The fête of language griping – on both sides

The Fête nationale tends also to be a festival of language griping in the media – on both sides of the fence. There’s dissatisfaction with the lack of francophone music played in stores – according to a survey which may or may not have asked leading questions – and children singing in English in schools – headlined as “promotion” of English, as if some entity were scheming behind the scenes to give the wrong language a boost.

The Journal is also annoyed at the difficulty in getting served in French in Ottawa businesses.

Michel David, in Le Devoir, writes about rampant bilingualism – this is about CEGEPs collaborating across language lines to offer bilingual programs, a thing that in some places might almost be considered a plus.

Meanwhile in the Gazette, Don Macpherson illuminates how the CAQ is trying to get anglo votes on the one hand, while with the other, running quite a different message and candidates like Gilles Proulx on the other, ahem, loin loin de la ville.