Quebec, the French Language, and Quebecois Identity

[Acajack]

There was this assassination attempt on Lévesque in 1984, but he was not in the building.

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Lortie

[kwoldtimer]

The break-in at 24 Sussex back in the "90s was considered an assasination attempt on then PM Jean Chretien, if memory serves.

There was also the thing with the truck crashing into the gates at Rideau Hall a few years back. Iirc, there was some intention to harm PM Trudeau.

In both cases, the perp was not playing with a full deck.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The break-in at 24 Sussex back in the "90s was considered an assasination attempt on then PM Jean Chretien, if memory serves.

There was also the thing with the truck crashing into the gates at Rideau Hall a few years back. Iirc, there was some intention to harm PM Trudeau.

In both cases, the perp was not playing with a full deck.

These guys never are.

[kool maudit]

So with the Dune series, the most prominent active Canadian in the arts right now is a francophone Quebecer.

[harls]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The break-in at 24 Sussex back in the "90s was considered an assasination attempt on then PM Jean Chretien, if memory serves.

There was also the thing with the truck crashing into the gates at Rideau Hall a few years back. Iirc, there was some intention to harm PM Trudeau.

In both cases, the perp was not playing with a full deck.

Also this.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

So with the Dune series, the most prominent active Canadian in the arts right now is a francophone Quebecer.

And main actor is French. Apparently they even speak French when working together.

• Video Link

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

So with the Dune series, the most prominent active Canadian in the arts right now is a francophone Quebecer.

Most active Canadian film director, anyway.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Most active Canadian film director, anyway.

James Cameron is active as well with Avatar 3.

[P'tit Renard]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

And main actor is French. Apparently they even speak French when working together.

My SO noticed Chalamet's Anglo accent.. I think it was while watching the Dune promo on TF1 Quotidien.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by P'tit Renard

My SO noticed Chalamet's Anglo accent.. I think it was while watching the Dune promo on TF1 Quotidien.

Yes there are some anglo inflections but he still sounds very French. Though with a lot of English words. Of course he grew up and was educated in the US and only spent summers in France. So his French is actually pretty good when you consider that.

Denis Villeneuve used no anglicisms I don't think, not having to resort to English to express himself.

[Acajack]

On the happpiness file, covered in a another thread also...

https://www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...es-heureux.php

Happier than the Canadian average and among the happiest in the world.

Young Quebecers are the 14th happiest in the world. Canadians are 72nd and Americans 62nd.

Older Quebecers are 4th with Canadians overall being 8th and Americans 10th.

It's said that the bombardement of negative media messaging in anglosphere countries is bringing down morale in these countries. Québec is somewhat shielded from this.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's said that the bombardement of negative media messaging in anglosphere countries is bringing down morale in these countries. Québec is somewhat shielded from this.

Or... Y'all haven't had the same recent problems that Anglo-Canada has had to deal with.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Or... Y'all haven't had the same recent problems that Anglo-Canada has had to deal with.

It's a UBC prof who said that and he wasn't just referring to Canada but also the US, UK, OZ and NZ.

I assume you are referring to housing but Quebec also has had its share of issues. The pandemic in terms of its severity and the harshness of the government response was tougher here than anywhere else in Canada. Our healthcare system has huge problems. The illegal immigration crisis has impacted us more than anywhere and many public services - especially schools - are bursting at the seams as a result.

Even housing is problematic for young Quebecers too, even if their benchmark they're used to is somewhat lower than it is for ROCers.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Or... Y'all haven't had the same recent problems that Anglo-Canada has had to deal with.

Interestingly, everyone here things we’re getting flooded with ridiculously and unsustainably enormous amounts of Fresh New Suckers every year… I suppose the situation in the GTA would be a shock!

(Our immigrant intake is indeed crazy high, just not compared to the RoC whose yearly numbers are even crazier)

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's a UBC prof who said that and he wasn't just referring to Canada but also the US, UK, OZ and NZ.

I assume you are referring to housing but Quebec also has had its share of issues. The pandemic in terms of its severity and the harshness of the government response was tougher here than anywhere else in Canada. Our healthcare system has huge problems. The illegal immigration crisis has impacted us more than anywhere and many public services - especially schools - are bursting at the seams as a result.

