www.politiquebec.com

[AF]

Just go already

People in the rest of Canada should realize that the separation of Quebec wouldn’t be a disaster — in fact, it could be very beneficial

Reed Scowen

The Ottawa Citizen

jeudi 1er mars 2007

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The current Quebec election campaign is the rerun of a film we have been watching, over and over, since we were children.

(...)

Texte complet:

http://www.vigile.net/spip/article4812.html

[tony montana]

Inquiétant de réaliser que le ROC ne veut plus de nous.

Et il y en a encore qui pense qu'on sera riche une fois souverains...

[Pèreplexe]

Inquiétant de réaliser que le ROC ne veut plus de nous.

Et il y en a encore qui pense qu'on sera riche une fois souverains...

So , maybe this time they won't get in the way if we try again to split .

You should understand that that you have to be 2 to be in love if one of the 2 is not in love anymore there is not much that you can make to keep the relation alive .

[Delenda]

Reed Scowen répond à Henry Aubin (Gâzette) (qui l'accusait de laisser tomber la minorité anglo)


Community needs to identify leadership

REED SCOWEN, The Gazette

Published: Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Last week, Henry Aubin reviewed my book, Time To Say Goodbye, in his column. He had some positive things to say, and some criticisms as well, which is fine with me. But when he gets to the parts of the book in which I talk about the anglophone community in Quebec he is not only critical, he gets personal. Seeing me as overly pessimistic about the future of our community, he says it's because I'm too old - he says I'm on my way, muttering, to a cemetery in the Eastern Townships.

Ouch! The Senior Citizen's Association is going to be after you on this one, Henry. As for me, I just want to set the record straight. I have spent 30 years pretty much full time, thinking, talking, writing and acting on behalf of the anglophone community. And I'm still doing it, My current book has four chapters devoted to Quebec's anglophones.

The opinions in the book are my own, but they have been strongly influenced by conversations over the past 18 months with informed and thoughtful members of our community.

I'm not abandoning the anglo community. I'm describing, honestly, the way I see it. And what I see is a smaller number of anglophones living in Quebec in the years ahead and a declining sense of identification with an "anglophone community."

I get the impression Aubin agrees with me up to this point. But while I believe there is not much we can do, he thinks the situation "underscores the need for people with leadership ability to get involved in public life." He says "It's time for people to step up and fight for this community, not quit on it."

I, too, would like to see that happen, but if people with leadership ability are to materialize they must have something to lead and there are not many anglophone organizations left to which they can attach themselves and participate fully - in English.

Yes, there are a number - declining - of educational institutions, churches and synagogues, private social-service groups and some municipal councils that use English. But specifically anglo organizations like Alliance Quebec have been dissolved.

So let me make a positive suggestion. There is only one anglophone institution left in Quebec that fully reflects our community - old and young, women and men, rich and poor, urban and rural, from every ethnic group - and which has the finances and organizational structure needed to get something done. That institution is The Gazette. ( )

Why doesn't The Gazette organize a major conference on the subject. It could be put together in six months and its preparation would provide anglophones and our remaining institutions an opportunity to think about our community in a positive way and perhaps identify some new leadership.

Its conclusions could be a starting point for a new dynamic, and The Gazette would be making a real contribution to solving a problem it has regularly identified on its editorial pages.

I'll admit I am doubtful such a conference will see the light of day. I don't think the will is there, even at The Gazette.

But I would very much like to be proved wrong and, if the project does materialize I promise to stay alive for one more year and do anything I can to help.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007
other stories

[Orzabal]

Et il y en a encore qui pense qu'on sera riche une fois souverains...

I see it more like in the old USSR, where we would line up for our baloney and stale bread….

[francois25b]

Et il y en a encore qui pense qu'on sera riche une fois souverains...

I see it more like in the old USSR, where we would line up for our baloney and stale bread….

On va repetter le slogan d'un certain parti politique dans notre beau Quebec
"Du pain debout, plutot que de la viande a genoux"

C'est quand meme fantastique que certain veulle nous amnener dans le paterne d'un pays en voie de developpement.

[Delenda]

Quebec anglos aren't the only ones suffering a dearth of leaders

Decline in church attendance might well be a factor

HENRY AUBIN, The Gazette

Published: Thursday, March 15, 2007

In the new, revised edition of his book Time to Say Goodbye, Reed Scowen made a point that is pertinent to anglophone Quebecers.

