I definitely require high speed internet access. Other than that, I could use some help! EDIT: Mountains are not a deal breaker. Water would be nice, but sea level rise is a concern.
EDIT: Oh, Come ONNNN!!!
I definitely require high speed internet access. Other than that, I could use some help! EDIT: Mountains are not a deal breaker. Water would be nice, but sea level rise is a concern.
EDIT: Oh, Come ONNNN!!!
Damnit now I’m curious.
Just invent a bunch of racism towards the French Canadian minority and you’ll have an idea what most Anglo Canadians think of Quebec for daring to protect the French Canadian culture.
Ever heard of Lord Durham? You would believe the guy is a freaking hero to them.
All of canada seems to be shamed for trying to protect its culture to be fair. The government actively tries to guilt trip us
As an US-Canadian dual citizen who grew up and was educated in Canada/Europe, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t get this argument. Canada as a confederation is 157 years old, we haven’t had the time to carve out a unifying cultural identity.
Ask any Canadian, hell ask yourself, “What is Canadian culture?” Rick Mercer has done so many street interview segments about this (we watched them during history class for funsies). It always boils down to “We’re different from/not as bad as America”, “We’re kind of like Europe” or “hockey”. The answers were also very different if you asked francophones in Quebec, francophones outside of Quebec, Acadians, or you know…Indigenous people.
Actually Rick Mercer might have been the closest thing we had to Canadian culture. And we did nothing to protect him 😞
My take has always been that we have strong regional cultures over a unified Canadian cultural identity. The U.S has a little bit of this as well, but not in the same way/with more stuff to point to in terms of national identity.
Edit: Actually, here’s a good experiment for anyone who wants to think about this more. Take a look at some of the Canadian TV shows and movies that have actually been successful, and people abroad may point to as representative of Canadian culture. What about them is distinctly Canadian, over [x]-Canadian? Can start with the obvious (Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny, Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, FUBAR), but I’d bet folks may find this holds across some less obvious ones too.
In the 1970s there was a domestic terror group who wanted to separate from Canada so bad they started assassinating politicians and our current PM’s dad, who was also PM at the time, had to call in the army.
Their provincial politics are confusing because it’s not liberal/conservative spectrum - you also have to throw in the Quebec nationalists (separatists) too. Like their ruling provincial party right now is conservative + Quebec Nationalist to the extreme that businesses must provide public advertising/public facing services in French only.
Little did you know that the separatist movement is largely a left-wing one, driven mainly by the PQ (center-left) and QS (left). The center-right (CAQ, PLQ) and right (Conservative) parties oppose the separation of Québec and want to stay in Canada.
You seem to think that we are some kind of crazy schizos that want to eliminate every foreign person around, and its absolutely false. We just want to be able to keep our language and culture alive. 8M people in Québec vs 400M in Canada + USA, and the rate of french-speaking people is declining at an alarming rate. Think about that for a second. All the people saying we are racists and whatnot don’t seem to realize that being a minority is not reserved for people with dark enough skin colour. In the end, you are the racist ones, trying to assimilate us for 400 years. Bunch of hypocrites.
I said nothing of the sort actually. Just facts about the history of the FLQ and October Crisis at the extremely basic and factual level. I’m quoting Wikipedia on the CAQ.
None of what you built out is what I actually said. And if I slipped on a word QN vs separatist I apologize. Obviously you’re a separatist (independentiste). Good! Separate if you guys want to. Wish you all the luck. I have no skin in the game.
However your reaction is why people are hesitant to engage with anything related to Quebec and learning about it. The rigidity and inflexibility does push people away.
“just facts”
Which actually weren’t true.
“they started assassinating politicians”
One of them, not intentionally, and they took full credit for it as if they had intentionally murdered him. They kidnapped a second one that didn’t die.
The current ruling party is Federalist and no more nationalist than any other provinces’ party in the way they are with the federal government and in the way they act towards people of other culture, in other provinces they just do it covertly.
