Post-Election Blues in la Belle Province

My voting card in hand, Fred and I trudged to St-Joseph's Oratory on Monday to cast our votes. We approached the church, praying silently that we wouldn't have to climb the hundred something stairs to the top in order to do so. Apparently the government accounted for this laziness and set up post in a little chalet at the foot of the stairs. We waited no more than a minute to register our votes, traditionally a sign of a Liberal victory in Quebec. The formula has long been low voter turn-out equals Liberal victory, high voter turn-out equals Parti Québécois victory. Though Quebec has the highest rate of voter turn-out in the country, this election put us at a sad 71% participation.

Quebeckers rarely waffle. Stubborness, pride and political conviction are three characteristics that very accurately describe your typical Quebecker. You're either separatist or federalist, there are few who sit in the middle, indifferent. This is exactly why it has been 129 years since the last minority government in Quebec. It is a difficult picture to paint for someone who has never set foot in Quebec. I engaged in very few political discussions during my years in Calgary- Albertans are largely politically indifferent. The province in prospering so it appears that the government is doing something right, and voters continue to elect the same people to lead them. That's why Kananaskis was such a perfect place for the G-8 summit meetings, and Quebec City such a poor place. My year at the University of Calgary, I was part of the campaign against tuition hikes. To our extreme frustration, few people signed our petition against the hikes- indifferent about the price and the actions of their government. Meanwhile, tuition hikes and cuts to student loans and bursaries left Quebec universities and Cégeps empty during student strikes two years ago. Some schools were closed only a day or two, the Université de Montréal, however, was closed for three months in protest.

We watched the election coverage intermittently that night. Up until 9pm, CBC was predicting an ADQ victory. I was both baffled and afraid. How can a party that waffled on the issue of sovereignty possibly be leading? A party that presented few clear ideas in the hopes of capturing the voters who were turning against the PQ and the Liberals? The consequences could be dire. The Quebec economy is not what it once was. With the passing of Bill 101, hundreds of big businesses packed up and moved to Toronto. Few, if any have returned. Today the two biggest industries in Montreal are the sex trade and telemarketing. Thankfully, the city has in recent years also become a hot bed for the video game industry. In any case, the desire to maintain the culture of the province has gone to such lengths that it has crippled the economy. Instead of looking at the city of Montreal, approximately 60% French to 40% English, and realizing the incredible potential that this held for businesses, the government has done their best to prevent the French from learning English. French and English are the two most common official languages in the world- imagine the possibilities if nearly 100% of permanent residents were bilingual. But bilingual people have the freedom to leave for provinces with lower tax rates and this would threaten sovereignty, so instead it has been made very difficult for francophones to learn English. I'm rambling. Back to Mario Dumont- a leader with so few clear plans, his election would have been disastrous for this delicate economy. Rather like Ralph Klein, but in a less fortunate province. His collection of questionable choices for ministers does not particularly help his case. I was fearful of an ADQ victory. Children, it seems, were also fearful of such a victory. The French newspaper, La Presse polled a group of kindergarten students and asked them which of the three party leaders most resembled the evil Lord Voldemor of Harry Potter. Mario Dumont (ADQ) was the clear winner.

Evil Lord Voldemor

Evil Mario

See the resemblance?

Having said all that, a PQ victory would have been less disastrous, in my mind, but not by much. André Boisclair is not a leader. While people at Liberal headquarters shouted 'Charest, Charest!' and ADQ headquarters was filled with screams of 'Dumont, Dumont!' on Monday night, les péquistes (PQists) were apparently chanting, 'Un pays, un pays!' (A country, a country!). The PQ may have the strongest platform in terms of social programs, but it is too idealistic. They fail to generate any new ideas to provoke the economy and resort to blaming the federal government for budget shortfalls, yet remain determined that separation is a viable option. It seems that voters this election gave them a clear message that their message is tired and old. Nobody wants another referendum. The province can't afford it. I'm not sure if this has been big news across Canada, or if the focus has largely been in Quebec. Montreal is a cosmopolitan city and one of Canada's most diverse. The issue of 'reasonable accomodation' seems to have snuck its way into the media and they are trying their best to instill fear in les québécois that their culture is at risk because Muslim women choose to wear hijabs, or because I'm not permitted to eat non-kosher spaghetti in the kosher section of the Jewish hospital. Please. Is your culture really so fragile that it is threatened based on where you eat your lunch? On passing a woman dressed differently in the street? Boisclair's recent comments about Asians with les yeux bridés (slanty eyes) reveals that he is not the one to lead us through this definitive period of cultural integration.

At least André Boisclair is happy. That's what counts...

We can probably assume this photo was taken before Monday.

