Martineau draws the “we hate Montreal” card
Now it’s Richard Martineau’s turn to write the We Hate Montreal column du jour, making out that the cancellation of an old‑fashioned seasonal stage show is equivalent to the entire metropolis feeling disdain for Quebec’s regions – and blaming it on Montreal having people here from other cultures.
Blork 10:52 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
I don’t understand how that is not a parody of a RM column. This guy gets paid for that?
Kate 11:24 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
We don’t know whether QMI is using ChatGPT by now.
Nicholas 11:56 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
We know Montreal has made it when it becomes a cultural signifier of allyship to hate it.
Kate 12:36 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
It’s not unusual for a metropolis to be resented by the wider populace. But I wonder how common it is for a media empire to base itself on dislike of the metropolis the way QMI does.
DeWolf 13:09 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
I wonder if we’ll ever see leaked text messages or emails that show it’s all an act – like how Tucker Carlson et al are actually quite disdainful of their audiences and fully aware of the bullshit they’re spouting.
The old Richard Martineau is a very hazy memory, but I seem to remember his columns in Voir poking the bear of Quebec nationalism and generally trying to take the piss out of certain cultural orthodoxies. Now he’s doing the same, but in a way that serves his QMI masters. Narcissist or mercenary? Or both?
Kate 14:05 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
I could believe Martineau is cynically writing this stuff to order. Not sure about MBC, though.
carswell 15:26 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
You’re not misremembering, DeWolf. In both his Ondes de choc column in Voir and on Gzowski’s Morningside program on the CBC, where he was an occasional social/political commentator, he was a generally left-leaning provocateur. IIRC Radio Canada even characterized him as left-wing. These days, he’s a sad PKP hack who’s coasting on his reputation and churning out reactionary drivel like today’s column, shitting on the city that’s his birthplace and that he still calls home.
DeWolf 15:46 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
There’s a column by Marie-France Bazzo in today’s La Presse that laments the state of Montreal. It’s more thoughtful than anything QMI would run, but it still hits the same points: Montreal is losing its soul, and that soul is “middle-class francophones” (dog whistle for white people). It’s a city that “lives differently and votes differently” to the rest of Quebec (actual quote) and this is somehow a problem.
That last point in particular really perplexes me. I know Quebec has a strong tendency towards groupthink, but when did the CAQ become Quebec? Do these people know that only 40% of the population voted for that party?
Kate 15:52 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
Here’s the Bazzo piece DeWolf describes.
Tim 20:45 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
I don’t think that there is a dog whistle. The author laments the power that real estate promoters have over the city and the fact that the middle class is being squeezed out by price increases in housing. This has already happened in Vancouver and Toronto.
Ian 21:18 on 2023-03-07 Permalink
Yeah, agreed – partially anyhow – Bazzo laments that the cities are becoming playgrounds for the rich.
She does talk a lot about the noticeable “recule” of French though – which totally is a dogwhistle.
Presumably only middle class French people can save Montreal but since they got chased out of Place Emile-Gamelin we’re done for. /s
Tangentially related, I have noticed that more of the beggars/ junkies around UQAM are French, whereas those around Atwater skew English. Even in despair we live within two solitudes.
H. John 10:16 on 2023-03-08 Permalink
This story seems to have more import in French media. It’s not just QMI.
I first heard it Monday morning on Paul Arcand when he dedicated more than 10 minutes to interviewing the show’s owner/producer; and then surprisingly giving Régis Labeaume time to jump in with his opinion on the loss of Quebec “regional” culture.
https://www.985fm.ca/audio/544340/faudrait-qu-il-reste-un-peu-de-culture-quebecoise-a-montreal-regis-labeaume
LaPresse also had an article.
https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/spectacles/2023-03-06/le-spectacle-decembre-abandonne-par-la-place-des-arts.php
Kate 10:54 on 2023-03-08 Permalink
Thanks, H. John.
I guess I get a Bad Anglo point because I was utterly unaware of this show for the entirety of its 20‑year run.