Canada Desperate For a Revitalized Liberal Party.

 Long time readers of this blog know that I am not a Federal Liberal Party supporter and never have been.
I like to consider myself a small 'c' Conservative and was happy to see Stephen Harper elected with a majority.

That being said I believe that the country is desperate for the rebirth and relaunch of a Liberal Party to act as a counterweight to the more and more dogmatic and narrow agenda driven Conservatives, who seem to be emboldened by the lack of opposition.
With a vacum created in the political center and left of center, it's no surprise that the country has turned to the NDP as the only credible opposition to the Conservative juggernaut, something that scares me as much as a runaway Stephen Harper.

So what the heck are the Liberals waiting for?

Jean Chretien-Helmet Backwards, but forward thinking?

There's something to be said for a political party taking some time to lick the wounds of an election smack down, but that time has come and gone and if the Liberals don't do something soon, they will be consigned to the scrap heap of history, a footnote in the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Time seems to be running out and there doesn't seem to be anyone in the Liberal party, the least bit concerned.

I firmly believe that between Harper and Mulcair, a great many Canadians, perhaps even a majority, are now looking for a kinder and gentler version of the two dogmatists, someone who won't bash Quebec or Alberta, a leader and a party that will represent Canadians from coast to coast.

In the meantime, the Liberals are content to go through the motions, openly admitting that they are treading water in anticipation of a new leadership convention after a period of rebuilding.

The problem is that there doesn't appear to be much rebuilding going on..

Even worse, is the insipid Bob Rae, the 'temporary' leader that represents the old guard, everything that was rejected by Canadians in the last election.

I honestly don't understand how the Liberal base tolerates such mediocrity at the top, a leader that is bound like Moses to wander through the opposition benches for forty years.

Where are the political strategists, have they also fled the party or are they being constrained as I fear, by the Bob Rae forces who are stalling as long as they can, until the party has nothing left at all, giving him a chance at permanent leadership?

At any rate, if the Liberals are to survive, they need to stop acting like losers and project an image of confidence, instead of the aura that surrounds the party now, that of a bunch of sadsacks going through the motions.

Solution? Your editor is never short of advice...

Get rid of Bob Rae, an albatross that represents not leadership, but losership.

Marc Garneau- The Right Stuff

Elect a new leader quickly, someone with impeccable national credentials, someone who projects integrity, honesty and trustworthiness, even if he isn't a political heavyweight.

To that end, no better candidate appears than Montreal's Marc Garneau, an ex astronaut that proudly wore the Canadian flag on his arm.

"Born in February 1949 in Quebec City, Canada. He received his early education in Quebec City and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec and in London, England. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Kingston in 1970, and a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, in 1973. He attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College of Toronto in 1982-1983. Read the rest of his biography, you will be impressed!

Handsome and flawlessly bilingual, his election as a leader would preserve the fine Liberal Party tradition of alternating leadership between anglophones and francophones.

Mr. Garneau is the right choice to rebuild the party, he doesn't have to create or sell a comprehensive national policy, he has to project an image that the Liberals have returned as the party of national unity, a force of inclusion, not exclusion and a party where dogmatic left and right wing policies are not welcome.

It isn't a hard message to sell, I think many Canadians are ripe for the picking, especially in southern Ontario, where the voter's decision to support the Conservatives in the last election is one that many have come to regret.
Here is where Mr. Garneau can easily sell himself and his party as a solid alternative to the politics of the extreme, as practiced by Harper and Mulcair.

Mr. Garneau also has the right stuff to regain a base in Quebec, his integrity and reputation will help Quebecers forget the humiliation of the Sponsorship scandal.
For the majority of Quebecers, a return to the Liberals can happen, it is just a question of some healing time and a new and trustworthy leader.

For the ROC, even in the West, I believe that Garneau is an acceptable leader, considering his history as an astronaut with unimpeachable bone fides as a loyal Canadian.
A good "Frenchie" so to speak....ahem.

It's time for the Liberals to sell themselves for what they always were, a middle of the road party that serves the interests of all Canadians without pitting one region off against another.

