It is to despair of Canada where dies in the east a celebrity who is not even mentioned in the west.
Very rare are those, whatever their rank or their profession, whose disappearance has occupied as much space in the Quebec media as that of actor Michel Côté, who left us last Monday. Dozens of pages in our newspaper, in La Presse + and in all the other newspapers in Quebec. Not to mention the special broadcasts on the radio and in all the television networks. I do not remember having witnessed such unanimity since the death of Guy Lafleur, Maurice Richard or even that of René Lévesque. That’s saying something.
That there are plans in Quebec to honor Michel’s memory with a state funeral is in the order of things. Especially since they were taken for personalities whose departure had not aroused such spontaneous and universal sadness.
But Michel Côté’s fame, it seems, did not extend beyond the ever-increasing borders of French Canada. It was almost with surprise that I heard Justin Trudeau give a brief eulogy before entering the Commons. A eulogy that gave me the impression that as a teenager the Prime Minister might have watched a The little life or attended a performance by brew.
BREW IT ALONE WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH
This extravagant comedy played by Michel Côté, Marcel Gauthier and Marc Messier from 1979 until April 22, 2017 attracted more than three million spectators. This feat would have been enough for all the Canadian media to talk about Michel Côté. France still praises Michel Serrault and Jean Poiret, whose The Fool’s Cage has only been played 2000 times in front of a million spectators.
Either ! brew is still far from The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, which we’ve played 27,000 times, but the UK has 10 times our population. All the kept proportions, brew therefore exceeds the number of spectators who have seen The Mousetrap.
Michel Côté’s track record is exceptional: 25 films, 17 series and television shows in addition to eight participations in the Bye. Besides brew which left him very little time for the stage, Côté performed in six plays. For Quebecers, Michel Côté is the equivalent of Christopher Plummer for English Canadians. Two years ago, Plummer’s death did not go unnoticed in Quebec. Even if Quebecers have little interest in what is happening in English Canada, they nevertheless know its biggest stars. The reverse is not true, as demonstrated by the silence that followed Michel Côté’s disappearance.
WHAT A HISTORICAL MESSAGE!
This sad situation is now irreversible. two solitudes, the aptly named novel by Hugh MacLennan, is now 78 years old. Despite certain periods when one had the impression that the tensions between Anglophones and Francophones were calming down, where the cultural divisions that the novel relates seemed to diminish, the death of Michel Côté proves that this is not the case and that these lulls were just an illusion.
It is a historical waste that will be further accentuated by the multicultural and diverse policies of our governments, however well intentioned they may be.