Meet the Editor.... Philip Berlach

Doing what I do best..talking!

I don't want this post to be a big deal, but it has been a long time in coming.

I told readers long ago that I wasn't a political personality or any name that they would recognize, I have long toiled in the background, both politically and obscurely in the business world, all my life.

And so revealing my identity is a bit anti-climatic.

There are those who oppose my positions who have screamed from the highest rafters of vigile.net that I am somehow illegitimate because my identity remained hidden.
Ask me if I care.

Actually I'm quite surprised, because friends, family and the many readers who I converse with, have known my identity for a long time and I always expected someone to leak, but amazingly, the hundreds of readers, journalists, friends and acquaintances never let on.
I remain truly impressed.

When I started this blog, I was the owner of a franchise chain with stores throughout Quebec. Previously I was co-owner of another retail chain which operated across Eastern Canada and that for over thirty years.
You can understand that for business purposes, I didn't want my blogging to affect others with which I had a business relationship, but having retired last year, the last barrier to declaring myself had passed.

It is a bit strange, because my anonymity allowed me the freedom to talk about people I know personally, friend and foe, with impunity, and that I shall miss.
But one of the drawbacks in remaining anonymous is that the media tends not to take you seriously. I've been offered dozens of interviews on radio and television but have until now demurred.

That will change Monday, when I'll do an interview on CJAD as myself with Barry Morgan at two o'clock.
I wanted readers to know beforehand, otherwise it would have been disloyal.

So let me tell you a little about myself since very few loyal readers know me personally.
I was born here in Quebec to immigrant parents and attended English school in the PSBGM, an acronym that only true Anglo Montrealers understand.

As a successful entrepreneur who co-owned and operated a retail chain across Eastern Canada, I was charged with running the 'field' and so I spent 30 years travelling the backwoods of Eastern Canada, each week flying and driving to every major (and minor town) from Toronto to Saint Jean, NB.

During those years, I developed an intimate knowledge of these regions and made many friends, anglophone and francophone and even natives.
I remember having dinner with Jacques Duchesneau and his then new girlfriend who told me she hailed from a tiny town up in the Abitibi, one that she was sure, I never heard of.
I asked her to allow me three guesses and on the second named LaSarre, to her astonishment and everyone at the table. I then described the town as best I could, because honestly there's not much that stands out.

So after a couple of decades visiting these places, I think I've developed a keen understanding of the mentality, the personality and the vibe and rhythm of each community.
I've actually lived two lives, one in English and one in French. After a couple of days in the Saguenay or Abitibi, my brain would switch over to French and yes, even in my nighttime dreams. Upon return to Montreal, the switch occurred again and I once more reverted to my Anglophone roots.

I've been labelled an 'angryphone' by my opponents, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
I choose to stay in Quebec because it has been and remains a wonderful home.
To those who believe I oppose Francophone's right to maintain their language and culture, nothing could be farther from the truth.
But I do disagree with the politics of language and believe militants use it as a wedge issue to drive Quebecers madly towards sovereignty.
Do I care if immigrants are forced into French schools? Not a whit.

But defending the French language shouldn't include persecuting Anglos with ridiculous and vindictive rules over signage.
The idea that the children of an American or British immigrant families must attend French school and that they will somehow adopt French as their culture is deluded fanaticism and fantasy that is disrespectful to the anglo community as well as good sense.
These rules are misguided at best and  vindictive at the worst.
Such is the pettiness and indeed the nastiness, of most language militants.

I can argue with those that demand English descriptors on stores with English words in their name, but cannot countenance those who object to names like Reitmans or Bentley.
It is not I, the dangerous angryphone, but rather these people, who are nothing but linguicists  ( not to be confused with linguists)

We are told over and over again by both Liberal and PQ governments that we are a founding nation and valued citizens, but actions deem us interlopers.

Few francophones understand the daily pounding Ethnics and Anglos suffer in the francophone media.
English and Anglophones are portrayed as an evil threat to the existence of francophones, as well as immigrants and ethnics and let's not even bring up the demonization of Quebec Muslims.

At any rate I've been involved with politics since the ripe young age of ten or twelve when I helped put up signs for the then NDP candidate, Charles Taylor, who was running for the NDP in St. Laurent.

Since then I've grown to become an organizer and fund-raiser  on the federal, provincial and municipal level.
I shall nor divulge who I've worked for other than the federal Conservatives and the provincial Liberals, the others never contracted for that.

Most of whom of I worked for, hired me on a consultation basis and are entitled to confidentiality. Anybody who wishes to announce my implication in their campaign is free to do so, I am unashamed of any of the political work that I did.

Along the way, and for many years, I served as a Consular representative for Liberia in Quebec and an honorary Boy Scout Commissioner.
I am past-president of the St. John Ambulance foundation, charged with raising money and safeguarding the nest egg of that honourable organization.
For a couple of years, I served on a committee supporting the Canadian Armed Forces, that was charged with encouraging employers to treat part-time reservist employees with the utmost respect, giving them time off without penalty, while serving our country.

I've known the richest and most powerful politicians in Canada, as well as the less than reputable.
There was a time where I would and could drive my car onto Parliament Hill and park at the front door.

Those days are gone, just ask Thomas Mulcair who was cited for blowing by a security checkpoint a while back.

 As for my family, I am married to my college sweetheart, this for forty years. We met in the very first year of the existence of Vanier college in Ville St. Laurent,  back in the year God knows when.

We've got two children, a daughter who married an Anglo here in Montreal and has just given birth to my third grandchild, James.
My son David, is one of those famous McGill doctor graduates who has fled Quebec (according to the militant narrative), but the truth be told, could not secure a job anywhere in Quebec.

He is safely ensconced in Brooklyn, New York, where his talent is appreciated, and readers he is not the only Quebec doctor forced to flee, he is part of a huge expat community.

He and his lovely wife have two children, our grandchildren, who are growing up away from us here in Montreal, a fate suffered by so many Anglo parents in Quebec, where contact is reduced to family reunions and holidays.

That's it!
I'm not going to dwell on personality and now that you know who I am, I'd like to get back to blogging about what affects us all.
I really want our relationship to remain the same. I hope you'll still refer to me as EDITOR, I've gotten used to the moniker.

And so let's go in....

I'll start with a scoop.
I have it on impeccable authority that Michael Applebaum (the ex-mayor of Montreal) is allegedly dead to rights.
I've been told that he  is going to jail and this from insiders, who are in the know.