As I said from the onset, I'm not a supporter, but as a strategist, I would encourage the Liberals to play on their strengths.
It's time to remind voters that it was the Liberals under Jean Chretien (no intellectual giant) that balanced the budget, unlike the present Conservatives who have blown the wad despite a false reputation as prudent fiscalists.
It was the Liberals that avoided the catastrophe of involvement in the war in Iraq, standing up to the unrelenting pressure of the Americans.
It's true that they got us involved in Afghanistan, but that was a NATO issue, which meant that not sending troops would mean abandoning NATO itself, something no government could have undertaken at the time.

If the Liberals are to be a force once again in Canadian politics, it's time to act now.
Like a bottle of wine, there is such a thing as being over-aged.

A new leader with an impeccable record of integrity and service to this country, coupled with a simple message of inclusion rather than confrontation, is the ticket to success

The road to salvation is sometimes uncomplicated, taking the first step and making the commitment to follow through is the hard part.

The Liberal Party has a choice.....move forward or die.

OQLF Serves Up a Hearty Dish of Statistical Lies and Nonsense

It's natural to be skeptical when presented with studies and reports offered by organizations that have an axe to grind or a position to defend or promote.

One certainly wouldn't be faulted for mistrusting or discounting, from the onset, a report on abortion prepared by either the Pro-life Movement or the Pro-Choice Movement, as each organization would be expected to present those facts, figures and conclusions that best represent and promote their position.

It's also natural that when these reports are presented to the public, they be subject to a rigorous critique, usually performed by peer groups and those with opposing views.

Using the example above, it's natural that  the Pro-life group would use its experts to deconstruct a report presented to the public by the Pro-Choice group, in order to discredit it by means of exposing its shortcomings, whether it be false premises or conclusions, poor or incorrect methodology, or outright intentional deception.

The scientific community has long relied on the principle of 'Peer review' whereby scientific papers presented to the public are scrupulously tested and evaluated for flaws, errors, methodological errors and faulty conclusions or contaminated or faulty testing.
Any scientist presenting a paper to a scientific journal knows full well he will have to defend the work before his peers, who will either confirm his paper to a varying degree between a valid scientific piece of work, or a piece of junk science.

The best example that I can think of is the debunking of the concept of 'Cold fusion', which if true promised a cheap and abundant source of energy.
The two promoters of the concept, were mercilessly critiqued by other scientists who try as they would, were unable to replicate the experimental results.
For those of you with the time read  Cold Fusion: Future of physics or phoney?,  an article which nicely demonstrates the scientific method of 'peer review' in action.

Last week the OQLF came out with a series of studies reporting on the condition of French language in the retail industry in downtown Montreal, be it signage or the use of French in communicating with customers.

As for its credibility, I take the conclusions with a grain of salt,  giving the results as much credence as I would to a report published by Al Qaeda, maintaining definitively that Allah is the only true God.

Make no mistake, the OQLF has but one mission, the restriction and ultimate elimination of English from the Quebec landscape...period.
Any report that the OQLF puts out will promote this end and accepting the conclusions is an exercise in self-deception, something the mainstream media has embraced wholeheartedly.

It remains a maddening mystery as to why, when it comes to accepting any report produced by the OQLF, the media accepts without qualification or skepticism, the conclusions, without critical review.

Not one news organization challenged the OQLF's tenet that companies using a registered trademark as a trade name are required to use a French modifier.
This false premise is the basis of much of the purported non-compliance that makes for the conclusions of the reports. It is a classic case of a false premise leading to a false conclusion.

Readers should be reminded that in the 35 years of Bill 101, not one company has ever been charged by the OQLF with violating Bill 101 because its name didn't carry a French modifier.

To my knowledge, not one company has ever received a letter of complaint or warning, vis-a-vis the requirement for a French modifier and the OQLF has never sent a demand letter calling on any specific companies to add a French modifier.

