On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 8:35 PM, Graydon <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 07:26:05PM -0500, Walter Gilbert scripsit: >> Ah. Sounds like the Quebecois are Vichy Canadians, and >> Torontonians are Ontario's version of Parisians. > > Well, or Westerners generally don't like Québécois and you're getting > the opinions of Westerners. > > It's more than a subset of them are convinced the rest of us aren't > Canadian, rather than that they aren't. Said subset is in a demographic > vise and knows it. (Rather like Toronto is currently past 30% recent > immigrant; the Bay Street image doesn't fade very fast (what with Bay > Street still being there) but having one metro region have a quarter of > the population of a country still has side effects.) > > I have no French to speak of but quite like Quebec and various Québécois > colleagues I've had over the years. Anyone with landscape photography > ambitions could do a lot worse than to spend some time around Quebec > City, and you could die of your age before getting through all the good > food in Montreal. > > -- Graydon
Note that while I'm a native Westerner, I'm bilingual (well used to be, my French is bloody rusty) and also lived in Northern Ontario for a decade, in a city which was 40% Francophone. I quite like the Quebecois as a people and individuals and the province itsef is gorgeous. I however do not like their continual demands for special treatment politically as well as for recognition as a 'Distinct Society' or a seperate Nation under the same sovereignity. It's historical hogwash and pure greed. The Quebecois have been a more equal part of Confederation since the beginning (along with Ontario) and frankly, both the Maritimes and the West keep getting screwed by them both. Quebecois, or Quebec residents have dominated Federal Politics since the 1960's. We've only had 3 Prime Ministers since 1968 who didn't come from Quebec ridings and two of those lasted a collective 12 months in power (the third is our current PM, Stephen Harper). Not to mention the billions of dollars in Transfer payments that already-rich Quebec has received from taxes collected in Ontario, Alberta and BC. Frankly, if they want to leave, let them. If not, let them shut up about it. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
