Let me tell you that I was floored by the number of letters I received concerning yesterday’s Editorial: Poor Pathetic Quebec Anglos (March 20, 2007).
Except for just one of the letters, which basically said good riddance to bad rubbish about my leaving Quebec, the other letters were very much in agreement with my sentiments.
For your reading pleasure, I’ve published a few of the letters including the dunning letter, in the LETTERS TO THE PUBLISHER section.
Early this morning, I did a radio show as a guest on CJOB in Winnipeg, the topic was Quebec’s election and the BILLIONS of dollars Harper gave to Quebec to buy Quebecers’ votes for Charest, and inevitably for himself when the next federal election is called.
It seems that the rest of Canada now looks upon Quebec with a very different view than it did not that long ago, when most Canadians outside of Quebec were worried sick that Quebec would leave Confederation, and were willing to give Quebec anything to keep them within Canada.
That’s changed big time!
I’m on the radio quite often across Western Canada. And what I’m hearing from just about everyone is KICK QUEBEC OUT!
And in all of the interviews I’ve given over the past year or so, especially since Quebec was recognized as a nation within Canada by Parliament, the sentiment is that Quebec has become an expensive joke people outside of Quebec are tired of paying for.
No one in the rest of Canada gives a damn about Quebec’s election, other than for the humor in it. As far as the people outside of Quebec are concerned, each of the candidates and their Parties are interchangeable, in as much as none of them are good for Canada.
And that’s the truth.
There isn’t one Quebec Party or leader that sees Canada as anything more than a cookie jar. To them, Canada is good as long as Canada continues to write the checks.
After Harper’s budget, which effectively opened the entire Canadian cookie jar to Quebec, Quebec Liberal leader Jean Charest who is doing poorly in the polls proclaimed that he – Jean Charest, if reelected, will pay down Quebec’s personal income taxes by as much as $750 million per year.
The unabashed truth of the matter is that Charest and his Liberals will pay down NOTHING. It will be the rest of Canada that will pay down Quebec’s obscene taxes with our own tax dollars.
It’s real pissy that we in the rest of Canada must spend our tax dollars to support ethnocentric Quebecois failures. I would rather be taxed less. Or have my tax dollars spent where there would be real benefit to Canada. Or better yet: PAY DOWN THE DEBT!
And even at that, where Quebec is receiving BILLIONS of dollars from Canadian taxpayers who live outside of Quebec, Charest and the other two Schmucks running to be the Premier of Quebec, say about the BILLIONS of FREE dollars they’re getting from the rest of Canada, that it is good for a start.
A start! What the hell do they expect to be the follow-up?
I went to a forum last week in Ottawa to hear a former member of Quebec’s “National Assembly”, Reed Scowen, speak about his new book (a rewrite of his first) on why it is best for Canada if Quebec was to leave Confederation.
I also went to the forum to apologize face to face with Scowen, for tearing a strip off his first version of his book published about 8 years ago.
I massacred his book live on my radio show because I was upset that he had the temerity to suggest the breakup of Canada.
If he wanted to give up on Canada that was his business. But, to suggest that we should all give up on Canada by saying goodbye to Quebec was too far over the top.
He was right. I was wrong. So I said I’m sorry and I bought an autographed copy of his new book.
The thing about Scowen though, is that he was a major part of the problem instead of being a part of the solution.
Like all well-heeled Quebec Anglos, Scowen presented a moderate and civilized debate against ethnocentric Quebecois nationalism.
But having a civilized debate with people who are grinding your culture into the ground, is indeed no debate at all. He was a conciliator and to a great extent an appeaser.
None of the above made him a bad guy, but it certainly made him a major part of the contribution to English losses within Quebec.
Scowen lived a great life while working for the Liberal government as a member of Quebec’s National Assembly, and then, as a special Quebec envoy to London, New York City and Ottawa.
To say he did well for himself as a Quebec public servant would not be a stretch. So good on him. But what about the rest of Quebec’s Anglos?
Where did they (we) benefit from Scowen’s stint in office, as close to the power structure as one can get? Where was his public voice while he was in the position to really be heard?
Like Quebec’s appeasing Anglo media and even more appeasing Anglo elitists I wrote about yesterday, Scowen didn’t get angry. He was one of those passive Anglos who wanted to be polite while Anglo rights were flushed down the toilet of ethnocentric Quebecois nationalism.
And maybe he didn’t want to give up his government gravy train. Who knows?
I apologized to Scowen for tearing his first book apart. But now it’s his turn to apologize to the hundreds of thousands of Anglo Quebecers who lost their rights and visibility because people like him were too polite to really fight for everyone’s right to be equal.
If Reed Scowen and others like him would have shown some anger at Quebec’s inexcusable treatment of its English speaking community, I feel confident that he would never have had to write a book on why it’s time to say goodbye to Quebec.
But he was like all the other Anglo elitists who chose not to take an angry and passionate stand for all people in Quebec to be treated equally.
And now it’s all too late.
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One Comment
You have made a wise, albeit difficult, choice Howard and I wish you and your wife all the very best for the move.
Our decision to move to Europe was also a big one, but, like us, I am sure you will never look back! Ditto from me re the snow pal!
Keep those editorials coming. Best to you both.
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