Oh, They're All Bums.

There is certainly an irony to the fact that while Gilles Duceppe tries to tell Canada how different Quebec is from the rest of Canada, except for his separatism, he, more than any of the other leaders represented in Parliament seems to reflect Canadian values. This factor says a great deal about the mythology that drives Quebec separatism.

Why do you Anglo Canadians have such a hard time seeing Quebec become a Nation? Can't you make it on your own?

I would say it says more about the mythology of Canada. Most of separatism's 'ideologies' represent the federal concerns of canadians-what does that say about the nation?

Flashy, charismatic leaders can go take a hike. Canada needs less media hounds and more leaders with real brains and ideas like Stephen Harper. So what if he's a bookworm type and likes to study policy - that's what this country needs. We don't need our current idiot Prime Minister kissing Rock Stars - that whole show did nothing for Canada or the people that Bozo from U2 is supposedly trying to help.

As stated though, great leaders are often not even recognized as such at the time that they are great leaders. Ronald Reagan for example was perhaps the greatest leader of the last half of the last century - but at the time he was being slagged by everybody in the media. Today people recognize that Reagan, along with other greats like Margaret Thatcher, changed the world for the better and we're enjoying the prosperity that they had the guts and vision to see.

<<Ronald Reagan for example was perhaps the greatest leader of the last half of the last century - but at the time he was being slagged by everybody in the media. Today people recognize that Reagan, along with other greats like Margaret Thatcher, changed the world for the better and we're enjoying the prosperity that they had the guts and vision to see.>>

If 'we're' refers to the top 5% wealth-wise in the U.S. and U.K., you may have a point.

However, if it doesn't, I'm not sure a majority of U.S. or U.K. citizens would agree with the above. However, not being a citizen of either, I can't say for sure.

<<Ronald Reagan for example was perhaps the greatest leader of the last half of the last century>>

And if true, what a sorry statement.

---
"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).

Yeah, I have to agree with the Q.Sovs and Marcarc. Says more about the sorry state of ROC than any separatist 'mythology'.

---
"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).

This is the letter I sent to the National post...the article is really quite funny!

Dear Editor
I just read the most incredible story in the National Post. “ Of the four men heading the main federal parties, one has the best claim to being a true leader….Unfortunately, he is also determined to dismantle Canada.” Unfortunately all four of these men are determined to dismantle Canada, only Mr.Duceppe is willing to state his agenda. But then the story goes on “ Jack Granatstein, …troubled by the leadership vacuum seen in the election. "It's a pretty uninspiring lot," he said., "Martin is a vapid cheerleader. Harper looks like a guy selling you coffins. Layton is, I think, about one millimetre deep, and Duceppe is Quebec's own. I don't know what one does when you look at them, except despair." Indeed despair! Selling coffins to a dying nation may have some profit, so I guess that fits. Cheerleading as the ship goes down, may also fit, but of course it depends on which flag is on the ship. One millimetre deep in what? NAFTA clauses? They are self-explanatory. Corporations rule and the people get the coffins! Perhaps the problem is that your paper is looking at the wrong parties for leadership. Real leadership can be found in the Canadian Action Party’s leader, Constance Fogal. She is an inspiration and she is the only leader exposing the demise of the nation! Canadians looking to save the country from the four uninspired, need look no further than Canadian Action Party.
Yours truly
Catherine Whelan Costen
Canadian Action Party President


---
If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

As an English Canadian I would be tickled pink to see Quebec become independent from Canada. Or to be truthful, to see Canada become independent from Quebec. We in English Canada are led to believe that there cannot possibly be a Canada without Quebec, which is a complete lie. We are told this by Quebec politicians who don't want to loose their power trust and piggy bank. Duceppe is right on the mark when he says that we are preventing each other from developing into full-blown sovereign nations with distinct societies.

Bilingualism has gutted the English language in Canada when compared to other 'dialects' of the English language. In other English countries our language is a game to be improved upon creatively. In Canada we're far to preoccupied with learning French, we don't have the time to develop a truly distinct form of English, what should be called Canadian English.

Of course, the media and our intellectual elites have played their cards well. In French Canada you're a Canadian patriot for standing up for French society and culture. If you're an English Canadian standing up for our own society and culture you're a racist or a bigot. A product of a forgotten period in Canadian history. Which is probably why they try to avoid teaching Canadian history in school these days. Too much brutal and imperialistic English people to contend with apparently.

Achieving independence from Britain should have been the first step in building our nation, but we've been in hold mode for the past twenty five years because of Quebec. There was a time when English Canada was in itself a distinct society, from both Britain and America and also Quebec. Today, because the English Canadian elite has been preoccupied mistakenly with apeasing the French, we've seen English Canada turned into a cheap plastic American immitation. Which is not a negative comment directed at Americans at all. They of all people should understand that what Canadians really want is a country of their own that is easily recogniseable to the rest of the world.