I have it on good authority that a least two prestigious law firms (one of them, completely French) have provided opinions to several large retailers with 'offending names' that the OQLF has no legal basis to make this type of demand.
The advice given by these law firms is for companies to stay the course and keep quiet and out of the debate. Until a letter is received demanding a change, it is wiser to say and do nothing.

For thirty-five years that letter has not come.

The demand for French modifiers by the OQLF is nothing more than a seedy shakedown, a campaign meant to scare companies into acquiescing or else face a vicious public smear campaign based on a lie.

When the PQ was in power back in 2000, Louise Beaudoin the minister in charge of the OQLF, solicited and received an opinion that a regulation demanding French modifiers be appended to English trademarks would be deemed illegal under international intellectual property law.

Here's one of the very few articles that dares tackle the issue. It was written Denis Lessard in La Presse, back in March.
Interestingly, the OQLF had no comment about the article and not one of the French language militants responded publicly to the damning conclusion.

"Yesterday, the spokesperson of the Office, Martin Bergeron, argued that it was too early to announce the number of complaints made ​​based on the question of name displays as a result of the campaign. "We checked our legal interpretation before moving forward. We understand that there are people who do not have the same interpretation as us," he said.

Ha!! That readers is the closest you're going to get to an admission that the OQLF knows that it is wrong.

Mr. Lessard went on to say this on the subject;

"This new campaign of the OQLF ignored a formal opinion of the Conseil de la langue, that was provided to the government of Lucien Bouchard in 2000, at a time when  Louise Beaudoin was the minister in charge. The PQ government was told then that it was advisable to use incentives to get companies to francize their names, since according to the law, they were not on solid ground." Link{Fr}

(Hier, le porte-parole de l'Office, Martin Bergeron, a soutenu qu'il était trop tôt pour annoncer le nombre de plaintes faites sur l'affichage à la suite de la campagne de l'organisme. «On a vérifié notre interprétation juridique avant d'aller de l'avant. On comprend qu'il y a des gens qui n'ont pas la même interprétation que nous», a-t-il lancé.

La campagne de l'Office fait fi d'un avis formel du Conseil de la langue, fourni au gouvernement de Lucien Bouchard en 2000, à l'époque où Louise Beaudoin était ministre responsable. Le gouvernement péquiste s'était fait dire qu'il devrait se rabattre sur des mesures incitatives pour que les entreprises francisent leur raison sociale, puisque du point de vue de la loi, il n'était pas en terrain solide.")

It's no wonder the OQLF is not pushing the issue through the courts, it knows that it will suffer a stunning defeat and so it has come up with its famous 'soft approach' wherein the OQLF is showing a 'kind' and 'generous face' by using a gentle form of intimidation, that is, the shaming of companies into doing what it wants them to do.

It is a con game, nothing short and nobody is willing to call out the OQLF for the fraud they are perpetrating.

I remain amazed that in the many press conferences given by Madame Marchand, not one reporter, English or French has dared to put this question forward.

"Is the OQLF lying to the public over French descriptors and if not, will it provide the legal basis for its opinion."

Interestingly, this week, Louise Marchand, the head of the OQLF was beaming as she announced that a new arrival to the Quebec retail scene CRATE & BARREL had decided to add the word 'MAISON' before its name.
Whaaatt????
What kind of descriptor is 'Maison,?' .....it's French for 'House of.'

It seems that every single company can add the innocuous "Maison" before its name and be in compliance.
Maison 'Best Buy," Maison Starbucks Coffee." Maison Canadian Tire," "Maison Home Depot" etc., etc.

What happened to real descriptors like 'Articles de Maison' Crate & Barrel?
I think it means that the Offeece is now committed to taking what it can get and any French word will be acceptable.

It's sad and oh so pitiful...

At any rate, the OQLF is now pursuing a new dangerous line of attack cut from the same cloth, wherein it is now considered a fault to greet a customer with the familiar "Bonjour/Hi," something we're all used to when shopping in downtown Montreal or in the West Island.

