Hey, long time no blog post. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer--especially you Quebeckers who are now in the middle of a provincial election, and now apparently mired in an old, tired debate on language. *Yawn*.
Sun News Network's host of "The Source", Ezra Levant has rightfully lambasted PQ leader Pauline Marois for attacking anglophones and freedom of speech in general on her idea to force businesses to operate in French that employ over 10 people from the current 50.
Ezra also mentions the federal government spending $100,000 for the language commissioner to go to all the airports to see if customers are being offered both languages and derides that move as well.
However, my political Spidey-senses tell me that the timing of that move is suspect. Don't you find it interesting how the Harper government, not exactly popular in Quebec, of all governments, would commission this commission for the commissioner (sorry, couldn't help myself) right in the middle of a Quebec provincial election? I sure do.
So why the move? Is it to show Quebeckers that the federal government is also protecting the French language within Canada? Well of course it does. And if francophones like Pauline Marois don't already appreciate how much has been spent on protecting French, which she obviously doesn't, then they can believe her tripe, vote PQ, vote "Oui", and watch as businesses and talent continue to leave Quebec for better pastures and freedom in other provinces.
But note that if it wasn't for bilingualism, we probably wouldn't have a federal debt! Because since official bilingualism, the federal government and provincial ones in total have spent hundreds of billions on this useless program and where has it gotten us? Higher costs for goods and services and more empty threats from separatists who'll NEVER appreciate how much the rest of the country has bent over backwards for them time and time again, year after year, billions and billions later.
If Montreal and Quebec City were to become the economic urban powerhouses as circumstances seemed they were destined for in the 1960's, perhaps they would have attracted more talent and businesses as they were doing and people would have wanted to learn French naturally because it would be a smart thing to do. Much like learning Spanish in the U.S., it certainly helps to know it and why I started learning it during my work travels there.
Although English has a minority of first-language speakers in the world, English continues to dominate.
It's time to end official bilingualism in Canada and let language flow naturally as it should.
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