⚜️ The French Canada Thread | Discussion sur le Canada français ⚜️

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Like it or not, there is no other answer. It's indisputable that Celine Dion remains the most famous French Canadian.

Definitely.

Of course the names of Cartier and Champlain sound familiar to me, but the stories about early French explorers may not be so much told outside the French-speaking world.

I'll confess I don't know anything but their names about Lévesque and Trudeau. You'd have to be rather knowledgeable in Canadian modern politics to be really familiar with them in France.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Architype

Yes, for the time period we are living in now, but does it matter that he said "in history"?

Yes, most famous in history as well as at the moment.

[kwoldtimer]

Sets me to wondering - has a French Canadian ever won a Nobel Prize?

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Sets me to wondering - has a French Canadian ever won a Nobel Prize?

Maybe not, but according to google, at least one Quebecker, Ralph Steinman, won a Nobel Prize for medicine. Tragically, he died shortly before he could receive the award, but he's gone down in history a Nobel laureate, nonetheless.

edit: upon further searching, two other Montrealers won Nobel prizes. Saul Bellow, for literature, and Rudolph Marcus for chemistry.

All three are Jews from Montreal, and all three are Canadian-Americans.

I should have remembered that Saul Bellow won the Nobel prize for literature... Henderson the Rain King is one of my favourite books, and I picked up Herzog a while back, but I've yet to read it.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Yes, most famous in history as well as at the moment.

She’s the most famous francophone that has ever existed.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

She’s the most famous francophone that has ever existed.

Sobering thought, but probably true.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

She’s the most famous francophone that has ever existed.

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Sobering thought, but probably true.

Most famous francophone?

Here's a famous photo of Celine:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

She’s the most famous francophone Canadian that has ever existed.

She's probably the all-time most successful francophone entertainer, if fame means success.

Daft Punk must've been the most famous from France in recent times, but they always hid their faces behind silly robot masks, precisely because they didn't want to be recognized in the public realm, I guess.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

I absolutely LOVE the NFB. What a gem we have.

I finally got around to watching this one after years of hesitation. As the son of an Albertan father and a francophone Montreal mother this one was particularly interesting to watch, I found myself torn between two worlds. The world of Anglo-Montreal is unique, under-appreciated and greatly mis-understood both locally and nationally. This document doesn't hit all the right chords for me but does get the right tone. If you care about Canada and what it means to be a Canadian, this is a must-watch. One thing is certain though: victimhood is the basis of any creation of identity and nationhood, and this true in both the franco and anglo worlds of this incredible city we both share in peace.

The NFB is a tremendous treasure trove and one of the most Canadian institutions we have. So Canadaian, there's even a Scottish electronic band named after it.

I'm glad you finally watched it. I guess the film is also quite meaningful to me, because my dad's family left Montreal in the mid 60's, before the height of the FLQ crisis. I love Montreal, and think it remains Canada's most amazing city, but it's still sad to see how much Anglos have felt "pushed out" of the city over the years.

As for the bolded: absolutely. I wonder what could have been for both Montreal and Nouveau-Brunswick, had the Anglos just treated Francophones with more respect and dignity. Perhaps official bilingualism would be more regional in New Brunswick, and far less of a boogeyman among the Anglophone majority... and perhaps Montreal would be an officially bilingual city by now...

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Now here's a question for fun that has a much less obvious answer.

Who is the coolest French Canadian in history?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Now here's a question for fun that has a much less obvious answer.

Who is the coolest French Canadian in history?

Pierre Trudeau.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Pierre Trudeau.

He was pretty cool, especially when he did his "Pierreouette" at Buckingham Palace:



Still, I think there's gotta be some much, much cooler people in French Canadian history than a politician, and even cooler French Canadian politicians for that matter 🤔

When I think of who is the coolest French person in history, Godard comes to mind pretty quickly... but that's just me.



Quebec has produced many great filmmakers, but I can't think of any that are as cool as Godard or any of the French New Wave masters. Though, I'd certainly like to learn more about the greatest and coolest French Canadian filmmakers.

Off the top of my head maybe Alden Penner of The Unicorns is one of the coolest French Canadians.

... and now that I think of it, I guess there was someone obvious that I was forgetting... The Flower, Guy Lafleur.



I think as legend goes, he used to smoke on the bench and in the dressing room between periods. That's pretty damn cool, and very French.

He was also a helicopter pilot, which was very cool.

