Living in Distinctland

Well, shit did not hit the fan with the declaration of the 'nation québécois' as I had expected. Or at least, hasn't yet. Keep in mind, we are still having to live under the rule of our beloved Liberal leader Jean Charest for another year or so... I don't think we'll see the full consequences of the declaration of the nouveau nation until the Parti Québécois is inevitably re-elected to clean up the mess that the Liberal government made (yet again). Federalist voters have it bad in Québec- a vote for the Liberals is a vote for a united Canada, but unfortunately they just aren't fit to be in the running. A vote for the Parti Québécois is a vote for sovereignty. And so begins my ode to this frustrating place called Québec.

Some of you may have been privy to my rants on eccentricities of Quebec. Like the government branch set up to okay the name you propose to give your child. That's right- in Quebec dumb children's names like Apple or Idaho or Rainbow just don't fly. Well you might be able to get away with it in English, but in French, it's a definite no-go. Or the Montreal city by-law prohibiting orange garbage bags. Topping the list, of course, is the Moving Day phenomenon which was actually the subject of a BBC documentary. For those of you who aren't aware, Moving Day (strangely coinciding with the federalist holiday of Canada Day) is when all the leases in the city of Montreal end, we fight over moving trucks and snake our way ever so slowly through the streets in the scorching heat to dump all our belongings at our new home... which we first saw six months ago. A close second is the infamous Bill 101 - the language law that has left many English Montrealers bilingual and most French Montrealers sadly unilingual.

Recently the renaming of Park Avenue (which quietly celebrated it's 124th birthday today) has been drawing a great deal of attention here. The current mayor, Mr Tremblay, has decided, for no apparent reason, to rename this historic street after Robert Bourassa, formerly the Premier of Québec. Most of the city disapproved of this move, even the Bourassa family, who suggested that St Joseph be renamed instead, since this was where Bourassa lived. But Tremblay wouldn't hear of it and so off the proposal goes to the Provincial naming police for a final rubber stamp. Ironically, I recently discovered that the names of the metro stations are protected by the historic society. So we will hold onto the name Guy-Concordia metro as though it's something special, as we say good-bye to Park Avenue.

I've finally gotten some clarification on how to go about applying for a teaching position in Quebec. It sounds fairly simple, I'm sure, but when a province has laws about signs and names you can rest assured that it's never an easy feat to have anything to do with a government body. It seems that in order to teach English as a second language- now get this, I have to prove my competency in French. So soon enough I will be locked in a room with a Bescherelle I haven't opened since grade nine and test my knowledge (or memory, more appropriately) on the passé composé and infinif tenses. AHHH!!! Amazing how I honestly believed that I would never need to know it... Thanks Bill 101!