The Liberals. The lesser of the three evils, but I am still not interested in supporting them. Charest fell short of his election promises from the last election, and in my mind does not deserve a second chance. That having been said, he was the best of the realistic possibilities. At least we know that his platform is all lies and his federalist agenda means that it is in his best interest to make the Quebec economy more accessible. Of course, this is in the best interest of Quebec, but some are too stubborn to acknowledge that welcoming in big business does not have to mean sacrificing your language and your culture. English and French are perfectly capable of living side by side in Montreal. Despite the unfortunate and sometimes mysterious choice of having each candidate posed with their fist under their chin (in French, the word for chin is menton, dangerously close to the verb mentir -to lie.) on campaign posters, it seems that many Quebeckers chose their Liberal candidates to lead them. Perhaps their victory (if you can call it that) had something to do with the Gazette's review of which party's posters were the best to go sliding. The Liberals won that contest by leaps and bounds- probably due to their disregard for the environment, demonstrated by needlessessly big campaign posters.

Jean Charest

We wouldn't have been happy with any of the possible results. The Liberals won in my riding, followed closely by the Parti Québécois and in third place, the Green Party. Change is in the air. If nothing else, these elections have sent a clear message. We are not pleased. At school the other day, we were discussing how mysterious it is that the ADQ won so many seats when no one will admit to voting for them. Perhaps their success was meant to signal dissatisfaction, and we came frighteningly close to teaching ourselves a very important lesson.

Québec Indecision 2007

On the eve of the Quebec provincial elections, we wait. Braced to hear which of the three under-qualified candidates will lead our province for the next four years. A minority government is certain- what is yet unclear is who will lead that minority government. Will it be the separatist, the racist, or the idiot? So much for the separation of Church and state. I received my voter card on Friday that informed me the voting location for my riding is the lobby of St-Joseph's Oratory.

St-Joseph's Oratory-
where thousands crawled up the stairs on their knees to be healed by brother André.

This notice was also the first introduction that I had to any of the candidates in my riding. Apparently the days of door to door campaigning have gone the way of political honesty. I discovered that my choices were:

• Romain Angeles (Independant)
• Raymond Bachand (Liberal)
  
• Yvon Breton (Marxiste-Léniniste Party of Quebec)
• Luc Côté (Green Party)
• Sujata Dey (Québec Solidaire)
• Pierre Harvey (ADQ/Équipe Mario Dumont)
• Salim Laaroussi (Parti québécois)

Well, Romain Angeles- you're cut, I'm sorry to say. I would expect that someone running independant of a party would do a better job of communicating what they stand for. I've never heard of you before, so you've lost my vote.

Dear Raymond Bachand (Liberal), perhaps if your party had not just cut 100 million dollars from student loans and bursaries and weren't contemplating lifting the ten year tuition freeze, you might stand a chance of getting my vote. But as it stands, the Liberals seem to stand for lies and broken promises. Whatever happened to those tax cuts? Weren't you even campaigning to keep that 1% of the GST cut by the Federals? Sorry, Raymond- you're cut. I also believe you to be the same man who left many of my phone calls unanswered a couple years back. Not a chance, Bachand.

Hmmm... Yvon Breton (Marxiste-Léniniste). I have to say my interest is peaked, but seriously- did you really think your party name said it all? I'd like a bit more of an explanation of your platform. Just because you're communist, I'll pay you a little more attention and venture to your website... strictly out of curiosity. The site is completely in French, with no English tab. I have to look for the tab marked platform and discover that even the communists of Quebec are separatist. On their platform page, all I find is an assurance of separatist sympathies and an indication of hatred for the Liberals. Sorry, Breton- you're out.

Luc Côté (Green Party), well Luc Côté, I can't say I'm too impressed. For a party that is up and coming, I'm shocked that I didn't get a little notice in my mailbox about you. If you didn't want to waste the paper, it's okay- I get it. Stick up a notice of a meeting at my dépanneur and I would have been there. I know you're pro-environment, so am I. But what else do you stand for? I consult the website. Political accountability, okay that's good. Economic sustainability- not something you hear alot about in Quebec. Health care- create easy access to healthy lifestyles, I like that. A family doctor for every Quebecker, that's a good thing. Policy in support of supporting a healthy lifestyle and encouraging health, rather than treating sickness. Sounds like something I've been saying for the last two years. Accessible education, promotion and encouragement of the arts. Hmm... so far, so good Mr Côté... We'll come back to you.

Sujata Dey (Québec solidaire). Well, to start off- I've heard nothing about you Ms. Dey and little about your party. Being that you seem to be all the rage with disgruntled separatists, I'll check you out and find out what you're about. It should perhaps be noted that separatism doesn't necessarily strike a party immediately in my mind, if they can make up for this fault in other areas. English tab on their website, point one. Okay... platform- equality between the sexes, solidarity among citizens, environmental protection and sovereignty. Anti-union laws? Really? Health care- all you have to say is that we have the right to affordable medication? What about the ridiculousness of new doctors in the province being required to take a three year position in Chibougamu before working in Montreal? How does it help our shortages if our doctors don't stay? Whatever, solidaire- I think you might be crazy. Education- well, you seem to be okay there. Reduce debt, accessibility and so on. Okay, on sovereignty- more referendum talk, great. Oooh, with tax cuts- tax cuts are good. But how do you achieve accessible education, improve environmental standards, reduce prescription costs by 50% AND cut taxes. Sounds suspiciously like the ADQ too good to be true platform. NEXT.

