Friday, August 07, 2009

Je me Souviens   [Mark Krikorian]

I remember going to Disney World as a kid and wondering what it would be like to live "above the store" on Main Street. Well, now I know — I'm in Quebec City on vacation, right in the old city, and there's an historic festival going on right beneath my window. It's kind of cool, actually, with people milling around in period costume like a Renaissance Fair, though I expect it'll be less charming Friday and Saturday nights as I try to get to sleep.

In any case, a few thoughts, in no particular order:

* Boy, those Quebeckers, they have a different word for everything. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

* Despite that, I haven't sensed any snootiness about our use of English, though maybe that's because it's a tourist area; in the boondocks it might be different.

* I'd always imagined the appearance of the Plains of Abraham would match their Cecil B. DeMille-ian name, but it's basically just a park.

* Quebecois are a distinct people, a nation, who should have an independent state (though, I hasten to add, it's none of our government's business one way or the other). But what they have now seems better than that — all the advantages of independence without any of the responsibility, kind of like Puerto Rico. And the destructive effects of efforts to keep Quebec in the Canadian confederation (official national bilingualism and the attendant rise of bilingual, deracinated elites) should be a warning of the disaster that would result were Puerto Rico to become a state. Vive le Quebec libre! Viva Puerto Rico libre!

08/07 09:52 AMShare