Artistic Performance : Ideological Posturing
They just can't seem to get over it. Even after centuries, reality still smacks them hard in the face. They're continually duelling with those whom they believe do not sufficiently respect the French fact in Canada. Fact is, even if most people outside Quebec would love to just have the whole history waft away in a breeze of accommodation, fervid French-firsters won't allow it. They will never accept that the Province of Quebec is but one of ten-plus-three that make up the country that is Canada.
From the pathetic middle-aged woman who rages against fate that she is Canadian, and insists she is French first and always, and whom France has informed she has no right to French citizenship because her ancestors long pre-dated that period when France would accept her into its fold, to the ever-aggrieved resurgence of separatists who insist Quebec must be recognized not merely as a "nation", which Prime Minister Harper obligingly allowed, but as a separate country.
Oh, those little details that creep in with their practical necessity; Canada, they would have it, although recognizing finally that Quebec is a separate country, should still be obliged to forge a close political, diplomatic, assisting and monetary union, to ensure that the country of Quebec would remain afloat and not sink through an inability to administer her affairs without a federal assist and the funds that prop up that province through taxation from other provinces, as "equalization" for a have-not province.
In celebration of Quebec City's 400th anniversary, as "the oldest" settlement/city in Canada (although the East Coast challenges that; see St.John's in Newfoundland) the celebrations and self-congratulatory hullabaloo proceeds unabated, with tourists flocking (they wish) to help the city celebrate. World-renowned musicians have been invited to perform, but a French flavour is the order of the day, week, month, year and anniversary. Anything tainted by l'Anglais is in bad odour.
"The presence of your English-language music on the most majestic part of Battlefields Park, as beautiful as it might be, can't help but bring back painful memories of our Conquest", claimed Quebec City artist Luc Archambault, in an open letter to Paul McCartney who is scheduled to perform a free open-air concert on the Plains of Abraham. Oh, the pain of it; the very site where the French army was conquered by the British army.
The deep-seated, and cherished angst of the Quebecois calls out for justice. They'd love to turn back history to overturn the result of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and gnash their teeth in anguish over cruel reality. A personal Pyrrhic victory for both Wolfe and Montcalm, but an English one, nonetheless. Still, those separatist teeth gnash, French should be ascendant, not those maudit Anglais. Alas, poor suffering souls, reality has it otherwise. One might think they'd relent, relax, refresh and re-align their social compass, but no.
What's truly amazing is the extent of the support these whining nationalists enjoy among their sovereigntist politicians and pur laine artistic elite in the province. The "culture and international relations critic for the Parti Quebecois huffily considers Mr. McCartney's presence a reflection of the "Canadianization" of the anniversary. How silly of us, we continue to erroneously think of the province and the city of Quebec as being geographically and even politically located within Canada.
Quebec's much-lauded and -awarded separatist filmmaker informed Le Journal de Montreal that the organizers' invitation to Mr. McCartney "makes us look like hicks who want to put themselves on the map". Well, he got it part way right, but one must beg to some little prejudice in the interpretation. It is their own rhetorical fulminating and breast-beating that makes the separatist Quebecois look like hicks, and it's clear their agenda is, actually, to "put themselves on the map" as a clearly separate and distinct country.
Nice to know there is some balance there, however. The premier of the province, Jean Charest, chides these critics of the events. It is his considered opinion they should be ashamed of themselves for speaking out in such a churlish manner. "Nobody criticizes Celine Dion for singing in Paris, Munich, England or elsewhere on the planet" he is said to have commented. More's the pity. Not his corrective comments, one should hasten to add, but the fact that critics of Madam Dion haven't been loutishly vocal enough.
And oh so amusingly, two home-town acts will be opening for Mr. McCartney. That should mollify the critics somewhat, wot? Oops, perhaps not, those francophone sweeties, The Stills and Pascale Picard have won repute and admiration for performing in English. Can't win them all...
From the pathetic middle-aged woman who rages against fate that she is Canadian, and insists she is French first and always, and whom France has informed she has no right to French citizenship because her ancestors long pre-dated that period when France would accept her into its fold, to the ever-aggrieved resurgence of separatists who insist Quebec must be recognized not merely as a "nation", which Prime Minister Harper obligingly allowed, but as a separate country.
Oh, those little details that creep in with their practical necessity; Canada, they would have it, although recognizing finally that Quebec is a separate country, should still be obliged to forge a close political, diplomatic, assisting and monetary union, to ensure that the country of Quebec would remain afloat and not sink through an inability to administer her affairs without a federal assist and the funds that prop up that province through taxation from other provinces, as "equalization" for a have-not province.
In celebration of Quebec City's 400th anniversary, as "the oldest" settlement/city in Canada (although the East Coast challenges that; see St.John's in Newfoundland) the celebrations and self-congratulatory hullabaloo proceeds unabated, with tourists flocking (they wish) to help the city celebrate. World-renowned musicians have been invited to perform, but a French flavour is the order of the day, week, month, year and anniversary. Anything tainted by l'Anglais is in bad odour.
"The presence of your English-language music on the most majestic part of Battlefields Park, as beautiful as it might be, can't help but bring back painful memories of our Conquest", claimed Quebec City artist Luc Archambault, in an open letter to Paul McCartney who is scheduled to perform a free open-air concert on the Plains of Abraham. Oh, the pain of it; the very site where the French army was conquered by the British army.
The deep-seated, and cherished angst of the Quebecois calls out for justice. They'd love to turn back history to overturn the result of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, and gnash their teeth in anguish over cruel reality. A personal Pyrrhic victory for both Wolfe and Montcalm, but an English one, nonetheless. Still, those separatist teeth gnash, French should be ascendant, not those maudit Anglais. Alas, poor suffering souls, reality has it otherwise. One might think they'd relent, relax, refresh and re-align their social compass, but no.
What's truly amazing is the extent of the support these whining nationalists enjoy among their sovereigntist politicians and pur laine artistic elite in the province. The "culture and international relations critic for the Parti Quebecois huffily considers Mr. McCartney's presence a reflection of the "Canadianization" of the anniversary. How silly of us, we continue to erroneously think of the province and the city of Quebec as being geographically and even politically located within Canada.
Quebec's much-lauded and -awarded separatist filmmaker informed Le Journal de Montreal that the organizers' invitation to Mr. McCartney "makes us look like hicks who want to put themselves on the map". Well, he got it part way right, but one must beg to some little prejudice in the interpretation. It is their own rhetorical fulminating and breast-beating that makes the separatist Quebecois look like hicks, and it's clear their agenda is, actually, to "put themselves on the map" as a clearly separate and distinct country.
Nice to know there is some balance there, however. The premier of the province, Jean Charest, chides these critics of the events. It is his considered opinion they should be ashamed of themselves for speaking out in such a churlish manner. "Nobody criticizes Celine Dion for singing in Paris, Munich, England or elsewhere on the planet" he is said to have commented. More's the pity. Not his corrective comments, one should hasten to add, but the fact that critics of Madam Dion haven't been loutishly vocal enough.
And oh so amusingly, two home-town acts will be opening for Mr. McCartney. That should mollify the critics somewhat, wot? Oops, perhaps not, those francophone sweeties, The Stills and Pascale Picard have won repute and admiration for performing in English. Can't win them all...
Labels: Canada, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 4:58 PM
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