February 26, 2009
WOW!! Talk about calling a duck a duck!! The National Post's
editorial is reflecting what a lot of us feel about Quebec, Enough is Enough!!
We've bent over backwards, so far that our collective backs are now broken and
we don't even know how to stand up straight anymore!!! Maybe it was the
cowardice shown in the face of the threats from the separatists that has broken
the camel's back, maybe it is the accumulation of all the abuses we have
received in the face of our generosity time after time!! Whatever the reason, it
is time to tell them where to get off!! Read the National Post & enjoy the
sentiments shown by this national newspaper & if you agree, please write &
congratulate them on such a bold editorial.
Canada's problem is that we are willing to deny our history,
so says Rudyard Griffiths in the 2nd article. When I first arrived in Canada,
one of the 1st things that bothered me was a letter in the Ottawa Citizen that
British history was not allowed to be taught in Ontario unless special
permission is obtained from the Education Dept. History has been relegated to
the status of a "soft option", no longer a subject of importance. Knowing your
past is essential to calculating your future.
Incidentally, George M. contacted Horst Dresler about the
re-enactment and here is Horst's reply:
From: info@quebec09.com
To: George M.
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:17 AM
Subject: Re: Plains of Abraham
Many thanks for your words of support, they have been echoed
by many and are greatly appreciated.
Ft. Henry was definitely a possibility but your Premier kind of shut us out.
The re-enactment of the Plains of Abraham will take place this summer, there
will be no historical censorship!
Horst
My reply to Horst:
Dear Horst Dresler:
George McGill copied me on your answer and I would like to
know what we can do to help you in your determination to stage the re-enactment.
Childish behaviour should be slapped down, not applauded by having so much
sympathy paid to them so if Quebec wants to play at being silly idiots, then let
them!! If McGuinty is so stupid as to refuse a chance to earn some much-needed
tourist dollars, handed to him on a platter, then stage the re-enactment in the
States, preferably on the Quebec border!! I’m sure you guys would welcome the
opportunity!!
We are right behind you so please let us know what we can do to spread your
message!!
Kim
Petition to sign against cancellation of re-enactment:
For all those of us who truly care about the language fight
going on...please go to the following web page (http://thetruthxposed.com/) click
on the link for the petition (top right corner--first sentence--the word "here")
and sign the petition as soon as possible.
I will be sending our concern (possibly with a link to the petition) to all
relevant politicians and media by the end of today.
SO HERE IS OUR CHANCE TO SHOW THEM WE ARE A FORCE TO BE TREATED SERIOUSLY!!!
Also, tell your friends and have them tell their friends. etc. I will also be
putting this on Twitter, other Conservative blog sites. Hard-copies can be made
printed for those who are not on the internet.
George
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=1321665
National Post : Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Editorial: Tell Quebec where to get off
Each July at the annual re-enactment of the 1863 Battle of
Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania, the Union soldiers always win. Gen. George
Pickett's forces are always decimated in their futile charge up Cemetery Ridge
and the Confederates are always forced to slink off south with their tails
between their legs. Yet there are no petitions among Southerners to ban the
historical staging -- which takes place on a designated national battlefield --
just because it "rubs the noses" of modern-day sons and daughters of the
Confederacy "in their ancestors' defeat."
At the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium, the French
always lose to the British and Prussians, but France never files a complaint
with the United Nations. Each October's recreation of the Battle of Hastings in
1066 is even hosted by the English Heritage Society, the heirs of the losers.
It's too bad Quebec's nationalists lack such maturity. If they
did, then plans to re-enact the 250th anniversary of the 1759 Battle of the
Plains of Abraham wouldn't be the subject of violent threats by aggrieved
separatists seeking -- successfully, as it happens -- to shut down the event.
It was not the only time in recent months, of course, that
Quebec had stomped its collective foot and spineless federal politicians had
trembled. During last fall's federal election, Quebecers' overreaction to a joke
by Prime Minister Stephen Harper about cuts to arts funding caused the Tories to
promise to restore the grants -- some $47-million -- if only Quebec voters would
support them. They didn't, but the grant monies were reinstated anyway.
Every prime minister since John Diefenbaker has believed he
has discovered a magic incantation unknown to any of his predecessors that he
might invoke to charm Quebec into satisfaction with Confederation and,
ultimately, each has failed to placate la belle province.
Lester Pearson had his Three Wise Men, Pierre Trudeau had
bilingualism and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Brian Mulroney had both
the Meech Lake and the Charlottetown accords.
All failures.
The current PM, Stephen Harper, has even declared the
Quebecois a nation within a nation -- as close are they are ever likely to come
to a declaration of special constitutional status -- and given the provincial
government something of an official presence at international summits of
French-speaking nations. Yet one off-the-mark quip about artists' propensity for
pleading poverty while attending gala dinners -- a quip Quebecers mistakenly
perceived as a slight against their culture-- and all of Mr. Harper's efforts to
build bridges with Quebec voters vanished in a puff of smoke.
Enough of the decades of appeasement; it's time for Ottawa to
adopt a tough-love attitude toward Quebec. And who better to do that than Mr.