Instead we're fed the tired old party line that we're a well respected, diverse, compassionate, tolerant, multi-cultural society which is a complete joke. I've travelled extensively through Asia and elsewhere and have met people from all over the world. According to most of the diverse groups of people I have met, Canadians are Americans, but nicer. I don't know about you, but that's not how I'd like to be remembered?

Tolerance and compassion? Big deal! I hate to break the news to you, but we're not the only diverse, compassionate, and tolerant society in the world today! New York City and London are far more diverse than Toronto or Vancouver, and countries such as Sweden, Iceland, Holland, Switzerland, and many others are as tolerant as we are if not more. And if you'd like to measure aid in governmental and private donations as a way of determining what countries are compassionate, Japan and America are by far more compassionate than Canada. So let's wake up and smell the coffee!

---
"All great truths begin as blasphemies" - George Bernard Shaw

When one is respectful of others it is rare to be seen as a racist or bigot. Standing up for ones own culture in Canada is not a problem when it is done with respect.

You may see respect as unimportant and that is why you have difficulty attracting respect from others. Maybe looking at our country with a sunnier disposition might help.

And you immediately assume I show no respect to other groups? Predictable. Nice assumptions, but you come up short. I think the record will show that we English Canadians have shown more than enough respect for French Canadians, and certainly not enough for First Nations peoples. For someone who has never met me to immediately assume that I show no respect towards others is ridiculous. If I could possibly be offended, I probably would be. I look at my country honestly, in spite of the propaganda. And to be honest I'm frustrated with the lack of honesty many Canadians show to towards this country and its problems.

---
"All great truths begin as blasphemies" - George Bernard Shaw

There are 1000's upon 1000's of Francophones and folks
of French dissent currently residing in Ontario, Manitoba,
Sakatchewan, Alberta and B.C.A very large Francophone
population can be documented in north-central Alberta.... especially near Fahler, McClennan, Smith, High Prairie, Peace River, all throughout.There are 1000's upon 1000's
of kids currently enrolled in French
immersion schools in these provinces as well.

Modern Quebec has in great part been built upon
wealth re-distribution from all the provinces
in the form of transfer payments.

The POINT is that Quebec, even with it's concerns
of Cultural dilution, need not seperate from
the historical and current realities.The seeds
of Francophones in Canada OUTSIDE of Quebec
have been sown, the roots very old, very much
part of Canada outside Quebec.If they want to
seperate from fellow Francophones, the price
will be isolation for all Francophones outside
of Quebec.The price is also no transfer payments.

Seperation isn't so simple, or purely positive.Quebec will
still be geographically sandwiched by 1000's
upon 1000's of Canadians, and Francophones
who currently live *outside* Quebec, in the
Maritimes and Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
Alberta and B.C.


Canada ain't so bad.The Liberals are despised.
Problems can be fixed, but the integration
of Francophones with Anglos outside of Quebec
is a part of great history and cannot be
eradictated.

There are millions of Anglos who view Francophones
as part of Canada's great history, and would
ask them to consider kicking the corrupt
bribing Liberals in the pants, rather than
fuming off into the seperatist abyss.

Consider ALL the countries around the world.Canada
ain't so bad.Canada's problems can be addressed
and fixed.

> of French dissent

Freudian slip?

Or another example of: Oh, canaduh?

<<Why do you Anglo Canadians have such a hard time seeing Quebec become a Nation? >>

You mustn't get all of your news from the Toronto Star/Globe/CBC. Most Cdns I know would welcome the concept of an EU style relationship with an independant QC nation rather than the current dysfuntional system. Provided of course Quebecois have the balls to ask a serious referendum question.

<<Can't you make it on your own?>>

Yes. Quebec is a have-not province. So we would actually do better on our own, if we didn't send capital to people instead of the other way around.

People talk about Francophones living outside Quebec, but what about Anglophones living in Quebec? Thanks to Bill 101 an estimated 300,000 have fled the province due to undemocratic language laws. A French Canadian moving to Toronto or Vancouver has the right to send their children to a French-language schoool, but any English Canadian moving to Montreal or Quebec City has no right to send their children to an English-language school.

It may not make sense for Quebec to seperate, given the fact that Canada and especially the United States are far more economically powerful and gone would be the days when Quebecers could rely on Albertan oil money in the form of Equalisation payments. And if they think they're going to avoid paying their share of the debt before they leave, they'll have another thing coming to them.

I am very much in favour of Quebec independence that is in accordance with international and Canadian constitutional law and which is fair to Canada. This means Quebec looses its rights to our passports and our currency. Full and complete independence period. And just to really piss off the separatists, I would like to further point out that Canadian law and internatinal law recognises the rights of the Cree to their land, and should they choose to remain within Canada, well...all I can say is, oh well!

We've gotten off topic haven't we? But compared to the status quo of the present, wouldn't many of us welcome a change either way in Quebec?

---
"All great truths begin as blasphemies" - George Bernard Shaw