Montreal and Quebec Veering Off in Opposite Directions

While Pierre Curzi and his entourage of language Apartheidists fulminate against the teaching of English in Quebec, it's good to see many of us on both sides of the language equation giving short shrift to the notion of restricting rather than expanding student's horizons.

"Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, a French-language junior college, and Marianopolis College, an English-language counterpart, will offer Quebec's first inter-college bilingual exchange program.
Students who apply and demonstrate a proficiency in their non-dominant official language will be allowed to study at the other college." Read more at CBC

And at two Montreal area private high schools, one Muslim French and one Jewish English;

"They came, Jewish and Muslim teens from English and French backgrounds, to meet and discover for themselves what keeps them apart.
Many of them live in the same community, but never meet or mingle with the other group. Each group has been somewhat fearful of the other.
To hear them tell it, what's been keeping them apart is hearsay, misconceptions and stereotypes." Read more at the Montreal Gazette

While watching an interview the other day with Pauline Marois, who was struggling mightily to give an interviewer a tiny sound bite in English, in regard to the shale gas debate, it occurred to me how far apart the gulf between Montreal and the rest of Quebec (ROQ) has become in terms of capacity and determination to speak the other official language.

Madame Marois was so ill prepared for the interview that she fumbled around rather clumsily before giving up and using the French term of '"gaz de schiste' for the English "shale gas."
While both terms have only recently become widely used, you'd think that she'd know the English term, or failing that, turn to an aide and ask for the translation for the word before giving an English interview on the subject, it wouldn't have taken a big effort.
Instead she was oblivious to the fact, or didn't care a whit that she came off looking like a stuttering tourist, instead of the next potential Premier of Quebec.
There's a word that language militants bandy about in describing we anglos that applies perfectly in this situation. mépris ( contempt, scorn.)

For a good laugh, watch this video of Pauline struggling in English.

Madame Marois is not atypical of the new political class who hail from outside Montreal and cannot speak English worth a damn. She is representative of the new reality. While Montreal is bilingual and getting more bilingual everyday, the rest of Quebec is unilingual and getting more unilingual everyday.

"....It's right up there in Chapter One, Article One of the city's charter: "Montreal is a French-speaking city."
But as just about anyone can tell you, the fact is that Montreal is bilingual. At least, that is the overwhelming conclusion of a survey last week for the Association of Canadian Studies.
Eighty per cent of Quebecers agree with the statement: "Montreal is a bilingual city,......" Read more in the Montreal Gazette

And so two visions of Quebec emerge, a bilingual (and multi-ethnic) reality as evinced by the greater Montreal region and an insular unilingual society that exists in the rest of Quebec.

Interestingly, the two camps are almost evenly divided in terms of population, but in terms of economic clout, productivity and creativity, the 'bilings' hold a massive advantage.

Considering the relative equilibrium in terms of demographic weight, one would think that the language debate would be a bit more balanced, but somehow it isn't. It seems that those proposing a more restrictive French language society hold a distinct advantage in the public debate.

To explain this one only has to look at the political structure of Quebec and it's supposedly representative National Assembly.

The greater Montreal area, home to over 3 million people (almost half of Quebec's population,) is sadly under-represented, to the point that there is a considerable bias in the National Assembly towards the boonies and the  'provincial' mentality.

Some Montreal electorial districts are so densely populated in comparison to rural districts that the effect is that a vote in the Gaspé has twice the weight compared to a vote in Montreal. The ROQ get up to 50% more members of Parliament than it deserves demographically.

NO FAIR!...but a fact.

And so the voices in Parliament are decidedly and unfairly unilingual. The number of Francophone members who can speak English above a high-school level continues to diminish, even in the Liberal party.

Gone are the days of René  Levesque and Jacques Parizeau, each wonderfully bilingual notwithstanding their politics.

It isn't a coincidence that each had spent time abroad, Levesque as a war reporter who worked largely in English while Parizeau studied at the London School of Economics in England.

Today's Parti Quebecois, with a few exceptions (Bernard Drainville, plus another half dozen) is largely unilingual with most members' idea of a foreign English adventure, a trip to Ogunquit beach.

The Liberal Party is not much better, even French cabinet ministers struggle to give a decent interview in English.
Only the Anglos members of the Liberal party and Premier Charest remain truly bilingual.

Sixty-six years ago  Hugh MacLennan wrote of the Two Solitudes that represented the gulf between Francophone Quebec and Anglophone Canada.

Today a new gulf has emerged, one that could never have been foreseen, even thirty years ago. It is the gulf between Montreal which represents a bilingual multi-ethnic society as opposed to the unilingual, mono-cultured society that is the ROQ.

As time goes by, the two societies seem to like each other less and less, with Montrealers scornful of the provincial rubes and the unilingual ROQers terrified that their world is evolving out of their comfort zone. 

Which societal path will Quebec follow in the future?
With the economic power of the province lying with Montreal, but the political power lying with the ROQ, which faction will gain the upper hand?

Will the province become more like Montreal or will Montreal become more like the province?

Readers.... it's time for you to weigh in.