Harper and his Tories? They've got nothing to lose.
Since October's national campaign, Conservative support in
Quebec has nearly halved. Where eights months ago the Tories rivalled the Bloc
Quebecois for first place in popular support, now they stand at third or even
fourth in most polls. Last week, a CROP poll found the Tories with 16% support
-- equal to that of the NDP -- and Mr. Harper's personal popularity below 20%.
That means the Prime Minister and Cabinet can do the right
thing without risking their popularity: They have none.
They can start by reinstating the Plains of Abraham
re-enactment and, if need be, providing federal security for the event. They
also can end the unofficial federal policy that as near to half as possible of
all federal defence spending must go to manufacturers in Quebec.
While they're at it, they should tell the truth about
equalization. Quebec annually receives the most money -- nearly 50% of total
equalization, despite the fact that for decades now, Quebec's per capita
provincial GDP has been just 3% to 8% below the national average. There is no
"fiscal imbalance," at least not between Ottawa and Quebec. Most federal leaders
know the stats, they have merely been too frightened about the prospect of
Quebec leaving to give it voice.
Let's also take away the Quebec chair at the Francophonie.
Defend vigorously in court any challenges filed that seek to uphold the
minority-language rights of English-speaking residents in Quebec.
And stop jumping out of your skin every time Quebec says boo-hoo.
Such an approach won't make any friends in Quebec. But at
least everyone in the rest of the country won't keep feeling like suckers.
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=1321664
National Post : Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Rudyard Griffiths: A nation's amnesia
Parks Canada's decision to cancel the re-enactment of the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham is a worrying sign that Canadians' deep-seated
compulsion to whitewash the country's past is very much alive and well.
It is remarkable to think that in little more than a
generation, we succeeded in all but erasing our country's colonial past. The Red
Ensign was replaced by the Maple Leaf flag. The Dominion government became the
federal government, and later, Dominion Day was replaced by Canada Day. The word
"Royal" in the names of Crown agencies was replaced by "Canada." And, the notion
of Canada as a compact of French and English has been replaced by a
multicultural doctrine that sees the country as made up of minority groups that
define themselves as different and wish to remain so.
This rebranding of our national symbols is driven not simply
by a desire to assert the country's cultural and political independence; its
goal, as evidenced in the Plains of Abraham anniversary fiasco, is to sever the
identity of modern Canada from its historical moorings, a past perceived to be
made up mostly of wars, colonialism and interracial and regional conflict.
First and foremost, the blotting out of our colonial origins
supposedly allows national governments to avoid unduly provoking the country's
various regional groups, especially Quebec nationalists.
From Pearson onwards, the imperatives of Canadian unity have
been excuse enough to sweep the likes of Wolfe, Lord Durham and the symbols and
traditions of the Crown into the proverbial blue bin of history.
The desire to liberate Canada from the political and cultural
encumbrances of its colonial past was also fuelled, in no small part, by the
elites' view that the different ethnic groups immigrating to Canada would feel
unconnected to this history. Allegedly, the country would do a better job of
settling newcomers if the Canadian state promoted the notion that Canada was
made up of many equivalent identities rather than an overarching civic creed.
As I assert in my soon to be released book, Who We Are: A
Citizen's Manifesto, jettisoning the symbols and institutions associated with
our colonial past has served to undermine the cause of Canadian unity.
As thinkers such as George Grant and Charles Taylor have
correctly observed, an English-Canadian political culture weakened by the denial
of its own unique history has contributed to, rather than eased, French
Canadians' worries that the rest of Canada is still committed to building a
bicultural society along non-republican and non-assimilative lines.
Obscuring Canada's colonial past has also made it more
difficult for an increasingly diverse country to forge those essential bonds of
citizenship and community that all nations depend upon.
Newcomers to Canada, if they are exposed to Canadian history
and civics at all, are fed a watered-down version that focuses on the country's
recent past --primarily post-Second-World-War history -- and the rights and
privileges of citizenship.
To this day the history of Canada as told through provincial
history curricula and in much of our popular culture remains bereft of the
unifying and inspiring civics lessons that past generations derived from the
stories associated with the country's journey from colony to nation-state: its
military triumphs, its struggle for democracy and its bicultural foundations.
Indeed, I would argue that the absence of the traditions that
evoke the civic legacy of past generations haunts us like a lost limb. We know
from certain periods in our history that Canada is a nation that is greater than
the sum of its regions and linguistic groups. We know that the totality of who
we are is larger than the programs and institutions of the government of the
day.
But thanks to an intentionally induced amnesia surrounding the
colonial origins and symbols of our civic culture, including the primordial
drama that unfolded on the Plains of Abraham 250 years ago this summer, the path
back to a shared understanding of the country's nature and purpose is as
uncertain as ever.
Rudyard Griffiths' forthcoming book Who We Are: A Citizen's
Manifesto will be published this March by Douglas & Macintyre.
National Post : Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A loss Quebecers should celebrate
Re: Waving White Flag Over The Plains, Feb. 18.
