Quebec’s national holiday has turned into a great assemblage of shows led by talented artists who clearly reflect our enthusiasm for celebrating with less and less fervor for the nation.
Quebec will continue the festivities with Canada Day, probably with little enthusiasm. Nevertheless, spectacle will continue to trump patriotism.
I wouldn’t want to lapse into nostalgia by recalling the Vigneaults, Leclercs, Charlebois and Deschamps who mobilized the nation, but can a national holiday have any meaning when the nation refuses to emancipate itself?
Veil the distinctness
Although immigration and diversity contribute a lot to the economic and cultural development of Quebec, multiculturalism and communitarianism have taken more and more place in Quebec society.
Nationalism is diluted with the times and it is proving increasingly difficult to define the Quebec identity. Values that are dear to us, such as language and secularism, are equated with racism and ostracized.
The appointment of Émile Bilodeau as host of the Plains of Abraham show reflects this inability to put forward the values that characterize us.
In an event intended to bring people together, the animation is entrusted to an artist who comes into direct collision with a widely shared value, secularism. Find the mistake!
assert oneself
As if it was necessary to smooth our values even more, many criticized the PQ for not showing up on the Plains. Its representatives would have had to agree to be the turkeys of the farce.
We talk a lot about pride in these moments of celebration. One cannot reproach a party which truly wishes the emancipation of Quebec for wanting to be respected by the organizers and the animator of a so-called national holiday.
There is room for compromise, but not for compromise.