CFN – So I was sampling some Maple syrup at my friends sugar shack today near Ormstown Quebec realizing that I might in fact be a bit of a hypocrite.
I’m a flawed human. I like to think that some of those flaws can make me special at times, but a flaw is a flaw.
I’m adult enough to admit when I’m wrong though and last month I wrote a piece suggesting that we Boycott Quebec this summer to make a statement about Bill 14 and that nasty piece of work known as Pauline Marois and her merry band of misery makers.
Driving into Montreal today and then back through some of the prettiest country side around and then sampling some rich late season Maple syrup, when the Maple flavour is richest, got me thinking that I got it wrong.
That’s the problem with many boycotts. They just aren’t thought out enough. So I’m going to apologize to any that I’ve offended. I’m going to ask anyone that I asked to boycott Quebec to not boycott Quebec, or anything really.
I’ll still pick and choose who I support and where I shop; but I’m not going to ask anyone to follow suit at an organizational level such as a boycott.
Quebec really does have a lot to offer even of some there make it hard for outsiders to appreciate it.
There are services and smoked meat to appreciate. There is Maple syrup, awesome poutine and Spruce beer to think about…and the Habs just might go deep in the play offs.
No, no Quebec boycott for this boy; not today.
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)
First of all I laughed out loud when I read “Pauline Marois and her band of misery makers “..lol..With your permission I just may use that one .
Boycotts are tough to follow through. I appreciate the reasons, but also understand why you changed your mind today.
I too am from La Belle Province and it is just that . Too bad it is being ruined and humiliated by a bunch of idiots like the PQ.
They have caused an enormous amount of resentment and hate in Quebec as well as the rest of Canada .There are fresh linguistic divides now that never were before this new PQ government was elected .Let us remember that the majority of Quebec voters DID NOT vote PQ.
These divisions have spread right across Canada because the Canadian public is finally waking up and saying ENOUGH .
I am glad that you enjoyed your day and had time for reflection . Sometimes that gives us new energy to pursue our goals by a different route .
Wow Jamie…..now that is a great piece of news **smile** Somewhere deep inside, you do have a heart…..just teasing.
Know what? Boycotting is destructive to any community and serves no real purpose. It shows displeasure then what?
Quebec is a beautiful province and has so much to offer so why not enjoy especially with summer just around the corner……..if it ever gets here that is. Their Maple syrup is to die for.
As for the Habs………..don’t hold your breath, they may go far but not far enough. Don’t waste your hard earned money by betting on them.
Check out my brothers Maple Sugar Bush just past Vernon, Hwy 31, first left, go east about 5 km.
Jamie Québec has a great deal to offer and just because there are some people who are like Mme Marois doesn’t mean that everybody is like that. I even worked with a girl from east Montréal and had a hard time speaking English and we were in the federal government and a nice person to boot. She was one of the officers and well educated. I have always stuck up for the Québecois and I will not put them down because of certain people who want to destroy Canada. I believe in bilingualism and always will because we are based on two official languages whether some people like it or not. Enjoy “la belle province” and all it has to offer Jamie.
Growing up and living Eastern Ontario allows us to meet many folks and for me, language is not the deciding issue on being friends or not. Sharing common values, laughing at the same things over a Beau’s, and mutual respect play a larger part. Government’s are not allowing us the same respect to get along better.
I will continue to purchase the way I follow sports, local, then provincial and then country.
Eric it was never about language for me, but language politics and injustice. Yesterday at the Sugar Shack it was truly the reality. There were three of us chatting. One unilingual Francophone, myself with my botchy French and my friend who is fluently bilingual. We told a lot of stories and somehow we all laughed at the punch lines 🙂 It was a lot of fun and our language was never an issue.
Even though I have been told I can’t get my head around it, you have hit the nail on the head admin. Most of us have friends and family members who speak various languages and get along as families will every day. When people, all people, are pushed, things happen since an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force.