"Greeting someone in the two languages is certainly not against the Charter," notes the president of the OQLF, Louise Marchand "But it can constitute an irritant which gives the impression to the people that Montreal is anglicizing" Link{Fr}

So according to Madame OQLF, hearing English in public is now an irritant. Hmm.....

I want readers to consider that again.

According to the OQLF, hearing English in public is an irritant!!

It begs the question as o whether will it become public policy at the OQLF to discourage what is perfectly legal, again?

At any rate, I'm not going to critique the contents of the recently released reports, to do so would be a tacit admission that they are somehow valid, which they are not.

Everything about these reports is flawed, from methodology, to its foundation premise.
Had they been prepared by the propaganda office of the Iranian Ministry of Information, they wouldn't look much different.

I will however leave you with one particular pearl taken from the highlights reports. Download PDF

3. Between 2010 and 2012, a French only greeting went from 89% to 74%, while a bilingual greeting increased from 1% to 13%

(3.    Entre 2010 et 2012, l’accueil en français seulement est passé de 89 % à 74 %. Parallèlement, l’accueil bilingue a augmenté de 1 % à 13 %.)

I don't know what idiot prepared that data set, but someone should have thrown it out because it completely goes beyond the realm of credulity.

As all shoppers in downtown Montreal know, it is widely customary to greet customers with a "Bonjour/Hi," a greeting designed to convey the message that the clerk is prepared to offer service in either language.

It's been this way for many years, but the OQLF report claims that in the two short years between 2010 and 2012, the incidence of this greeting multiplied by an astonishing 1300%.

In other words, in 2010, only one in a hundred greetings were "Bonjour/Hi" and in 2012 the practice skyrocketed to thirteen times in a hundred.

An outright impossibility.
A finding that is pure unadulterated bullshit, pardon my French!

Anyone who shopped in downtown Montreal knows that two years ago, bilingual greetings were just as prevalent as today and any change over two years is statistically insignificant.

Bad data, bad conclusions..... but who really cares.

The only people who take these reports seriously are separatists and English language haters.

Partition is Separatists' Last Hope

Quebec 1867- Present

I promised to get into the issue of partition and/or sovereignty and now seems to be as good a time as ever to start.
The student uprising has dominated the media to the point of blocking out all other newsworthy events and if you are like me, it's getting to the point where you don't even want to discuss the subject, it's too maddening.

Ten years ago, if you'd ask me about partition (the dissolution of Quebec into separate states) I would have laughed at the idea and labelled the very thought, foolishly daft.

Today, as events have evolved, it makes perfect sense, absolutely perfect sense.

Of course, partition is a hard concept to get one's head around and on first glance it looks messy and unworkable, but a closer study reveals that it's a pretty good solution to the language and cultural impasse that dogs modern Quebec.

No doubt, sovereigntists hate the idea of partition and foam at the mouth at the very mention of the idea.
They live in a world where the borders of Quebec are inviolate, but a glance at the maps on the right show that such is not the reality of our history.
Quebec's borders have never been written in stone and can change just as easily as in the past.

But partition isn't and shouldn't be a concept that is an anathema to sovereigntists, it is perhaps the only viable option for them to achieve their goal of an independent Quebec.

Today, the sovereigntist's best case scenario, where Anglos conveniently abandon their homes and communities and move to Canada en masse after a successful YES vote, fails to take into account the old Chinese proverb which reminds us to; "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it"

While sovereigntists will bid these federalist emigrants good riddance, the effect of a massive migration would be financially destabilizing and more importantly economically and politically devastating to Montreal.

If Canada decides to play hardball and makes an enticing financial offer to Quebec federalists to abandon Quebec, (like way back when with the United Empire Loyalists,) combined with generous resettlement incentives for Quebec companies, it would be the coup de grace for the city.

The mass exit of Anglos and Ethnics towards greener pastures in Canada begs the critical question; What will remain of Montreal, when the city is depopulated?

Montreal can hardly pay it's bills today, imagine knocking off one-third or half of its budget?
Sovereigntists pretend that they don't need Anglos and that may be true in the Saguenay or Abitibi, but not in Montreal.

