority of people are tired of hearing about that. So am I. The way the things are now is perfect. We are part of a great and wonderful country, but we want to keep our own culture. That's what the Quebec's government is doing with law 101 (the law asking business to have the french letters bigger than the english one's (i find this quite stupid)). But what they really want to do is to protect the our language. Imagine if you were only 6 million speaking english among hundreds of million of people speaking french. You would like your children to speak the same language as you, to preserve your culture. That's what they are trying to do (the wrong way) here. The reason why the product are in both English and French is to protect the English minority here in Quebec, and the French minority everywhere else in Canada.

About the fact that english speaking teens have to learn french in school, I agree that depending of the place, thye should allow them to learn a more useful language. In fact, I would have prefered to learn english right from the beginning, instead of having to go to class with teacher with an awful prononciation.

I don't think we think we are "superior" to english. We only want some autonomy and the right to apply laws we think are good. In fact, I think that every province should have the choice to follow the national rule, or to develop their own way with what the population think. Taking exemple of the law about young criminals. We already had a good system here and Ottawa tried to show us how the things should be. Our statistics were telling us that the law we had was perfectly ok, so thats the only reason why we decided to keep our own law on the subject. So the only thing I want is the right to chose if our ideas are better than those that Ottawa is trying to imposes, and if so, keep our own law.

And about blaming someone else if something goes wrong, well, thats what the Quebec's government is already doing

So, please stop telling that every single Quebecers want to break Canada, since that's not true.

 

[amadeus]

How about we just jackhammer off Quebec, put a few rockets on it, and fly it back to Europe? That way they can blend into a more homogeneous group - snobs and snots

 

[CornMaster]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
How about we just jackhammer off Quebec, put a few rockets on it, and fly it back to Europe? That way they can blend into a more homogeneous group - snobs and snots

Quite a harsh comment for a non-Canadian.

Quebec seperating would make some people happy and solve some problems, but would make more people upset....and create some major problems. Although the current situation is stiff and uncomfortable for some....I believe at this time it is most favorable.

It's doubt that Quebec could survive on it's own. It would probably degrade to a second or third world country (Depends on the leadership and industry of course) But if Quebec were to seperate, Canada doesn't just lose a province, it looses a connection between the east and the west. Shortly after Quebec seperates other provinces will want to seperate. BC and Alberta (2 of the 3 money making provinces) Would probably seperate. This leave Manitoba, and Saskatawan to itself. And provinces that borrow more then they make, they will not be in the best shape....however, the would either become members of BC-Alberta, or remain in Canada. Ontario also makes enough money to sustain itself. As the Capital of Canada is located in Ontario is doubtful that Ontario would form a country....but rather stay as Canada. Now this leaves Newfoundland and the Martime Provinces. As none of these provinces make money, I assume these would form a country of their own, and be in bad shape at the best. Not having much information on the three territories, I can't speculate what would happen..... Whether they remain part of Canada or form their own country.....they still wouldn't be in great shape. So that leaves BC-Alberta, Canada (Manitoba-Saskatawan-Ontario), Martimes (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI) Three countries from a divided Canada.

Of course anything underlined is TOTAL SPECTULATION!!! And would take 15-20 years to fully play out (from the Quebec seperation) but I feel it is a possiblity.

You also have to consider the cultural loss. Canada is a combination of cultures all over the world. English (British) being the largest culture, and French being number two. If we lost our second biggest cultural group, we would fall into cultural crisis. We would lose track of who we are and where we came from.

I understand that Quebecers want to preserve their culture, but you don't require autonomy to do so. Globization is a given, and eventually everyone will be speaking one language (probably English), and one culture (Western/Americanization). The way we need to preserve culture is to do more teaching at home!!! Not changing laws to sheild the people. That will only create problems. But in our new Global culture, parents don't have as much time to spend at home....it's said really. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

These reasons and more are why I'm against Quebec seperating.

 

[amadeus]

Originally posted by CornMaster


Quite a harsh comment for a non-Canadian.

Why, thank you!

Being completely sincere, I really think that Quebec's anti-mainstream (Canada) stance has hurt Canada as a whole. Homogenous cultures work best together, unless under certain circumstances.

Example: Japan. 99.8 percent of Japan's citizens are Japanese. The other 0.2%? Korean.

Another: Afghanistan. Several tribes and groups, and even the pre-American intervention, there was still fighting between the ruling militia (Taliban) and the insurgent groups (N. Alliance)...

How the United States and Canada were able to do it - in my opinion, a heterogeneous culture can work if the original fundamentals that structured the country were sound.

Consider the fundamentalist countries - Iran, Afghanistan - they make nearly no progress. The culture from which they come is so one-dimensional, that they can't stand to have it "tampered" by civilization and human nature.