The decision by the National Battlefields Commission to cancel
this summer's planned 250th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains
of Abraham is regrettable. It is sad that the fundamentalist outcry of a few
embittered separatists would cause the cancellation of what would have been an
educational and entertaining spectacle.
It is especially sad because the Battle of the Plains of
Abraham should be celebrated, not for who won the short skirmish but for its
aftermath. The enlightened articles of the "capitulation" agreement after the
cessation of hostilities led to the 1763 Treaty of Paris that gave New France
the guarantees that preserved its culture. The treaty broke with common practice
(think of the Acadian expulsion in the years before) and granted unprecedented
rights of religion, language and education that reinforced and protected the
culture of the former French subjects who now found themselves by happenstance
under British rule. Without this pivotal point in history, French in Quebec
today would probably be like it is in Louisiana -- a quaint Cajun cultural
tourist attraction and possibly not even an official language.
All Canadians should be celebrating this anniversary, but
perhaps none more so than les Quebecois.
Peter Goldring, MP for Edmonton East, Ottawa.
National Post : Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Is it time to say goodbye to la belle province?
Re: The Cure For Credit Crisis? La Separation, Bien Sur, Feb.
24.
It is not often that I turn to your front page for my daily
dose of humour, but today's cover did it for me. That Parti Quebecois leader
Pauline Marois could publicly propose, let alone think, that independence for
Quebec would solve the economic woes of our time made me laugh hysterically.
It is offensive to me, and to many Quebecers, I am sure, that
she could insult us with such nonsense. I am sick of hearing how much better off
the province of Quebec would be without the rest of us. The people hurt most by
this type of rhetoric are hard-working Quebecers who have been held economic
hostage by these people for decades.
Here's a magic recipe for the separatists: Come up with
something better than lies and inflammatory rhetoric and you might get us all
listening instead of laughing.
Kevin B, Vancouver.
Bravo! A voice long overdue. Quebec, please leave.
Ted R, Victoria.
Re: Tell Quebec Where To Get Off, editorial, Feb. 24.
Although separation would hardly benefit Quebec's economy, it
would do wonders for Canada's. It's time we had a referendum asking all
Canadians if Quebec should stay or go.
It brings a smile to think about it.
Scott G, Toronto.
Growing up in wartime England with our parents billeting two
Canadian ambulance attendants, and with Canadian troops camped on the Downs
around us, there was never any doubt that Canada was a country. Having now lived
in Canada as a citizen for some 40 years, I can only suggest that if Quebec
finds all that is good and worthwhile about the country an unacceptable way of
life, then it would seem that the time for parting has come.
If this is so, let us part as friends, with good wishes for
Quebec's success and with the assurance of the fullest co-operation for the
future of this new country.
Jim V, Ont.
Re: A Loss Quebecers Should Celebrate, letter to the editor,
Feb. 24.
Letter-writer and MP Peter Goldring omitted one vital comment
from his succinct summary of what Quebecers owe to the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
While he is correct to state that had the Battle of the Plains not happened,
Quebec would be a "quaint Cajun cultural tourist attraction," he should have
added that many Canadians feel that if that had occurred, then today we would
not remain encumbered with the albatross that is Quebec.
Malcolm B, B. C.
THE LAST WORD TO LICIA CORBELLA
http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/corbellareport/archive/2009/02/17/when-bully-separatists-win.aspx
Corbella Report
When bully separatists win
By streams 02-17-2009
How do you say, "Get over it, already," in French?
Or, how about, "no sense in crying over spilled milk"? Or,
"what's done is done". Or, "you can't change history."
Oops. Well, apparently in Canada you can change history, or at
least quell the retelling of it simply by threatening violence.
That's what's happened with the National Battlefields
Commission, that was planning on re-enacting the Plains of Abraham battle on
July 1 -- the 250th anniversary of the 1759 battle on the small chunk of land
outside the walls of Quebec City.
Never mind that this battle, in which both Wolfe and Montcalm
were famously killed, is key to the history of our great country. It appears it
causes great anxiety to Quebec separatists and so now a rather innocent but
accurate re-enactment of our history that would have had history buffs and those
people who like playing with soldiers spending some of their increasingly
shrinking tourist dollars in la belle province, the commission surrendered.
Actually, the lead paragraph of Graeme Hamilton's story in the
National Post Tuesday, February 17 edition said it so well:
"A ragtag army of Quebec separatists, armed only with Internet
petitions and menacing e-mails, appears to have triumphed where the French army
failed 250 years ago, preventing another British victory of the Plains of
Abraham."
Apparently, the separatists threatened to attack tourists
attending the re-enactment with paint-ball guns!
Pretty soon some people will be demanding that their kids not
sing the Canadian national anthem and schools will accommodate them! Oh, wait!
That's too has happened.
You know, there's a saying that says, those who stand for
nothing will fall for anything!
What will this country stand for 250 years from now? At this
rate, the separatists, the whiners, the anthem haters, the flag despisers will
all have won out and the vast majority of us will have accommodated them and us
out of a country.
Quelle dommage!
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