If only half of the 51% of people that don't have French as a first language, leave Montreal, the disaster that awaits the city is guaranteed.

That, plus the many businesses and head offices that will follow the refugees down the 401, will lead to half empty skyscrapers, restaurants, malls and too little business for the retail industry.

With homes and commercial property unsellable because of a glut, the city will be set on a course of ruin, with the massive foreclosures of unsellable homes and the shutting of commercial establishments on a scale recently seen in the Untied States' worst hit communities.

Can't happen?.....look at Detroit.

Even if many potential emigrants stay and test the waters of an independent Quebec, the collapsing economy and job market will drive folks to leave after a few short months and that includes many francophones.
Of course during this period of destabilization, who will be blamed for the debacle?
Anglos and Ethnics of course, leading to a snowball effect driving even more out of the province country. 

Not pretty?
There is no other forecast that is more likely and I've debated this with sovereigntists over the years.
I have never heard a reasonable alternative to this doomsday scenario.

The worst of the suggestions offered, was that a confident and independent Quebec would make a generous offer for the anglos to stay, including INCREASED language rights.
.....Really?  Are you kidding me?

The truth is that for Anglos and ethnics the only choice remaining would be to give up their English culture and assimilate or emigrate to Canada.
Readers can do the math.

For a new Quebec government, Montreal would become a financial albatross instead of a shining jewel.
The fragile new country would be plunged into a monumental financial and social crisis at the onset, not a comforting scene.

For sovereigntists, losing Montreal to partition may be unacceptable, but the truth is that one way or the other, they will lose it anyways.

When sovereigntists understand that it is not in their interest, economically or socially to include the island of Montreal in the independence plan, partition becomes a perfect solution.

And when will they realize this?............Not until the next referendum loss.

When that happens, there won't be talk of 'spitting in their hands and starting all over again"  as Mr. Parizeau suggested after the 1995 referendum loss.

Sovereigntists may be dreamers, but are not particularly stupid and waiting another fifteen years, for what would very likely be another referendum loss, won't be an option they'd likely want to entertain.
For dedicated sovereigntists, it would be time to think about the impossible, the partition option, no matter how unpalatable.

It partition happens, it won't be the Anglos and Ethnics that institute it. We are just too disorganized to mount any sort of partition plan on our own.

Partition will happen when the majority of Quebec francophones want it.

Simply put, when sovereigntists realize and accept that partition is their only hope of independence, it will become a viable option.

My partition plan, which I shall set out here before you, is based on Quebec ceding the entire island of Montreal, which will become the eleventh province (then the tenth, after Quebec independence.)

The reason I chose the island of Montreal alone, is because partition is not about destroying Quebec by grabbing as much territory as possible, it's a compromise that leaves Quebec almost intact and with a large metropolitan area (Laval) in central Quebec to replace Montreal.
The island of Montreal has clearly definable borders and enough land mass to provide federalists with a home.

Many of you have talked about a land bridge to Canada, but it is entirely unworkable and too messy.
At any rate the 'land bridge' idea just isn't supported demographically and creating a hodgepodge of off-island areas that are to remain 'Canadian' is just unworkable and undesirable.

Unlike the last two referendums which made losers out of half the population, partition can actually make us all into winners, with each political entity going its separate way à la Czech and  Slovakian Republics, whose 'Velvet Divorce'  is the blueprint for an amicable breakup.
The important element in the  dissolution of Czechoslovakia is that both parties were in favor of the breakup and ready to make the difficult compromises necessary to make it work.

In my partition scenario, neither side will be perfectly happy and get everything it wants, but rather enough to make the deal acceptable to both.

The Island of Montreal is a clear and defined geographical area, with long roots to and attachments to Canada.
Those Quebecers who want to remain in Canada, in a truly bilingual province, can move to Montreal, those that wish to remain in Quebec can move out.

Concentration of anglophones around Montreal Island

To my mind, this is really just about the only Partition plan that makes sense, politically, socially and geographically.

