Al's Birthday

I made it. Not entirely sure how or why, but I made it nonetheless. For those of you unaware of today’s National holiday, it’s called la Journée d’appréciation des danseuses, though you may know it by its more common name, Al’s birthday. Yes, it’s true; I’m inching further and further through my 4th decade on the planet, having reached the ripe ol’ age of 32. Rather than take my customary day off, I’ve opted to come into work today. I figured that I shouldn’t deprive the masses of their opportunity to greet me and wish me well.

Truth be told, this will be a rather uneventful birthday. Last year, I was drinking shots of flaming sambuca at a downtown watering hole before returning to my apartment where the roomies had baked me a cake. This year, I’m sans colocs, though I will be receiving a visit from the parents this weekend. I’ll also be grabbing a few bevies with Phil and CT at some point, as well. But for the big day itself, I’m flying solo.

Alright, I’m off for now. Just remember, tip using bills! The girls don’t take loonies or twonies! It’s a health risk when wearing platform shoes. Til next time…

Le Rouge et Or de Laval

I’ve touched on this more than a few times over the course of the last year, but I’ll say it again anyway: things are different here in Quebec. My latest example comes on the heels of this past weekend’s Vanier Cup which showcased two of the most consistently dominant football teams in recent CIS history, the Rouge et Or de Laval and the Huskies from the University of Saskatchewan. Laval dispatched the Huskies 13-8 in a hard-fought game played in deathly cold on the Huskies home field to take home their third Vanier Cup in 4 years. Not too shabby, huh?

At most schools, there would probably be some sort of rally in the student union building or possibly on the football field. I remember being one of many to crowd the UCC atrium the last time my alma mater managed to win the Vanier, though truth be told, I was more interested in scoping out the cheerleaders than hearing a bunch of victory speeches, but I digress. The city of Quebec, by contrast, held a victory parade up the Grande Allée for their conquering heroes, followed by a visit to city hall to visit the mayor and then the National Assembly. Naturally, there were speeches by party leaders, each of whom received their own Laval jerseys from the team. The whole thing reminded me of the annual visits to the White House accorded winners of major professional sports.

Obviously they made a bigger deal out of it because Laval is located in Quebec City, but I believe they would have made similar gestures had ANY of the Quebec-based schools won the national title. Politicians, especially in Quebec, never miss an opportunity to get face-time with the media. I just find it remarkable that they would go to so much effort to acknowledge a university football team. I just can’t imagine the Powers-that-Be in Ontario (I won’t speak for any of the other provinces) doing anything remotely similar. I think Ontario could learn a little something in that respect. Student athletes work very hard to excel both in the classroom and on the playing field and we should take pride in their accomplishments. But that’s just my 2 cents. Til next time…

Raymi versus the Politicos

I must admit, I’ve been watching with a certain amount of glee as Raymi’s rabid readership tears apart at least one blogger foolish enough to question why she lost to Raymi. I’ll freely admit that my blog is far too mundane (by Raymi’s standards) to be acknowledged by her, and I’m fine with that. Her blog is pretty much an assault on the senses, with a wild colour scheme, tonnes of photos and a chaotic writing style. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, you either love her or you hate her. There doesn’t seem to be any fence-sitters.

If I’m forced to choose between Raymi and some political blog, I’m going to choose Raymi every time. Well, maybe not every time, but close enough. These people spend SO much time pontificating in their own little corner of the blogging universe that they don’t recognize their blogs for what they are: completely self-absorbed and meaningless. It seems to me that the only readership that these blogs attract comes from like-minded individuals. I’m sure there’s the occasional traffic from Liberals on a Conservative blog, but really, no one is going to convince anyone else to switch their affiliations or world views based on what’s written on a blog. All it does is provide some sort of mutual admiration society nonsense for these folks to reinforce their own perspective.

