Bye Bye, Canada

Francisco Toro is a Venezuelan journalist, political scientist and blogger. Covering Venezuela as a freelance foreign correspondent from 1999 to 2003, he reported for the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times. Since 2002, he runs Caracas Chronicles, an English-language blog on all things Venezuelan. He currently writes for the Canadian edition of The Huffington Post.

The latest edition of Radio-Canada's yearly comedy special, Bye Bye 2011, inspired him a post in his New York Times blog:Living in Québec, it's often hard to shake the feeling that Canada is "somewhere else" — a different country with a different culture, a different language and different priorities. Québec has its own television personalities, its own pop icons, its own celebrity chefs — household names in the province all blissfully unknown in the rest of Canada. As a newcomer here, this strikes me as marvelous: while the rest of English-speaking North America marches inexorably toward cultural homogeneity, Québec is keeping alive a vibrant cultural life of its own.Click here to read the whole story and read American reactions to it.

An ironic observation

Results of a new study from Concordia University recently reported by The Gazette show that most Canadians still aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables every day. The study also found that the Québécois significantly eat more fresh produce than other Canadians.

I wasn't overly surprised by this finding. Having shared many business meals with Torontonians and other Canadians over the years, it always was a given for me that our culinary cultures are different. Stretching it to certain foods was never... well... a stretch. And this isn't about Pepsi and Jos Louis.

The report points at Québec's long history of farming to explain this difference. My personal take at it has more to do with background and popular culture.

Compared to other North Americans, the average Québécois has much better access to contemporary Mediterranean culture from France and other French-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Recent immigrants from Lebanon even managed to popularize a local recipe of Shish Taouk in Montréal. Call it the new bagel or smoked meat.

As for popular culture, recent years have seen a proliferation of TV programs about food on Québécois channels. Ciel, mon Pinard!, for example, had more to do with culinary education than simple recipe execution. Other current shows, such as Radio-Canada's L'épicerie [in French only] and Kampaï [in French only], build on the importance of a healthy diet.

Anyway... what startled me a bit when reading The Gazette's story was the way the reporter presented this Québec peculiarity:"Surprisingly, the province that invented poutine actually has a higher consumption of fresh produce than other provinces. [...] maybe it's the only way to negate the effects of cheese curds and gravy."It took me a little while to pinpoint it, but there it was... just a few words that betrayed the writer's objectivity. She wasn't simply reporting the news; she was writing she didn't expect it. And I thought... "well... this isn't a column... why am I reading about the writer's perspective?".

I wrote her about it. She replied that "it was intended as a fun little ironic observation".

It's not that big of a deal really. Still, I'm wondering how an ironic observation contributes to the journalistic integrity of a credible newspaper.

English: the future of French TV

Bazzo.tv is a current affair television show hosted by Marie-France Bazzo on Télé-Québec. The channel reaches a limited number of viewers and ideas to increase ratings are welcomed. Former PQ MNA Camil Bouchard chips in his own 2¢ to make the most out of this interesting show.

Click [CC] once started for English subtitles.



Anyone who gets Camil's humor understands the disconnect sometimes conveyed by Canadian editorials about Québec. Click here to watch other interesting editorials [in French only] on Bazzo.tv.

Sacre bleu: New Habs coach unilingual

The year is ending with a bit of linguistic controversy in Montréal. The nomination of a unilingual coach at the helm of the Canadiens two weeks ago didn't go unnoticed and this grunge is being carried over in the new year. A demonstration [Google translation] is under preparation for January 7th at the Bell Centre.

A recent poll [Google translation] suggests that as much as 80% of the population disagrees with the nomination of a unilingual coach. "What's the fuss?" you wonder... there are only a few French-speaking players in the team and talks in the dressing room are by far predominantly in English. Is this yet another example of Québec's intolerance towards English? Well... the players aren't the only ones the coach has to talk to and... you see... the Québécois like to understand what they're being told.

The relationship between the Habs and their fans is deep and goes a long way back. Founded in 1909, "Le Club de Hockey Canadien" was to be the team of the Francophone community in Montréal, composed of Francophone players. Why use the word "Canadien" then? Simply because that's how the French-speaking population called itself in those days. They were neither French nor British North Americans, like their English-speaking counterparts who had yet to acknowledge their Canadianity. For the undereducated that he was, up until the 60s, the average French Canadian didn't have much of a model to relate to other than hockey players. And what models!... six championship cups in the 50s, four in the 60s, six in the 70s... 24 in total.

Today, the team counts very few French speaking players and its fan base is much more diversified then it originally was. But the team's past success left deep marks in the population's psyche. The Montréal Canadiens continue to take an immense share of media coverage in the province. In 2010, Influence Communication reported that sports were at the top of all priorities in Québec media and that 85% of sports news is about les Canadiens. Other NHL teams and other sports, be they professional or amateur, accounted for less than 10%. Every day, 35% of what was written on the NHL in media around the world came from Québec. The rest of the country, then home of five NHL teams, produced 50% of NHL coverage. The USA, with 24 teams, produced 15%. For comparison, sports news in Québec accounted for 16 times the weight of national news.

Randy Cunneyworth is in the spotlight. The team isn't doing well. The fans want to know why and they want to hear it from the horse's mouth... in the language of the majority.

Writer's note (from the Urban Dictionary): The word "Sacre Bleu" is a stereotypical French curse that is actually never used by real French people. Same as the mustache and the beret - something only non-French people think is typical of the French.