The new 'province' of Montreal would have about two million inhabitants, (fourth largest province in Canada) give or take. I imagine that the population would go up by several hundreds of thousands of people, but that's just a hunch.

Given an amicable breakup and a fair division of the provincial debt, it would be entirely proper for Montreal and Quebec to enter into a borderless relationship where a super free trade zone would exist.
A place where people could live in one country and work in the other and where free movement of goods and services would be guaranteed to citizens of both countries.

Who would be the loser in this scenario?.........Nobody, and that's just about the most perfect solution.

Quebecers could attend the University of Montreal and use the international airport in Dorval. Montrealers would continue to buy electricity from Hydro Quebec and be supplied with other essentials including potable water and farm products, as well as using Quebec roads and highways to travel to Ontario and New Brunswick.
By keeping a completely open and transparent border, the loss of Montreal wouldn't sting Quebecers as much, with  access to the city maintained seamlessly.

Unworkable? Not really.

The border between Quebec and Canada can be maintained at the frontier with Ontario and New Brunswick, as well as airports.
Montrealers would pass quickly through these borders with special identification cards or even their passports, identifying them as Canadian.

Under my scenario, resource rich Quebec would be able to pursue its French destiny in the manner it would see fit, socially, politically and linguistically. With the English language eliminated from the public scene, immigrants would have no choice but to assimilate into francophone society.

Former Quebecers, wishing to pursue the Canadian dream can remain or move to the province of Montreal, where they could build a bilingual and open society within the confines of Canada.

For Canadians from coast to coast, keeping Montreal and letting the rest of Quebec go, would be an eminently supportable solution.

And if it means helping out the new province of Montreal financially for a couple of years, I'm sure Canadians would be good with it.

After all they've been paying for Quebec for years.

Readers, I believe it's time for our very own 'Velvet Divorce,' perhaps we could call it the 'Poutine Divorce"

My solution is elegant and doable, plus nobody comes out a loser.
The alternative is the very painful status quo, an unsatisfying stalemate.

The questioned to be asked to sovereigntist and federalists, is that what we all want, the status quo?
Can't we work a kind divorce as adults?

Educational Divide between French & English Underscores Altered Perceptions

My son is a young professional, starting out in a career in a high paying field with a bright, stable and certain future. He studied hard, put in his time, got his degree and will no doubt be rewarded for his efforts over the term of his career.

With his first real job in hand, albeit an entry level one at that, he and his wife confidently bought a small condo in an old building that was decidedly a fixer-upper.

The first quote that he received for some plumbing work was a shocking eye-opener.
"Dad," he  whined incredulously. "This guy is making three time what I make and I've got degrees up the wazoo! "

"Shudda become a plumber!" I answered sarcastically.

Funny, burlesque, but actually quite true.

Last week I ran a translated letter by Lysiane Gagnon wherein she reminded readers of the educational divide between Anglophones, Allophones versus Francophones.
While English cegeps and universities are crammed, French schools go begging for students, to the point that some are offering classes and degrees in English.
That's how desperate they've become.

On Friday last, Jack Jedwad added his two cents to the debate;

 "A survey conducted last April by Léger Marketing for The Gazette and the Association for Canadian Studies revealed that only 46 per cent of Quebecers, compared with 60 per cent of people in the rest of Canada, agree that “a university degree is essential toward succeeding in today’s society.” That response merits broader discussion in Quebec.  Read the rest of the story

Most of us anglos and allos grew up in families that placed a high value on a university degree. Ironically,  where our parents didn't have a post-secondary degree, the desire to see us achieve one seemed to burn even brighter.
Back then, a university degree was perceived as a ticket out of the grunge labor market and for those of our parents working in factories, retail, clerical or other poorly paid  jobs, it was an attitude that we could well understand.

Still today, professional degrees, be it medicine, science, computer science, pharmacology, engineering, law etc. are pretty much a guaranteed ticket to success.
But for general degrees be it in the liberal arts or letters domain, a university degree doesn't even put you ahead of the line in applying for a job as a barista .