Even housing is problematic for young Quebecers too, even if their benchmark they're used to is somewhat lower than it is for ROCers.

The zany highs of the past couple of decades hit parts of the country harder than others. Hangover suck in direct proportion to amount of drinking.

There were a lot of issues that could be papered over before. Now they're not as easy given we've run out of simple solutions.

Quebec just had a school of harder knocks prior. Maybe lower expectations and riding the high less takes the edge off.

[New Brisavoine]

Originally Posted by lio45

Interestingly, everyone here things we’re getting flooded with ridiculously and unsustainably enormous amounts of Fresh New Suckers every year… I suppose the situation in the GTA would be a shock!

(Our immigrant intake is indeed crazy high, just not compared to the RoC whose yearly numbers are even crazier)

A Québec politician recently said there were 9 million people in Québec. I found that shocking, as the last time I checked (which wasn't long ago) there were only 8 million people in Québec.

As for negative news, you can't beat France on that front. We're producing a generation of depressed young people, with all the climate-catastrophism in French public media, which are controlled by hard-left types (the main evening news on the largest French public TV station is anchored by... the leader of a hard-left union in that TV station for example; you can't make that up!).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thewave46

The zany highs of the past couple of decades hit parts of the country harder than others. Hangover suck in direct proportion to amount of drinking.

There were a lot of issues that could be papered over before. Now they're not as easy given we've run out of simple solutions.

Quebec just had a school of harder knocks prior. Maybe lower expectations and riding the high less takes the edge off.

This is a really good point.

Plus, generalized affluence is only 1-2 generations deep in Quebec. At least for francophones. Your wealthy Québécois person of 2024 almost certainly had very poor grandparents. If not parents.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Acajack

This is a really good point.

Plus, generalized affluence is only 1-2 generations deep in Quebec. At least for francophones. Your wealthy Québécois person of 2024 almost certainly had very poor grandparents. If not parents.

Good point. This is also true of much of the rest of Canada too though. Certainly Atlantic Canada but also rural and small town life in most of points west too. Is the boomers had it so much easier than millenials trope not a thing in French Canada? It certainly exists in Atlantic Canada even though Boomers mostly had to leave to find any job so houses being cheap wasn't relevant to most of them.

[big T]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Good point. This is also true of much of the rest of Canada too though. Certainly Atlantic Canada but also rural and small town life in most of points west too. Is the boomers had it so much easier than millenials trope not a thing in French Canada? It certainly exists in Atlantic Canada even though Boomers mostly had to leave to find any job so houses being cheap wasn't relevant to most of them.

I don't think it's nearly as much of a thing, no. I agree with Acajack, there is still a general sense that for all our modern issues and troubles, Quebec today is still a more prosperous and overall better place to live (esp as a francophone) than that of, say, two generations ago.

The big worries tend to be more around language and culture, and these are just seen as the continuation of an age-old struggle. Folks who fall on the "French is getting weaker" side of the opinion lines usually don't believe there was a gilded time when everything was looking way up anyway (save maybe for a short window leading up to the referendums, but that was a while ago now), so there is less of a sense of loss I suppose.

Cost of living is definitely shaping up to be a major concern at least in Mtl, but our lag means it's still too fresh to really know how it ends. There is a possibility we will end up with the same magnitude of generational resentment, but directed at folks who bought in the 2010s instead. On the flip side, there is also a chance our economy (Canada wide, but of course affecting Quebec too) really turns to shit before prices here have time to reach the stratosphere, and we end up with a more equally distributed impoverishment.

Quebec could be the Uruguay to Canada's Argentina, in that sense. Not an entirely bad deal given the circumstances.

[New Brisavoine]

This is how the rejection of the CETA free-trade agreement (between Canada and the EU) by the French Senate this week is seen by many French elites in France. The guy here is the former head of the French employers' federation. I thought some here might chuckle at the description of Canada as a "Francophone country". In parenthesis, this treaty is known under its English acronym (CETA) in France, which speaks volume...