So let’s put blogging in its proper perspective: it’s self-expression. It’s a creative outlet. It’s entertainment. It also satisfies voyeuristic tendencies. But don’t for a moment think that it imparts any greater knowledge or enlightenment onto the world. Kudos to Raymi and her legions of fans that continue to knock these arrogant bastards down a few pegs. Good luck in Round 2 of the Canadian Blog Awards. I hope you win the whole damn thing. Til next time...

American Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my American audience! Though I’m sure you’re all too busy stuffing yourself with turkey to read this, I thought I would recognize it anyway. Today is a special day for ol’ Al because he gets a chance to watch his beloved Detroit Lions put on the throw-back uniforms and get smoked by their former quarterback and his new team, the Miami Dolphins. I’ve opted to take a(n unpaid) half day off so I can take in the carnage and enjoy a bit of rest.

I wish I had a good explanation for why my team is doomed to season after season of embarrassing performances, but sadly, I have none. Alright, I have one. They’re a bad team. Being a bad team encompasses so much, ranging from poor draft selections to boneheaded front office moves to the play on the field itself. As much as I want to believe they’re underachieving and the victims of unfortunate circumstances, close to a decade of futility has splashed a bit of water on my face.

That being said, I’m not about to jump ship and abandon my team. I’ve lived through the decades of pathetic Tiger baseball and a chunk of the 90s where Detroit Basketball meant a fire sale of talent and/or early playoff exits. So one of these years, the Lions will turn it around and I’ll be able to proudly sport my home jersey (or perhaps my other home jersey) more than once a year. Until that time, number 54 stays in the closet, only to see the light of day on the American Thanksgiving. Enjoy the game! Til next time…

Initial Observations on the CBAs

So now that first round voting has closed, I decided to take a closer look at some of the blogs in my favorite category of the Canadian Blog Awards: Best Cultural Blog. I guess my definition of “culture” must differ considerably from those who made or regulate the nominations because in my opinion, most of them don’t actually qualify. Granted, I didn’t go through each entry with a fine toothed comb, but it seems to me that, of the other nominees, the one that’s most reflective of the category would have to be African Perspective. Right behind that would be Arrogant Polyglot. While the other blogs are well done and certainly have their merits, I sincerely believe that there is a difference between politics and culture. The same can be said of sexual orientation.

Perhaps the inclusion of the other nominees is more a reflection of the desire to have a wider field for first round. After all, what fun would it be to have only 3 nominations in a category? I agree with the concept of having multiple rounds for the competition if only because of the sheer volume of candidates for any given category. I’m still shocked at how many political blogs are out there. I’ve tried to read a few of them, but the only one that actually held my attention for more than 10 seconds was Rants from the Moderate Separatist. I don’t agree with much he has to say on the blog, but it still makes for a pretty good read. I also find it interesting to read the perspective of a different sort of separatist than I encounter here.

At any rate, the results will be posted tomorrow, so I would like to offer my congratulations to any blogger who managed to successfully escape the first round of voting. I’m hoping to be one of them, but I won’t be holding my breath on that one. Good luck in future rounds! Til next time…

Not-So-Subtle Reminder

We're entering the last day of first round voting for the Canadian Blog Awards for which ol' Al B Here has been nominated for 4 awards. If you haven't already done so, please vote for me in EACH of the categories, namely Best New Blog, Best Cultural Blog, Best Local Blog and Best Blog post. I've noticed that some other nominees have been more aggressively promoting the awards and, in fact, encouraging (or sometimes demanding that) others vote for their blog each day. While this is well within the acceptable guidelines, I don't play that way. I've noticed a spike in my daily stats thanks to these awards, so I'm hoping that those of you who've taken the time to drop by will read a few of my posts, get a feel for what I'm doing here and, most importantly, come back regularly.

I'd like to thank the readers who took the time out to nominate me in the first place. We'll find out in a few days if I've survived into the second round of voting. Til next time...

la nation Québécoise

Now that I’ve posted my interview with Bernard Landry, I think the time is right to revisit the whole topic of la nation Québécoise. A number of other blogs have been reacting to and debating the stance that Michael Igniatief and other Liberal leadership candidates have taken concerning the possible recognition of Quebec as a nation or distinct society. This is not a political blog. Never has been. But since I live in Quebec right now, I thought I would weigh in.