The value of a general university degree has been so over-valued, that society, in a push to graduate everyone, has opened up fields of study leading to a degree where the work involved can be considered the equivalent of a high school course a few decades ago.

Other than the 'high' value' degrees, industry has discounted these degrees and most of these students have largely wasted their time in university.
That famous 'Bachelor of Arts" degree is the new high school diploma.

Here are some interesting facts from the USA.
 One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don't even require college degrees.
There are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.
317,000 waiters and waitresses and 365,000 cashiers have college degrees, 24.5 percent of all retail salespeople have a college degree.
Once they get out into the "real world", 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the "real world" while they were still in school.

Read:  University education no guarantee of earnings success 

So maybe, just maybe, the francophones attitude, which places a lesser value on university degrees has it right and maybe we have it wrong....

It's hard when a basic tenet is challenged, but funneling everyone to university is no doubt a mistake.

The idea of lowering standards so that the academically challenged can graduate with valueless degrees is something that a responsible government should reconsider.

Nowhere in the current debate over tuition fees does anyone ask whether this model of streaming as many people as possible to university makes sense at all.
Today's society does not need more college and university graduates, we need less, a lot less.

On the francophone side, officials are so obsessed with catching up to the Anglo side in terms of graduates, that students without high school diplomas are being encouraged to enter cegep and given course loads dumbed down, based on their educational capacity.
In the end nobody is a winner.

I haven't a clue how to account for the different perceptions between francophones and anglophones/ethnics in relation to the perceived value of a university degree, but it does appear the  francophone attitude is more realistic and in fact more practicable.

The problem remains that society in general and the government in particular is trying to change that francophone perception, when in fact it should be modifying its own attitude in the other direction.

Instead of pushing unqualified students into dead-end programs in cegep and university, they should be offering training in careers in the booming resource sector, where a miner with a year or two of training can make upwards of a $100,000.

Professional degrees will always remain important, but interestingly, the government need not make any effort to promote these elite programs, students that are high achievers need no encouragement, the medical schools and engineering schools will always receive many more applicants than can be accommodated, even in French universities.

Now I am not calling for an elimination of the social studies, art, history or geography courses and other 'soft' courses. Society needs to be well-rounded and these studies are essential.
What I am saying is that these courses have been watered down to accommodate poor students and this is what needs to be changed.
Offering fields of study that don't have a big financial return for society is a luxury that should be reserved for elite students, not dummies.

These courses should be as equally demanding as the study of medicine or law. Those who can't hack it, shouldn't be in school.

It's time to reassess the notion that university is a plus for everyone, it isn't.

It's time society put equal or more value on job training in lucrative industries and fields where Quebec's future lies.

By reducing the number of those who don't deserve the privilege of having their studies underwritten by society, enough money could be found to make the necessary savings to keep tuition low.

I actually remain sympathetic to low tuition fees, but I object to paying for substandard students pretending they are university material when clearly they are not.

There are many ways to find the money to support lower tuition fees, the most important saving to be found is in reducing overall capacity.

If the student associations want to reduce costs and therefore tuition, they need to look to themselves first and get rid of the deadwood.

The problem with Quebec is that we're always having the wrong conversation.

Don't miss Friday's post.......  Partition is Separatists' Last Hope!

Being Mocked over Student 'Strike' a Tough Pill to Swallow for Quebec francophones

The English press has been unrelentingly harsh in it's portrayal of striking students in Quebec as being spoilt brats, whining for entitlement that other richer provinces, deem too rich for their blood.

The press in the Rest of Canada has been having a field day portraying this perceived selfish and stupid attitude as being a 'French thing' something that right-thinking Anglos have eschewed.

While in Quebec, many many articles are published in the mainstream Press supporting the student strike, outside Quebec, you'd have to search high and low to find one editorial or op-ed piece in support.

In fact, the tone of most of these article has become nastier and nastier as the French/English divide over the strike has been played up to portray francophone Quebecers as stupid whiners, buttressing the already entrenched opinion in the RoC that Quebecers are greedy and selfish.

