“We have the impression that there are two Quebecs: Montreal and the rest of the province,” lamented Yves-François Blanchet in an interview a few days ago.
• Read also: Montreal and the RdQ: Blanchet’s legitimate concern
“Quebec looks at Montreal as if this place were becoming foreign.”
A “LITTLE QUEBEC”
The leader of the Bloc is absolutely right.
The more things go, the more we wonder if Montreal will not end up separating from Quebec…
And it’s not Mayor Valérie Plante’s new recovery plan that will change the situation!
I told you yesterday that the Montreal mayor’s recovery plan seemed to me like an admission of powerlessness.
As if Madame Plante had told journalists that she no longer knew what to do to resolve the problems plaguing the metropolis.
In fact, the mayor has – of course – never said that. It was me who was being ironic yesterday.
But that’s the impression we get when we read his action plan to save downtown Montreal.
Let’s take the question of language. The question that makes Montreal look less and less like the rest of Quebec.
Madame Plante has said that she is going to name the Latin Quarter “district of the Francophonie”.
As a reader wrote to me yesterday: “Is there a Chinatown in Beijing? A Little Italy in Rome? A little Maghreb in the Maghreb countries? Of course not!
“So why would there be a Francophonie district… in the metropolis of Quebec, which is a French-speaking province?”
Damn good question!
Is this all that Valérie Plante found to strengthen French in Montreal? Create a “Francophonie district”?
When will there be an “English Quarter” in Toronto?
I was talking about this yesterday with Jean-François Lisée at QUB.
The former leader of the PQ surprised me by telling me (without laughing) that he thought it was an excellent idea to highlight the French-speaking character of the Latin Quarter.
Really, Jean-François?
Francophones need a neighborhood… at home????
For my part, I prefer the reaction of Jean-Denis Scott, who writes excellent humorous columns at QUB: “By naming the Latin Quarter the Francophonie Quarter, Valérie Plante perhaps wanted to say that French, like Latin, is a dead language.”
THE GREAT RESIGNATION
This is why more and more Quebecers feel like foreigners when they go to Montreal.
Because Montrealers are giving up.
They are very happy when we say “Hello, Hi!” (“At least they say hello!”), and they think it’s an excellent idea for the mayor to create a Francophone district.
Would you see a Francophone neighborhood in Chicoutimi?
- Listen to the Martineau – Dutrizac meeting between Benoît Dutrizac and Richard Martineau via QUB :
But in Montreal, we find it cool.
Even the former leader of the PQ applauds!
And that’s how, from small resignation to small resignation, Montreal slowly but surely separates itself from the rest of the province.
And during this time, Philippe Couillard said to The Press that nationalism is “dangerous”, because it advocates homogeneity and closedness to others!
Where does Mr. Couillard live? In a small village in Lac-St-Jean! Where 99.9% of the population is native French-speaking!
Hello?