Legault suspends campaign after death of Queen
François Legault suspended the election campaign for the day, following the death of the Queen; the PQ’s Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon objects to putting the Quebec flag at half staff: “F. Legault ne devrait pas traiter la reine d’Angleterre en chef de l’état qcois, ni donner de crédibilité à un régime colonial britannique illégitime au Qc,” he tweeted. I guess he knows all about colonial regimes.
GC 17:28 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
And Quebec isn’t filled with francophones who are here because of colonization?
Kevin 17:33 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
I guess PSPP is getting annoyed at being solicited for donations from his alma mater in England.
Chris 17:33 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
Are you implying some kind of hypocrisy?
We can’t change the past, the people here now are here now. But continuing to support colonialist structures is in the present and can be supported or opposed. What French colonial structures is that guy hypocritically advocating for while advocating against the British ones?
Kate 17:58 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
If the British regime was colonialist, so was the French.
Chris 18:51 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
Kate: true enough. And so?
GC 19:03 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
I don’t recall saying we could change the past, Chris. Britain’s past is just as immutable as Canada’s.
She wasn’t just “Queen of England”, as Plamondon said. She was also Queen of Canada, and we’re still in it. Did she do some shitty things in her seventy-year reign? Absolutely.
Kevin 19:09 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
I would rather a monarch trained for duty from birth over a Trump or a Putin. With a monarch, they know they serve only as long as we are willing to put up with them, and there is also the likelihood that they don’t really want the job.
No system is perfect, but the alternatives to our current mode of government, in our current era, will be disastrous.
qatzelok 19:52 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
@Kate: “If the British regime was colonialist, so was the French.”
In 1760, when Quebec fell to Britain, there were only about 40,000 French in all of North America. And they mostly lived among First Nations. Allied with First Nations.
There were 2 million British in the 13 colonies that year. Colonizing the hell out of N.A. and eventually wiping out all the First Nations once France was kicked out of N.A.
Everything in History isn’t equivalent. The French LOST in N.A. partially because they forgot to send over millions of self-created refugees like Britain did.
Kate 20:25 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
And the French only had the welfare of the indigenous people at heart, did they? No interest in the beaver pelts, the arable land, the potential for expansion into the rest of the continent?
Give me a break.
Uatu 21:48 on 2022-09-08 Permalink
France had Louisiana, about 1/3 of the US but Napoleon decided to sell. If he really wanted he could’ve made a huge French speaking territory in North America but chose not to. Why isn’t he vilified like les anglais?
Tim S. 09:28 on 2022-09-09 Permalink
If there’s anything I learned from “Histoire du Québec et Canada” it’s that the French tried desperately to send colonists, and failed. That failure does not create moral legitimacy.
Chris 14:45 on 2022-09-11 Permalink
GC: indeed you didn’t say the past could be changed, nor did I say you did. But you didn’t answer my question about your original comment, which I still don’t understand.
GC 23:49 on 2022-09-11 Permalink
My answer is: yes. There is definitely hypocrisy there.