"canada is too big to fail" o rly

[beemo]

It takes a century and a half of political imagination, heroic toil and, to be sure, great geopolitical luck to build a country like Canada. It takes but a year or two of hubris, lassitude and ignorance for the whole thing to be lost.

There is today in Canada a dangerous line of argument that must be checked by all thinking citizens: It holds that

Comments

[phyrexians]

My SO is Canadian (Nova Scotia) but I have a best friend who lives in Toronto now too. I am American, so sorry if I say anything way off base. The opinion I've gotten from the Canadians I hang around with (20 somethings) is just that Quebec doesn't "belong". I have no idea bout the economy, but I've had every Canadian I've met tell me basically "Oh yea quebec, the reason we have stupid french on everything."

[beemo]

nail, head, etc.

[romp]

yeah, it smells like a national myth

[tnganon]

ia that the national dialogue towards quebec needs working on, but tbh it's nowhere near the amount of vitriol and racism aimed at first nations/metis/& inuit people.

[phyrexians]

That's interesting-- my SO actually found out he can claim native status (he had no idea), and everyone around him seems really supportive about it. Apparently it gets you a lot of perks or something?

[tnganon]

the attitude that status is basically a way to get "perks" ime has been kind of a subtle way of implying that first nations, metis, and inuit ppl are basically in for a free ride & and always getting handouts, when rly the opposite is true & native ppl in canada face widespread institutional and societal oppression.

[metatrix]

I disagree. I find people in my social circle are far, far more supportive of First Nations people than Quebec.

[tnganon]

somehow i truly doubt this, & it's definitely not true on a provincial/national scale

[tnganon]

idk where in NS your SO is from but there's actually a fairly large french (acadian) community here. it does tend to be more rural tho and in tight-knit communities. new brunswick is also the only official bilingual province and i can tell you right now there's a lot of french there, especially, again, once you get out of the city.

it's a very different french identity (& often, language) than quebec though, which is perhaps what you're picking up on. i'm really not fond of the way that westerners tend to talk about quebec. it seems here in one of the leftier/biggest atlantic cities there's still a little bit of that jokingly dismissive attitude, but also a sense of quebec as a protective moderating force for the conservatism of alberta and ontario.

[phyrexians]

I recognize Acadian from the buses, but Im not sure if thats related.

He's from Sydney, with most of his friends being from Cape Breton as well. He lives in Halifax right now though, but hes trying to move to the US. Again this isn't something I've necessarily talked at length with Canadians about but it has come up in conversation at parties, etc.

[uluviel]

but also a sense of quebec as a protective moderating force for the conservatism of alberta and ontario

Yup. Quebec is a massive weight on left side of the political scale. That's something a lot of people from the ROC who wish "Quebec would just leave already" forget - or maybe they're just conservatives who know they will rule Canada with an iron fist if Quebec isn't around to insist on progressive policies. A handful of left-wing cities in BC and the atlantic provinces are unfortunately not enough to make up for the right-wingness of Ontario and the prairies.

[tnganon]

yeah, i've noticed that the people who tend to be most outspokenly anti-quebec tend to be from the west and very conservative.

[iolarah]

I hate the othering of Quebecois and First Nations peoples. They are part of Canada, and every group within Canada has needs that they will ask the government to address. For one group to start complaining that group X always has their hand out smacks of nothing more than the kind of divisive, ignorant garbage that the Sun prints every time. It does nothing to help us move forward as a country.

Not snarking at you--more snarking the kind of attitude your friends are parroting. This country was built on the work of Quebecois and First Nations peoples, not just a bunch of white Brits and American expats, and that people can so easily overlook history pisses me off greatly.

And French isn't stupid. Knowing more than one language is awesome.

[tnganon]

i really do not get why ppl in this thread keep equating quebec and first nations, metis, and inuit people like there's any real comparison.