That’s false, advertising must be in French first and French service must be available but nothing keeps businesses from offering service in any other language they want.
If all your knowledge of Quebec comes from the racists on /r/Canada you can just keep your opinion to yourself.
You know as well as I do that if you’re not a French speaker in Quebec that you’re a second class citizen in the eyes of the government (and many of the population).
*Laughs in Francophone in New Brunswick… *
You try living anywhere else in Canada without speaking English and come back and tell me you’re a first class citizen. Get off your high horse.
NB (the only bilingual province) just got rid of a premier that was the member of an anti French party in the 90s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Brunswick_Confederation_of_Regions_Party
Which province has the highest level of bilingualism? Quebec. Not New-Brunswick. Quebec.
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016009/98-200-x2016009-eng.cfm
So do you really think we’re not accommodating enough?
Sure and why is that? Because English is a very useful language to know. Why is that because of America, till it implodes collapses whatever it is the driving force in the world as it has the biggest economy by far.
So all cultures should disappear and everyone should just start speaking English, that’s what you’re saying?
Oh. I must’ve hit a nerve. Truth hurts huh.
Tabernac!
Lies and ignorance hurt a lot more than truth.
Je parle français my dude. J’ai étudié le français jusqu’au niveau universitaire comme mon mineur.
What 22% of Canada is bilingual? I’m one of them.
I made my effort. But as I said above you don’t win hearts and minds by angrily jumping down people’s throats on the issue.
I’m just saying I disagree with the language laws I have Anglo friends living in Quebec, born in Quebec and it is very difficult for them - like the commenter said, they do feel like second class citizens at times. She’s gotta get updates from her kid’s daycare in French only and run them through Google Translate. It’s a lot. It’s like if you were sending your kid to daycare and the caregiver and the parent both spoke Dutch. I really don’t give a flying f if the daycare caregiver chooses to give an update to that parent in Dutch. It doesn’t concern me. But in my understanding they’re not allowed to - it has to be French. Happy to be corrected on that.
I wouldn’t begrudge someone who serves Vietnamese clientele to have a menu and signage primarily in Vietnamese with English or French smaller on it (or even not at all). Things like this don’t seem to be allowed under the law but I’m happy to be corrected.
If they were born and have lived in Quebec all their lives then they can get any service they want in English, by law.
What’s their excuse to not know French at this point, right? Hell, Anglo Quebecois is the group that declares itself the most bilingual at something like 88%! Don’t tell me it’s hard to learn or hard to practice or any of that bullshit. I come from a region where 2% of the population speaks English first and I have top level bilingual ratings at my job.
Signage and menus need to be in French first, that’s it, you can have any other language on them as long as French is the most prominent.
It’s funny how Anglos are all about helping minorities and guilt trips about colonization EXCEPT for the French Canadian minority.
It’s funny how Anglo Canadians were flipping out about Cantonese/Mandarin signage in BC not too long ago but if Quebec does something to prevent it beginning an issue then they’re flipping out about Quebec oppressing minorities.
I mean… Yeah, the official language is French, any other language is provided at best effort. The only places that are officially bilingual in Canada are New-Brunswick and the federal government, and even that would be a stretch. Would you expect to be treated as a first-class citizen while not speaking a word of Italian in Italy?
Not just best effort but any other language is actively discouraged and hindered by the government.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6460764
Which happens naturally with English in all other provinces without any governmental intervention and against the government’s will in Quebec because English is the language used by 360 million North Americans who have a media megaphone that spreads their culture all over the world at the expense of all other cultures.
The CAQ (ruling party) are NOT extreme separatists, and the law 101 that has french be prioritized in public advertising and facing services has been passed in 1978 to protect our cultural heritage. Otherwise yeah politics are spicier because of the separatist background which is still an ongoing question, but the whole thing still takes place on a very recognizable pattern of centre right liberals, conservatives, and libertarian-ish parties, with the occasional left leaning but still center crew.