A nation is a group of people that share a common language, history and typically the same geographic space. This history and language, as well as cultural elements, like art, music, and pastimes, contribute to a sense of identity. There’s a feeling of connection between members of this nation… one can relate to other members of it. So in this way, Quebec is most certainly a nation. Now I won’t go so far as to say they’re more unique than other provinces and territories, but I can see how they could feel like less and less a part of Canada.

If we look back on some of the major events in this country’s history, we see there’s a pretty major difference in perceptions between the Anglophones and the Francophones. In both world wars, Quebec staunchly opposed conscription, having no interest in fighting what they considered to be a British war. During the FLQ crisis in the 1970s, the rest of Canada cheered Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act to stop the terrorists, but mention of that still elicits strong feelings of betrayal amongst les Montréalais who were around at that time. Though we collectively experienced the same events, the perceptions were significantly different.

On a cultural level, we only seem to recognize the Quebecois in athletics, but there’s a very definite star system here. When Bon Cop, Bad Cop was released in English Canada, I can guarantee you that the principle star (and writer), Patrick Huard, was a complete unknown. But here in Quebec, he wouldn’t have been able to walk down the street without being hounded for autographs every 10 meters. There’s something wrong with this picture, isn’t there? Quebecois cultural offerings are largely ignored until they, inevitably, end up being recognized on the world stage through Academy Award nominations or something like that. Then we seem to rediscover our “Canadian pride” and pound our chests at how creative and funny “we” are.

English Canada ignores Quebecois culture because it can’t understand the language and can’t relate to it. But in my opinion, this is a conscious choice on our parts. I know several parents in my hometown of London, Ontario who have decided against putting their children into French immersion programs. Why? Because they can’t see it actually being useful long-term. And perhaps they have a point.

The thing that frustrates me to no end is the dismissive attitude Anglophones seem to have towards learning French. I don’t believe it’s possible to create a fully bilingual nation, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for people to open their minds to our own history and culture. Francophones have contributed to making this country what it is (good and bad) and I believe it’s about time they get recognized for it.

Bernard Landry told me that independence was a matter of dignity and I’m starting to see his point. If we truly consider the Quebecois a valuable part of Canada, then we should acknowledge them for what they bring to the table. Otherwise, we may as well just let them go. Til next time…

News from the Front

Today has turned out to be a pretty good day (and I’m not even half way through it yet). Just after lunch, I received an e-mail from the folks responsible for creating the student e-mail accounts at McGill University. It looks like I’ve been accepted into Part-time and Continuing Studies for the Certificate in Translation (French to English) program that I had applied to earlier! Hurrah!

Now how does this fit into my grand scheme? Well, I’ve always been a bit of a worrier and since I can’t claim to have loads of job security at the moment, I thought I would take something that could add to my skill set. There’s bound to be a market for someone who can translate French to English in this province. Sure, I could have taken something a wee bit more practical, but what fun would that be? Besides, this also leads back into my explorations of Quebecois culture and would assist me in reading through primary sources should I succeed in my attempt to get into grad studies.

I’ve also recently joined a gym and have managed to get through 3 workouts so far. With any luck, I’ll manage to get back to a dainty 200 lbs sometime in the new year (I’m not going to hazard a guess as to how far through the new year it’ll be, though). So overall, I’ve got some pretty positive things happening. Lastly, voting begins tomorrow for the First Round of voting for the Canadian Blog Awards. Please feel free to show your support for ol’ Al B Here. Til next time…

Bernard Landry Interview (Part 3)

Back to the action. For those just joining the party in progress, I highly recommend checking out the first couple of parts of the interview. The beginning of this little adventure can be found here.

