Finally the rest of my "History of Canada" cartoon...it took me way too long to finish that...
To sum it all up, Canada had to fight along side Great Britain in the two World Wars. For Quebec, it stirred things up to go visit our european cousins in France because twenty years after his faits d'armes, general de Gaulle visited Expo 67 and gave massive support for Quebec separatism with his "Vive le Québec Libre". I'm not a quebecker, but to me that sentence had a positive effect on all of Canada because it forced us to build an identity of our own instead of just being England junior.
A decade or so later, Trudeau had our constitution repatriated from London in exchange for a Quebec "no" at the referendum of 1980 but Quebec refused to sign. A few years later, the Meech lake accords aimed to get Quebec to sign the constitution with a status as a "distinct society". The accord failed when an indian leader, Elijah Harper, rightfully reminded everyone that not being english doesn't make quebeckers all that special and the following boost in Quebec nationalism led to another referendum in 1995....and another No.
Why am I talking about all this? Because it is one thing that really gets on my nerves about this country; a binary vision of Canada. A vision where there is Quebec and the english, no room for anyone else. I grew up in a culture shaped by that vision...a vision that has no room for me.
Although you may not see it from Quebec city, everything outside of Quebec is not all english (even though we still drag the british crown along like a 40-year old who still lives with his mother. There's acadians like me, franco-ontariens, the descendents of asian immigrants who built our railroads, immigrants from places who have even more reasons to hate the British crown (like India) and people who know neo-colonialism better than we ever will (like the Congo) and, first and not least, First Nations.
Although you may not see it from Quebec city, everything outside of Quebec is not all english (even though we still drag the british crown along like a 40-year old who still lives with his mother. There's acadians like me, franco-ontariens, the descendents of asian immigrants who built our railroads, immigrants from places who have even more reasons to hate the British crown (like India) and people who know neo-colonialism better than we ever will (like the Congo) and, first and not least, First Nations.
It's not up to me to tell Quebeckers to stay or leave, but I appreciate people who can see this country in more than two colours. Fortunately, in the last few years, movements like Idle No More, comedians like Sugar Sammy who make us laugh in both languages, the NDP and acadian artists like Radio Radio and Lisa Leblanc are making this the Rainbow Nation of the North.