And so while Quebec journalists debate the merits of the strike and disruptions, their contemporaries in the RoC write derisive and condescending articles condemning francophone attitudes of entitlement that to many francophones, has the perceived ring of Quebec-bashing.

This by the way, is in contrast to the foreign press, which has been more and more sympathetic since the imposition of Bill 78. Read a report

Typical of the reaction across the Op-Ed pages of Canada is this from the Edmonton Journal;

"The masked thugs in Quebec who are smashing windows, planting smoke bombs on subways and harassing bona fide students deserve no one’s sympathy.

These are vandals and anarchists who embrace the culture of victimization — much like the sovereigntists in the Parti Québécois and the Bloc Québécois." Link

But one of the most stinging rebukes came off the pen of Barbara Kay, of the National Post in an article provocatively entitled "Quebec’s mindless mobs reflect French/English divide"

"In case you haven’t noticed, the massive protests in Quebec have been rather one-sided, culturally speaking. As the mindless mobs fill the streets day after day, protesting the injustice of having to pay a few hundred dollars more in tuition, you will find that amongst them, almost nary is heard an English-language word.....
......anglos are culturally tuned in to the rest of the country; they are far more realistic than their bubble-dwelling franco peers about the cost of tuition elsewhere."

If I had to choose one comment made by readers in the RoC that best summarizes the prevailing Canadian attitude towards francophone Quebecers, it is this;

"The cheapest tuition in Canada and yet they whine.  They learn young in Quebec....the Province of miscreants and malcontents." -Martin Ellacott

Yikes!

Now being disliked by English Canada is one thing, Quebecers largely feel the same way about Canada, but being mocked and scorned, is quite another thing completely.

Remember the furor over the Maclean's article that called Quebec the most corrupt province in Canada?

It seems that Maclean's is about to do it again. This week they will publish another controversial story highlighted by this provocative cover. (It will appear in the June 7th edition)
It's very likely that once again Quebecers will be furious at their portrayal as a bunch of pathetic losers. 
 
Our good friend Gilles Proulx flew off the handle in response to being questioned about the Barbara Kay article;

I wonder if you called all Blacks, Jews or Natives "liars and manipulators" on television, whether you'd find yourself in hot water with the Human Rights Tribunal.
But of course making all sorts of racist statement about anglos is always just fine in the Quebec media.

At any rate, I read with fascination an op-ed piece in the Montreal Gazette by a francophone student who attended the very English Dawson college and who complained bitterly that the students didn't support the strike.

"Over the past 15 weeks, the student protest against tuition hikes has been a major event in Quebec. But how many of those thousands of students out on the streets every night are from English CEGEPs? The answer: none, or close to none. Not a single English CEGEP went on strike, not even for a day.....
.... I was truly disappointed with how poorly involved my school was, politically.
In the week leading up to the strike vote at Dawson, I saw some divisions emerge but, I have to say, not very many of us were on the red-square side of the issue. If it wasn’t enough being hated by three-quarters of the student body for wearing the red square, you had the occasional student who came screaming at you that you were going to make him lose his semester.
This state of being uninformed, and not wanting to be informed, was the most annoying part of it. Not to generalize, but I felt like many anglophones didn’t have open minds and were unwilling to listen to those proposing strike action." Read the article

So we English are 'uninformed' and have 'closed minds,' all because we believe that destroying a provincial economy, perturbing the transportation system and causing general mayhem is not justified over a few hundred dollars in tuition.

Yes the two solitudes continue to reign.... I am right and you are wrong!

I was a bit surprised seeing this attitude from a Dawson student, even a francophone and to me the writer represents anecdotal evidence that there is a real chasm between many Anglos and Francophones that is based on strictly on culture.

I puzzled over her attitude until the end of the article when the writer tossed off this;

"As for me, I have decided to study at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) next fall, in communications and art history. Seeing how involved UQAM has been in the student strike, I will probably be much more satisfied there, politically speaking."

UQAM- Art history and communications! Arghhh......