The blueprint for a sovereign Quebec, Our Hearts in Our Work, says there are many ways Quebecers are different from other Canadians:
Philosophy: "We're more respectful of individual rights, more tolerant and more permissive towards the people around us." Quebecers don't give a hoot for political correctness.
I see a gross contradiction between "respectful of individual rights" and trying to generalise and stereotype Quebecers in other parts of the document as "different from Other Canadians" in a collective manner. Categorising people into "us" and "them" is fundamentally inconsistent with treating people with individual respect and dignity.
Although I have lived in Quebec as a Canadian citizen for more than 8 years, call Hull my adopted home town, and pay 6 income tax returns for a single family (4 personal (Federal and Quebec), 2 small business (Federal and Quebec)), I seem to be treated as one of the "people around us". Here is my testimony of why I am different from the "Quebecers" as defined in the document.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Television: Nine of the 10 most watched programs are produced in Quebec. Other Canadians prefer foreign shows.
Nine of the 10 television programs I watch are "foreign" (not produced in Quebec) because my family likes Science and Sci-Fi shows.
Découverte (produced in Quebec by SRC/CBC)
@discovery.ca (foreign)
Invention (foreign)
Reboot (foreign)
SeaQuest (foreign)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (foreign)
Star Trek: Voyager (foreign)
The Next Step (foreign)
The X-Files (foreign)
Beyond 2000 (foreign)
Beyond Tomorrow (foreign)
I would be glad to watch produced-in-Quebec television programs, regardless of the language, if they have high science and technology content.
Is "Star Trek: The Original Series" considered to be a foreign show even though its captain William T. Kirk (William Shatner) is from Montreal and has kept Canadian citizenship over the years? I gather there is a building named after him at McGill University in the Province of Quebec.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Advertising: Campaigns are more human and have more bite.
I don't bite any campaign, human or inhuman.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Spending: More on lottery tickets and personal life insurance than other Canadians.
I don't buy lottery tickets and I don't have personal life insurance.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Style: Quebecers spend more on clothes and consider joie de vivre, as well as fashion sense, to be very important.
I spend very little in clothes, but a lot in computers and telecommunications. I consider my joie de vivre to be exploring in cyberspace and surfing the net.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Diet: They are concerned about calories, while other Canadians "care more about the nutritional value of foods."
I "care more about the nutritional value of foods", but I am also concerned about calories.
In "Vive les differences?", the Citizen writes:
Exercise: They do more cycling.
I do cycling.
If the government of Quebec considers me a minority who is tolerated and permitted instead of accepting me as an individually distinct but fully contributing participant to its society, then it is time for me to leave.
My vision of Canada is to have a federal government to guarantee democratic citizenship and set standards. Provincial governments can deliver virtually all services with no overlap, duplication or redundancy, while honouring fundamental principles of comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility. I would also like to feel comfortable and receive these services in either official language from coast to coast to coast.
Today, the medicare doesn't apply to me because the government of Quebec doesn't honour the portability for out-of-province medical services that I receive in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada.
I subscribe to the Ottawa Citizen instead of a daily newspaper in Québec because I don't have an alternative - Le Droit is based in Ottawa, so is the Ottawa Sun. I would be glad to switch if there is a local newspaper in Quebec with comparable value and cut-out coupons, regardless of the language.