"It is impossible to identify a leader of the English community today," wrote the former MNA from Notre Dame de Grace. "Most people, when asked for a name (of a leader), might refer to the director of an anglophone educational institution, health centre or religious organization; these are competent people, but with public interests that do not go beyond their professional mandate."

He said the demise of Alliance Quebec, which he once chaired, is symptomatic of this disappearance of anglo Quebec's "leadership infrastructure."


At first, I thought this was an attractive idea. Upon reflection, I wonder about its utility.

There are two kinds of English-speaking leaders. One kind defended the English community and its institutions. Only 10 or 20 years ago people, like Gretta Chambers, Joan Fraser, Michael Goldbloom, William Johnson, Robert Libman, Eric Maldoff, Alex Paterson and Scowen himself, to name just a few, were regularly speaking up (often with sharply different viewpoints) for the interests of anglophones, mostly on language issues. Today, they've moved on, and no one has really replaced them.

Why? One reason is surely that anglos have more or less made peace with the Quebec government on language.

Although many anglos do not feel fully accepted by the francophone majority, (houhou, ne serait-ce pas le contraire? Que la minorité anglo ne nous ait jamais accepté, en refusant d'apprendre notre langue et en se ghettoisant dans leur WI?) the two solitudes are now both less solitary. Many anglo recalcitrants have died or left the province, a la Howard Galganov. Many anglos have married francophones. And the "children of Bill 101" - including new Quebecers who are part of the increasingly heterogeneous English community - feel easy in both languages.

In short, the pressures that produced defenders of the English-speaking community after the 1976 election are less acute today. The need for new leaders of this kind is not so evident.

The second kind of leader is not so much an anglo leader as a leader who happens to be an anglo. He or she contributes significantly to the larger society. Such people are also on the wane. Quebec needs them as much as ever. (c'est bien la dernière chose que le Québec a besoin)

I'm thinking of people who had comfortable careers but embraced community service. In recent decades they've included, among many others, lawyer Stephen Cheasley (a force behind both the McGill College Ave. and Old Port renaissances, and also the Exporail Museum), engineer Michael Fainstat (No. 2 in city hall in the late 1980s), pediatrician Victor Goldbloom (who as a Quebec minister helped save the Olympics), architect Phyllis Lambert (a powerhouse on heritage issues and low-cost housing), scientist Abe Limonchik (city hall's Mr. Democracy), lawyer Herb Marx (who as Quebec justice minister in the late 1980s was the last anglo to hold a high-status cabinet portfolio) and chemist Peter Trent (who led the demerger campaign).

The rarity of such people today is not, however, just an English Quebec phenomenon. It extends to French Quebec as well. (Ah oui? Jalousie, peut-être, que de vouloir nous entraîner dans la noyade avec vous)

There is, of course, no lack of francophones in leadership roles: Power is more accessible to them. (encore heureux. On est ici chez nous, si vous ne l'aviez pas encore remarqué) But I'm not sure they're as public-spirited as before. Montreal's drift under mayors Gerald Tremblay and Pierre Bourque reflects more their love of power for power's sake than purposeful vision. Their predecessors, the social-democrat Jean Dore and the modernizer Jean Drapeau, showed a greater sense of public service.

As well, the three baby-boomers vying for the premiership in this month's election come up short when you compare their sense of direction with that of a Rene Levesque or Jean Lesage.

A book published this week - La culture quebecoise est-elle en crise? - indirectly throws light on this trend. Co-authors Gerard Bouchard and Alain Roy surveyed 141 intellectuals and found that 64 per cent believe Quebec is in crisis: Egocentrism, materialism and cynicism are more common than ever. As one respondent, sociologist Guy Rocher, puts it, the ideal of social solidarity has given way to the "ideology of personal success."

I think the decline in church-going might well also be a factor. Churches bring people together and build a sense of community. (bon, des petites leçons de morale, à c't'heure. Comme si les anglo allaient au service tous les dimanches)

But the phenomenon stretches far beyond Quebec. A book by San Diego State psychologist Jean Twenge called Generation Me says that if you think North American boomers are self-absorbed and lack community spirit, you should see their university-age progeny. Vanity and self-entitlement are the new virtues. She traces it to child-rearing.

In sum, the radical individualism of our day is inherently at odds with community spirit.

I share Scowen's concerns about this trend. But it'll take more than a conference to stem it. It'll take a sea change in modern culture.

Henry Aubin is The Gazette's regional-affairs columnist.

haubin@thegazette.canwest.com.