Pierre Trudeau was definitely cool, but I think Guy Lafleur was cooler. Still, I think there's gotta be some cooler people in French Canadian history than either of them. Gilles Villeneuve was more globally famous than Guy Lafleur, but I think Guy was the coolest.

I met him when I was 9 or 10 years old at the Winnipeg Arena in an RCMP vs NHL old Timers game. Got my Teemu Selanne TITAN stick signed by Marcel Dionne, Lanny McDonald, Guy, and countless other NHL legends. Now that I think about it, I think even Luc Robataile was at the game even though he was still in the NHL. I think there might have been one or two other active NHLers at that game. I got my stick signed because my grandpa was one of the RCMP officers.

Lanny McDonald gave me all the time in the world, and Guy Lafleur maybe gave me 10 seconds as he signed my stick. Guy was the only player who signed my stick that I distinctly remember other than Lanny who I must have talked to for 5 or 10 minutes, but Guy Lafleur had a legitimate aura around him, and I don't believe auras.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Who is the coolest French Canadian in history?

I would say Joseph-Armand Bombardier is a serious contender for his contribution to modern industry in the French-speaking world.
Maybe he would earn the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur, like a Québec-version of Marcel Dassault.
As a matter of fact, some significant independent Canadian manufacturing achievements (business jets, smaller airliners and trains) bore his French name.

Is it cool? I can't tell, it depends on your view of what a cool life can be.
Some contemporary influencers out there on social media may be considered "cooler".
As for myself, I have a mad respect for great industrialists, even though brutal Fordism is highly questionable nowadays, which is normal and healthy by tech progress/change.

Today, Bombardier Transportation (the rail branch) is a subsidiary of Alstom.
Bombardier Aviation remains a rival of Dassault Aviation's business jets, but they're in a partnership with Airbus for their mid-range narrow-body airliners (CSeries rebranded A220).

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by mousquet

I would say Joseph-Armand Bombardier is a serious contender for his contribution to modern industry in the French-speaking world.
Maybe he would earn the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur, like a Québec-version of Marcel Dassault.
As a matter of fact, some significant independent Canadian manufacturing achievements (business jets, smaller airliners and trains) bore his French name.

Is it cool? I can't tell, it depends on your view of what a cool life can be.
Some contemporary influencers out there on social media may be considered "cooler".
As for myself, I have a mad respect for great industrialists, even though brutal Fordism is highly questionable nowadays, which is normal and healthy by tech progress/change.

Today, Bombardier Transportation (the rail branch) is a subsidiary of Alstom.
Bombardier Aviation remains a rival of Dassault Aviation's business jets, but they're in a partnership with Airbus for their mid-range narrow-body airliners (CSeries rebranded A220).

Yes, "coolness" is very much subjective, lol.


Bombardier is an interesting suggestion! He's definitely cool for his contributions to industry and innovation... and inventing the snowmobile is literally cool. ❄️

[mousquet]

You like sportsmen? How about this?

• Video Link

I don't even know what "Coupe Grey" is, totally unknown here in France, but the video went viral anyhow, cause the dude was so upset.
I would stand by this guy, no matter what underground sport he plays, because he's my good boy.

They don't play football, eh. Football is what you guys call soccer.
They play some kind of American rugby, wearing armors to avoid physical traumas (especially concussions) that actual rugby players go through in their careers.

[Nashe]

Leonard Cohen was friggin cool. But not "French", though from Montreal.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Architype

Most famous francophone?

Here's a famous photo of Celine:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon

Fame vs. infamy. Though some would argue that the ballad from Titanic fits the latter.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

The NFB is a tremendous treasure trove and one of the most Canadian institutions we have.

True!

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by mousquet

You like sportsmen? How about this?

• Video Link

I don't even know what "Coupe Grey" is, totally unknown here in France, but the video went viral anyhow, cause the dude was so upset.
I would stand by this guy, no matter what underground sport he plays, because he's my good boy.

They don't play football, eh. Football is what you guys call soccer.
They play some kind of American rugby, wearing armors to avoid physical traumas (especially concussions) that actual rugby players go through in their careers.

I was in the stands, that day. Didn't see this video until you shared it.

It's unfortunate that "North American" football is called what it is.

I think concussions will eventually cause this sport to die, and perhaps others... so many players suffer the long term effects, some in very public ways. It's sad that we tend to revere the parts of the games that inflict the worst punishment on the players involved.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Fame vs. infamy. Though some would argue that the ballad from Titanic fits the latter.

Lol, I was thinking "megalomania vs. kitsch".