LOG CABIN CHRONICLES
Quebec
FRED RYAN
Former Premiere Lucien Bouchard of Quebec was either quoted out of context or he suffered a lapse of lucidity when he said, or is reported to have said, that Quebecers don't work hard enough to meet the demands of the globalized marketplace.
His is the old theory that Protestantism, with its individualistic stance, gives birth to aggressive modern capitalism, while Catholicism is a political-economic system all its own; Quebec still suffers the effects of its Catholic upbringing.
Or Mr. Bouchard has been seduced by the now-aging generation of me-firsters, stock brokers, and oil consultants -- who do work hard, long hours (where's Dick Pound?), sacrifice family life and friends, but earn enough to buy two Porsches.
The premier ignores the context of the discussion of productivity. He sits on too many corporate boards. He sees the world largely in profit-and-loss statements.
How can Mr. Bouchard fail to note Quebecers' historical admiration for America and things American (apart from its current administration)? Quebecers travel south, as much to avoid anglo-Canadians as avoid Quebec's awful weather. Quebec's business class is aggressively Yankee; they work hard; they talk and think fast.
Especially how can this ex-premier not recall the self-assurance among sovereignists that the USA supports their drive for independence and would protect a newly independent Quebec from rash actions of an anal-retentive Canada? America would be a friend of the Republic of Quebec.
Mr. Bouchard forgets these things because he disagrees with them, and in this he is correct, but he is not with the majority.
Many Quebec nationalists still believe Quebec's struggle for freedom will find sympathy in the US; after all, doesn't Mr. Bush constantly talk about protecting freedom?
The nationalists forget that the Americans considered René Levesque a friend of communists and bugged his trips to New York.
They forget that Quebec's social democracy, it's faded welfare state, will be in American eyes only slightly better than faded Cuban socialism.
If Quebec is to the left of most of Canada; think how far it is from middle-America.
Polls also tell us that there are about 90 million "rigidly moral" evangelical citizens in the USA. How will they react when they hear of Quebec's lax attitude toward abortion, common-law relationships, same-sex marriage, drinking wine, smoking dope and listening to the Rolling Stones, as well as Richard Desjardins? Has anyone translated Richard Desjardins for them?
And what of the growing English-only movement in the US?
It's been strong enough to win English-only legislation in several states. Although fulminating against Hispanics, will Americans accept a non-English society within homeland and fortress North America?
There are many considerations about America that the sovereignists are yet to consider. How Quebec treats the English-speaking Native populations will be very important in the US, and certainly post-9/11 America will not look kindly on any political upheaval, especially involving leftists like Bill Clennett or Yvon Vallieres on their border - a border they already find unreliable. Here's justification for American intervention (protecting power lines, you understand) -- but this happens only in other places. Fred Ryan is publisher of Quebec's Aylmer Bulletin, West Quebec Post, and the Pontiac Journal. He is also a director of the Quebec Community Newspapers Association. 
Copyright © 2006 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/11.06 |