Whenever I talk to a lifelong sovereignist, I can’t help but ask if there’s anything that can be done to reconcile the two solitudes, aside from splitting Canada up into its component parts. The answers are usually pretty similar. At this point, I’ve typically heard that they just feel it’s time to try things on their own.

“Frankly, there is not so much animosity and thank God! We’re in good relations with the rest of Canada, but nothing can be done to prevent us [from seeking] liberty for our nation. A nation must be free. There is literally no real compromise except independence.” Landry said.

So it appears we’re at an impasse. The Parti Québécois has been around for 36 years now and don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“What Canada should do, formally, that could be in the interests of Canada and in the interests of Quebec, is accept that Quebec is a nation—accept that formally, which is not the case.” Landry suggested. “That’s the base of everything for the future; the way England recognizes Scotland as a nation; the way Spain recognizes Catalonia as a nation. Why doesn’t Canada do the same?”

Alright, let’s suppose that Quebec chooses to leave Canada. What happens to the small francophone communities in the rest of the country? The Quebecois would be essentially turning their back on their linguistic brethren, wouldn’t they? Not necessarily, according to Landry.

“They will be more protected if they could count on a new French-speaking country, member of the United Nations, UNESCO and other international organizations, to help them live as a minority and to give the example to treat the minority in the way we treat English speaking Quebeckers,” he explained. “As an independent country, we could be in a very good position to be an example to the rest of Canada, and to many other countries in the world, how to treat minorities.”

This is where he and I sharply disagree. Are English-speaking minorities respected in Quebec? For the most part, yes, though I can attest to how difficult it is for an Anglophone to try and find work in this province without being perfectly bilingual. I would argue that any “respectful” treatment Anglophones receive has more to do with the fact that they were historically part of the ruling class and thus, had the money and influence to ensure their needs were taken care of. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with Quebec’s respect for minority groups. Money talks. So he and I will have to agree to disagree on this point.

Longtime readers will remember that I typically end off my interviews by asking my guest to give me some adjectives to describe Quebec. Here’s what Monsieur Landry came up with:
“Culture is important. Solidarity is important. And to be open to the rest of the world is important. That’s the 3 most interesting characteristics of Quebec. Look at the cooperatives we have here, the unions we have, the social system we have,” he said. “And young Quebeckers travel all over the world. The population in Quebec travels more that the rest of Canada, outside of North America. You should see the proportion of Canadian passports held by the Quebec population compared to Ontarians or the West. Look at our culture: Celine Dion, Cirque du Soleil, Denys Arcand, many singers, dancers and musicians. Quebec is sort of a synthesis between North America and Europe. It’s the most European part of North America, no doubt.”

So looking back on his career in politics, what is Monsieur Landry most proud of? The economic revolution and transformation of Quebec that he, along with many others, were a part of.

“When I was young, we were exporters of aluminum, pulp and paper, wood and that sort of natural resources. Today, we export airplanes, telecommunication materials, pharmacology products, high technology with our sophisticated engineering firms, multimedia and so on. We started from raw materials and mining and forests and we went on to technology,” Landry said.
I would like to take a moment to thank Monsieur Landry for granting this interview and giving me the opportunity to learn a bit more about the sovereignty movement in Quebec. Hopefully my readers enjoyed it as well. Til next time…

Bernard Landry Interview (Part 2)

The introduction to this interview can be found here.

I was born in November of 1974 so my parents were hip-deep in my “terrible twos” when the Parti Québécois (PQ) won the provincial election in November of 1976. Obviously I don’t remember a thing about that time period, but from what I’ve read, the PQ’s victory was nothing short of shocking in English Canada. Despite warnings in Laurendeau-Dunton report of 1969 of unrest within the francophone population, no one really believed that a sovereignist party would form a government. And according to Landry, it surprised even the PQ itself!

“It was not in our mind, at all.” Landry said. “It was the start of a movement. It was clear that the movement was not designed for [impatient] and ambitious people. Even in Lévesque’s mind, it was to be a long road. He was mistaken at that point because 6 years [after the PQ formed] we were in power. And we’ve governed Quebec most of the time since that period.”