@ Jamie
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, in this case,
misery, is in the imagination of the beholder.
When I first read your editorial : I’m boycotting Quebec…
I thought. There he goes, again, stirring up the troup’s hatred of Québec.
He’s got to get their fingers going…
Or bussiness will be slowing down.
@ Jules
I really appreciate your favoring bilingualism but there is a limit to it being a good thing for Québec as the only Francophone majority state in America.
Madame Marois understands that, all parties, in Québec and in Canada understand it the courts understand it, I understand it and I really do hope you and many other Anglophones will come to understand it too…
Only then will there will be less support for the
PQ’s position on independance.
But,you see : what good for the Francophone may not be good for the CFN and LFA.
You may eventually, have to take a side.
Gibby’s
Jamie wrote: It was a lot of fun and our language was never an issue.
To read that is music to my ears and that is the way it should be.
I don’t mean to start a long drawn out debate but your post seems to contradict what the clan has been saying about unilingual french Quebec residents.
Stella
I thought you and the cornwall ruling elite had firm conviction that there was NO CLAN..in Cornwall..just a few life destroying perverts i guess.
Pierre my mother was a born Québecois, her mother could hardly put two words together in English without making a muck of it. My dad was English, Irish and Scotch born in Cornwall. As for sides Pierre I take no side at all. My husband is Lebanese born and raised and will always be even after almost 40 years here in Canada. I have the United Nations mixed in me and I don’t take sides. I hear the good and the bad of all sides and believe me Pierre I will tell you something that “no particular nationality is better than the other” so about taking sides I don’t. I was educated in the French schools and I am much better in French than English and I haven’t regretted one second of being in a French school in all my 62 years of life.
Mme Marois is not a bad woman and wants to keep the French language alive and well and I give her all the credit for wanting it to be like that. Canadians are narrow minded except for those who travel. When you go to Europe you will see the young generation of today speak more than one language. If one is German they speak other languages and the same in France and other countries because they educated themselves. When you want to learn something you can.
My own husband only knew Arabic and French when he came to Canada and I can assure you that after two months he really started to learn. Oh there is a word that he asked me about and I didn’t know the real meaning and now I have to tell him about it and we will all laugh now. We learn from one another and that is what is good.
Pierre the politicians cause the troubles as well as people who do not want to learn and share. Life is a learning process and I love to learn new things.
Jamie wrote, “I’m going to apologize to any that I’ve offended. I’m going to ask anyone that I asked to boycott Quebec to not boycott Quebec, or anything really.”
AND
“I’m not going to ask anyone to follow suit at an organizational level such as a boycott.”
I am not much for things like boycotts in a certain sense. Similar to what you said, i may pick and choose individual shops and things like that but, the real effectiveness of boycotts disappeared (for all intents and purposes) with the advent of humongous multinational companies.
That being said, i can’t help but get the distinct feeling of someone having been slapped on the hand for, “being bad.”
Not slapped, but wise people have to admit when they were wrong. A lot of people I respect talk to me on a regular basis. I can’t be right all the time 😉
I’d rather admit to being wrong than knowingly be a hypocrite.
jules, I take some offence to your statement that included “as well as people who do not want to learn and share”.
Like you, many of us have friends or family members with Francophone roots and do share, as I assume you mean culture. Your comment is directed it appears, to the 82,5% of Canadians who do not speak both English and French. Many of whom create, build and do wonderful things in their communities, without a need to speak, learn or share another language for fulfillment.
Good to read this Jamie… Now you know why I am defensive about QC… It is a pretty place and I never have to many issues there with my French although probably not as “botchy” as yours.. (your words) for some reason when I cross that QC border and the rough roads in places I feel at home.. guess it is because I lived there for 64 years… I have that little bakery in St Antoine d”Abbe where I am always welcome and they always talk with me.. Mostly in French but that is a little town that is mostly French..
Enjoy the good things and leave the rest … that is what I think of most things…