Blessed by the Potato

I’m shocked and awed at the government’s latest motion to recognize Quebec as a “nation”. It’s a pretty dumb thing to do in the first place, and can really only lead to division down the road. I’m also really shocked that it’s the Conservatives doing this, since they’re usually the first party to stand up and oppose the “special needs” of the French community. It makes me wonder just what the heck is in the drinking water up in Ottawa: usually we can count on the Cons to make stupid, wrong-headed promises, and follow up on a few of them. Instead, with a shakey minority government, they’ve broken a big campaign promise* and broken out something crazy like this.

Yes, Quebecois have their own “cultural identity”, but so does almost every other group you can think of (muslims, scots, gansta rappers, liberals, protestants, gold prospectors, hockey players). Maybe it’s because I’m permanently locked into an English Canadian mindset, but I just don’t see the Quebecois as being all that special. Yes, they did play a big part in our country’s history, but we already recognize that with a huge amount of protection for the language and culture. [Plus, part of that history was losing a war to the English. Props to my man Wolfe, who included a promise of religious freedom for the conquered.]

I hate to make it an us-vs-them sort of thing, since we’re all Canadians together, but that’s what “nation” status will inevitably do. And from there, it won’t be too many decades before nation-within-a-nation status is transmuted into a full-blown seperate nation, and that will get really ugly.

* – Full disclosure: breaking of said promise has wiped out ~10% of my net worth.