Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Craziness That Sometimes Comes From Peterborough Politics

In a recent blog post from Peterborough Politics entitled “The Craziness That Sometimes Comes From Quebec's Language Law”, this NDP blogger shows us why his party has little relevance in Quebec.

Read his post carefully and consider the following craziness contained within it:

1. He strangely equates ethnicity with language.

2. He refers to Quebec sovereignists as “Separatits” with a capital “S” as if they are some kind of professional sports team.

3. He ridiculously asserts: “Today's world, especially the work world, is a bilingual one” without any evidence whatsoever.

4. He ignores the fact that there are allophopne and anglophone sovereignists in Quebec.

5. He is incredibly patronizing towards sovereignists, arguing for example that “Quebec's separatists are robbing their youth of valuable skills”, “They are holding their own kids back”, and of course my favourite: “Opening ones mind doesn't make you any less of a person, it makes you more of one and gives the potential to be even greater.” Of course, having an open mind, according to Peterborough Politics, means opposing separatism…

6. Peterborough Politics argues :"Now this might just be me, but when I go to an Irish Pub, I expect to see and hear English, just as in the same way if I was to go to a fine French bistro, I would expect to hear and see French. Actually, if I attended said bistro and was bombarded by English or another language from the staff and the decor, I would be quite unimpressed with the experience and I probably wouldn't go back.” I wonder if he also expects to be served in Mandarin when he visits a Chinese buffet and in Italian when he visits a Pizza Place…

7. Overall, his analysis smacks of anglo-chauvinism, shows a complete misunderstanding for why the OLF exists, and completely mischaracterizes the attitudes of the vast majority of sovereignists in Quebec.

3 comments:

northwestern_lad said...

you can't be serious...

http://cameronholmstrom.blogspot.com/2008/02/cordial-response-to-craziness-that.html

Julian Benson said...

My own thoughts:
http://redmenace-benson.blogspot.com/

Metro said...

The Gazette's cartoonist, Aislin, put it best when the language law was first introduced:

"Sure, Saint Catherine's St. is Rue St-Catherine.
And sure the Montreal College can be College Montreal ...
But Toe Blake's Tavern?"