Lévesque was in it for the long haul and gathered together people who were prepared for a struggle that may not be fully realized for decades. It definitely wasn’t a task for the faint of heart. Monsieur Landry recounted Lévesque’s theory to me:

“Lévesque said to me, in 1970, ‘It will be a long road, but independence should come when a generation will have passed.’ A generation is about 25 years, so Lévesque was [almost] right because, in 1995, we got 50% of the vote for independence.” Landry said.

I asked the former Premier of Quebec to think back to 1976 and to tell me about his first reactions to learning that, not only had he won his seat in the National Assembly, but also that his party would lead the government. In a word, he was stunned.

“It was incredible. It was so strange. Not for a fraction of a second did I think that I could beat a cabinet minister.” he said. But once he secured his seat, he just wanted to be a “member of the National Assembly and doing my best to have our ideas progress. Those ideas being progression [of Quebec] and sovereignty.”

Now I had heard different terms over the years, ranging from the total independence of Quebec to some sort of Sovereignty-Association, so I wanted some clarification. What is it he was fighting for? I wanted to clear up whatever misconceptions I may have had about the movement and look at things with an open mind, if I could.

“For Lévesque and people like myself, we were rather constant. For Lévesque, Quebec’s adventure was a national adventure and not an ethnic adventure. Lévesque was an inclusive man and, by the way, in ’76 we elected the first black people in the National Assembly. Many members of the cultural communities were in the first staff of the party.” Landry explained. “We were inclusive at that time and we’re still inclusive.”

“Second, Lévesque was in favour of a close economic association with the rest of Canada. It’s still my point of view: an independent Quebec, but with a free circulation of goods, services and persons between Quebec and Canada, just like they have in the European Union.” he said.

Now obviously there’s a big difference between the half-billion person economy and the 30 or so million that make up Quebec and Canada, but Landry is confident that a very equitable, free trade agreement could be made between the two groups. But why is there a need for an independent Quebec? Why leave Canada?

“There are many, many reasons. The first one is dignity. Quebec is a nation. That’s absolutely clear. Almost no one today objects to that because it’s a fact. Jean Charest is in agreement and [Michael] Ignatieff is in agreement—even Stéphane Dion. So if you are part of a nation, why would you be satisfied with the status of Prince Edward Island? A nation cannot be a simple province of another nation. It’s a matter of identity and dignity.” he explained.

“Starting from that principle, many material reasons are connected.” he continued. “The Canadian nation is managing its own interests. Sometimes it coincides with Quebec’s interests, sometimes not… but Canada is working for Canada and the Canadian nation and it’s detrimental in many, many ways to the interests of Quebec. There are many examples in history [where] the Canadian interests are one thing… [but] it’s directly against Quebec’s interest. An historical example: Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, was advocating free trade between Canada and the United States in 1911. He was defeated and we had no free trade until recently with Brian Mulroney. It was in Quebec’s interest to have free trade. It’s obvious. We’re near New York. We’re near Boston. We connect directly, North-South. No. We were confined to Canadian economic space. It was against our interests, but it was probably good for Toronto and Canada as a whole. But not good for Quebec.” Landry said.

“My sovereignist convictions are not based on resentment. It’s based on our interests in the future and even with Canadian interests.” he clarified. “It’s not in the interests of Canada to be constantly fighting Quebec’s aspirations and trying to centralize when Quebec wants to de-centralize. Some things must be centralized in Canada, in the interests of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, but it’s against Quebec’s interests. So if Quebec is out of Canada, Canada will be in a better position to live its destiny and organize itself along values that are good for Canada. At the moment, it’s an internal fight: on constitution, on budget, about everything! It’s not good for Canada and not good for Quebec.”

It’s time to hit the pause button again and pick this up again another day. Next time we’ll wrap up my afternoon with Bernard Landry. Til next time…

Continue on to Part 3.