How many times have the media, a pundit or politician gotten this wrong. "Canada as a nation..." Canada is NOT a nation - it is, and always has been, a confederation. If we misuse language, if the media are not reminded of this mistake, if they are not constantly corrected, citizens are going to be muddled forever with wrong language, wrong thinking and wrong conclusions.
Being Canadian is not a nationality, it is a citizenship.
Nationalism is akin to fascism. And any politician of any stripe should steer clear of aligning themselves with nationalism. Being patriotic is one thing. Being a nationalist is like being a separatist - it is the top of the slippery slope to becoming someone who is willing to be aligned with ethnic cleansing. Remember the Balkans? I know that's really extreme, but that is the logical extreme conclusion of nationalism. Nationalism is about ethnicity.
Tonight in the House of Commons Quebec and les Quebecois, et les Quebecoise were declared a nation within a united Canada. And now, they can just as well be a nation without Canada. Why not now declare all French-speaking Canadians - whose first language is French, a nation? Then everyone in Canada who has Quebec roots, who has French roots, Haitian roots, Acadians, or those with French African roots, French Asian roots could all be a nation together? This would also include les Franco-Ontarians, les Franco-Sasquois, les Franco-Albertains etc. But no...
Now we have a nation of Quebecois amongst us. Has Harper begun to seed the field for special rights? Difference rights? They are different and so deserve to be declared a nation of ..., well you get my drift.
Nationalism. It breeds this kind of thinking. "All the X people - GO HOME!" Where have we heard this before? Civil Rights Movement? Even if home was only home 400+ years ago. "All Y people - you have fewer rights! Heard this recently? Gay marriage movement? In my Canada, everyone has the same rights, everywhere, all the time. Now, back to confederation, Quebec may have civil law and the rest of Canada, common law, but that's because during the formation of our country, it was peacefully decided that it made sense to have this distinct difference, just as the language and culture of Quebec was to remain different since its majority was Catholic and French speaking whereas the rest of Canada at that time was not. And since then, provincially mandated laws have protected those differences.
Having been conceived as a Confederation, Canada was realistically diverse, with two cultures, two languages and its aboriginal nations' cultures and languages from its beginnings as a country. During its expansion from sea to sea to sea, it welcomed other cultures, other languages and grew in prosperity. Today, politicians babble about multiculturalism and nationalism in the same breath and breed a wrong-headed notion among our many friends, neighbours and countrymen and women who look at each other and wonder how they fit into the mosaic that seems now to be about division than diversity, more about special than equal.
No wonder Les Quebecois have been so frustrated for so long. Anglophones cannot even speak their own language well. Hence a great notion - nation - confederation... gggaaaahhhh...
In reality, Harper moved now on this "Nation of Quebecois" motion to pre-empt Ignatieff and the other Liberals in the Liberal Leadership Convention this upcoming weekend in Montreal. Harper didn't want Liberals capturing any Quebec's "nationalism" votes in any upcoming national election. And Harper did this, with Ignatieff's help (since Iggy doesn't get the picture of confederation either, using the word "nation" at the drop of any beret, cowboy hat or bonnet]. Neither gave without any consideration of longer term implications on Canada's confederation, its constitution, its actual political future as writ larger than the Conservative majority victory of Harper or the Liberal leadership "victory" may or may not gain. How bloody minded of them. And yet another reason NOT to vote for either Conservative or Liberal in any election to come. Their intention was malignant. That's the comedy of it, and the tragedy.
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I just this evening went to the movies and saw Bobby. Oh, the music - oh the dreams - oh the compassion, oh the oratory. Wow - when will a leader emerge to rise above all the petty foolishness of divide and defeat, and instead, bring us together with unity without uniformity, diversity without division. With Quebec Canada is better. With Canada, Quebec is a larger cultural and language entity in the continent and the world. Hopefully, we can each see the other more clearly in a morning that dawns in a rising sun of a hopeful future together.
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