What to be proud of | The Press

Pride is not just a slogan of François Legault. It is also a feeling that Quebec celebrates every national holiday. But what does it mean exactly? Discussion between our columnists Patrick Lagacé and Paul Journet.

Paul Journet
The Press

Patrick Lagace
The Press

PAUL — Hi, Pat. I’m going to paraphrase François Pérusse: let’s talk privately with our thousands of readers. The National Day is approaching. Are you going to celebrate it? What do you want to celebrate?

PATRICK – Hi, Paul. I don’t celebrate it. Which doesn’t mean that I’m not proud to be from Quebec. Take out the flag, go see a show: that’s not my style. I have a hard time celebrating my birthday, imagine.

PAUL – I understand. I don’t really celebrate anymore. I don’t like crowds and outdoor concerts. But at the same time, I find it beautiful to see people parade with the fleur-de-lis. Especially new Quebecers. And I admit that I have a deep discomfort every four years during the Soccer World Cup, when our flag is a minority in the streets in the middle of a national holiday. It’s like we’re embarrassed to be proud.

PATRICK — Embarrassed to be proud… I don’t know. Is this such a bad thing? I find not. I’m going to quote you a lover of Quebec: “Worse if oh less, there were fewer/There were fewer poor cretins/Ready to die for the fatherland/Kalashnikov and company…” It was Dédé Fortin who sang that and I think too much patriotism is not always a good thing.

PAUL – It’s hard to be patriotic without turning into cliché or blindness. Nor am I fond of the term “pride” and its political appropriation. It puts us in a binary logic: you’re proud or you’re ashamed… But on the other hand, it’s not bad to remember where we come from. We are not just individuals. We carry a history, a language, a past, a certain way of seeing the world. We realize this every time we travel.

PATRICK — I totally agree with you. For me, “Saint-Jean” (I’m betraying my age!) is an opportunity to celebrate, and there is something to celebrate. We have built a company that, on a global scale, does not have to be ashamed of its balance sheet. A society that is altogether open, which is more relaxed than you might think, if you compare yourself to others. A pacified society, too, which does not like chicanery too much. It is not necessarily bad, the soft consensus.

PAUL – Quebec, to sum up, is a hyper-polarized society where soft consensus reigns… I’m almost serious. Should we connect: are we afraid to debate or are we shouting without listening to each other? I have the impression that our social cohesion is quite good. She’s been roughed up during the pandemic, of course. But there was no anti-system political party in the National Assembly that relayed scientific falsehoods. And the media, while not perfect, is not as ideologically tainted as that of the United States.

PATRICK — Soft consensus, do you want to talk about it? Let’s talk about October 30, 1995. Quebec chose to stay in Canada by 50,000 votes. In quite a few countries, there would have been punitive expeditions, a constitutional crisis, attacks, politicians who stirred up anger, in short, a mess. Here ? Here, nothing. We accepted the results. No injuries, no deaths. We had Halloween the next day. Are you asking me if I’m proud to be from Quebec? I am proud of our resilience and our rejection of political violence.

PAUL – The word resilience means something… Resilience is a way of managing a shock. The referendum was one. But to deal with the trauma, we buried him. Even federalists hoped for reform and it never happened. However, we act as if everything was settled.

Parizeau said that a people cannot stay taut permanently like a rope. He must relax. But it lasts a long time, the relaxation. We are an unfinished nation. Quebec has not yet signed the Constitution, it is declining demographically in Canada and independence is in a dead end. That explains a lot of things in our current identity debates…

PATRICK — Quite rightly, we are an unfinished nation (a Nation, ‘scuse), which does not have a 100% independent state. In everyday life, that doesn’t make the average bear any more unhappy. We have twice had the opportunity to make the country and, since 1998, the only party which has made independence its priority is in a slow decline which risks ending in a crash on October 3. In this sense, the CAQ is giving Quebec what it loves: national affirmation without breaking with Canada… What was Yvon Deschamps saying?

PAUL – He said: a strong François Legault in a united Canada. But no kidding, it seems to me that a person who is really proud doesn’t need to shout it. The CAQ’s “pride” slogan sounds like a cry to reassure oneself, to convince oneself that we still exist. But pride is not a political project, it is an emotion. I have the impression that the CAQ offers a psychological version of independence. We are closing in on our Quebec bubble by telling ourselves that Canada is elsewhere and it is far away. But it’s still our country.

PATRICK — But precisely, the caquistes understand something about the soul of the majority of Quebecers. Pride is not a political project, I agree: the CAQ’s speech of pride is a way of not addressing what it is slow to repair. But giving Quebecers affirmation without breaking with Canada is a kind of political project. I watch the same polls as you and… it works. The Liberals à la Bourassa knew how to do that. Since Charest, no.

PAUL – Indeed. But the affirmation, what does it mean? We defend ourselves more than we assert ourselves. We defend ourselves against bilingualism, we “protect” ourselves against religious symbols. It is a fallback position, in the strategic sense of the term. Anyway… Here I go to do another analysis bordering on blubbering, and as you know, Sundays aren’t made for blubbering.

You talk about the success of Mr. Legault. I would say that it is explained a lot by its very Québécois style: a mixture of bonhomie and candor, just enough popular and sanguine to seem authentic. Macron, it would not work for us. Neither does Trump.

PATRICK — Hey, we’re getting lost in the political twists and turns. But I come back to pride. I don’t have ostentatious pride. I have discreet pride. I have to tell you that the Saint-J…, uh, national holiday shows make me happy. Our music reflects our culture: vibrant, diverse, alive. If you like cultural diversity, Quebec is an island of diversity in an English-speaking continental sea. In this Anglo sea, there is diversity. But ours is exceptional in that it is mainly French. There is a cultural miracle in this survival. I find that music is an example of this miracle.

PAUL — I remember the first time I put The dome by Jean Leloup in my Discman. I was a teenager and I realized that Quebec music could be cool. I listen to a lot of music in English, but with the artists here, something special is happening. Also on TV. Black sequence, This is exceptional. It almost made me love winter. Almost. Why does it affect me more? It’s hard to describe… It’s not nationalism, patriotism, or pride. Just the impression of sharing references, I imagine.

PATRICK — Ah, I think I’m a tad more chauvinistic than you, comrade. When I look 1987 on a plane, I say to myself: “There’s a little bit of us in there. When I see our companies shine elsewhere, same thing. When French cinema has a crush on Antoine Bertrand, the same for Charlotte LeBon, I say to myself silently: “Attaboy. » When Arcade Fire triumphs, I also tell myself that there is a little bit of our spirit in their songs, since they are established in Montreal. Neither better nor worse than the others, we Quebecers are part of the world. Midsummer is a reminder of that.

PAUL – The “NATIONAL DAY”, Patrick… Compare it with Independence Day. American patriotism is excessive. Almost oppressive, conquering. Great power nationalism is disturbing. Not that of the little ones. Fernand Dumont said that if Quebec were as powerful as the United States, it would not be nationalist.

PATRICK — Paul, nationalism is like masculinity. Sometimes it’s toxic, sometimes it’s not. American nationalism is beginning to worry me. That of the Chinese and the Russians too…

PAUL – They lack humor, that’s for sure… I don’t like people and nations incapable of laughing at themselves. But I admit that I don’t hate it, seeing that Quebec was a pioneer for gay marriage, medical assistance in dying and discount daycare. It’s not bad, is it ?

PATRICK — Come on, good Saint-‘ean, as they say at the Lac!