Pierre Harvey (ADQ/L'équipe Mario Dumont). First and foremost, if you really feel that you need to put Mario Dumont next to Action démocratique, perhaps it is true and Mario Dumont really is a one man show. Having fired two or three candidates over the last couple weeks for racist and sexist remarks, I think I have to skip right you, Harvey.

And last, but certainly not least- Salim Laaroussi of the Parti québécois. That's not a terribly québécois name. I wonder... oh, Morocan immigrant. I wonder how he feels about the racist comments that have spewn from the mouth of his leader. I wonder if it's a coincidence that one of the few people with the parti québécois who is not pure laine is running in one of the most ethnically diverse ridings in the province. Twenty-eight, impressive résumé. Salim Laaroussi on his own may have a good shot with me, but not affiliated with the Parti québécois. I really don't want to see Boisclair take the leadership...

It looks like the Green Party wins out, as I expected it would. Many tell me I'm throwing my vote away, but I'd rather support a party who will be able to grow a little bit every election and may one day be the big kid on the block than lie and say that any of the big three represent me when they don't. It's amazing how quickly we begin to lose our idealism. I used to listen to my mother complain that there was no one to vote for and get so frustrated. Now part of me feels like I'm in the same boat, especially in a province where your vote comes down to a decision between being Canadian together or being québécois apart. I hate that people continue to vote for the Liberals just because they don't want to separate, and that others vote for the PQ just because they do. The ADQ may be trying to toss it up a bit, but I'd really like for them to answer the question of where they stand on separation instead of being ambiguous about it so they can get votes from both sides. So tomorrow we go to the polls and vote to see if we will once again be faced with a referendum, or as Boisclair is calling it 'a public consultation on separation.'

Tragically Nameless

These posts are getting fewer and farther between as my teaching job eats up more and more of my day. I'm really not sure why people do this. I understand that some people are passionate about it, and it baffles me. I can't imagine dedicating my life to chasing kids around in an effort to help them learn and grow, and receive so little appreciation from the kids, their parents and society. I simply wouldn't be able to justify six years of school to make 35 000$ a year. Not even summers off could convince me to pursue this as a career. Three weeks into my teaching job and the unthinkable has happened; I've turned into my Uncle. My Uncle Bob has been an English teacher in Quebec since the beginning of time (or at least my time). The summers that I spent out in Montreal with him and his family meant being subject to his comments about hating children and being fed up with babysitting. Even worse seemed to be the student teachers who weren't, in his books, sufficiently well read to be doing a stag as an English teacher. Only years later upon meeting Julien did I discover that my Uncle may hate children, but he clearly loved his job. He was one of those teachers that changed lives, but didn't want anyone to know and now I've gone and publicly ruined his reputation.

Work is going alright. I don't hate it, I just don't like it. It's difficult to see any sort of improvement and garner any satisfaction from teaching a second language as it is, pair with that the large class size and it's nearly impossible to leave feeling you're making a difference. I'm not passionate about teaching English. Maybe if I could have real discussions with them- push them to see a piece in another light, or provoke and challenge new thoughts. Unfortunately the nature of the work is that you spend most of the day trying to suppress the urge to finish sentences for your students just because it would be faster. You try not to scream as you listen to the hundreds of different excuses for homework not having been finished and actually try to make that student believe that you just listened to whatever gibberish spewed forth from their mouth. You try in vain to avoid the flashbacks to your own Elementary school days, especially when you hear yourself yelling, "Stéphanie. Assis-toi. Comme il faut. Avec les quatre pattes de la chaise à terre et tes deux pieds sur le plancher." (Stephanie. Sit down. Properly. With the four feet of the chair on the ground and your two feet on the floor.) I nearly collapsed when I heard the words explode from my mouth- shocked that it took me so far back. My tone, my pacing -it was all so familiar! I suddenly felt like Mme. Nicole Jolicoeur, my grade three teacher. It was eery. My frustrations are heightened by the disrespect of the students, their indifference to learning and their ability to complain about absolutely everything. I had slotted to spend today's class reviewing vocabulary with my grade five class today, which promised to be painfully boring for all parties involved. So rather than have me talk at them about how these words were important, I put the students in groups of four and explained they would be playing charades. The only requirement was that they preface their physicalization with the phrase, "I like (don't like) to ______," and then they would proceed with their animation. The amount of students who bothered to approach me to inform me the activity was stupid absolutely stunned me. I finally replied if they didn't like it, they were welcome to take their seat back at their desk and read the key words to themselves over and over again. They shut up.

School has changed, kids have changed and I'm glad that this path is just for the moment. Swearing is fairly common in the classroom now, the students refer to their teachers by their first names (Mme. Stephanie, Mme. Julie- although often the madame is dropped) and address them with the more familiar tu, as opposed to vous. In the past three weeks, I realized beyound a shadow of a doubt, that I don't want children. As our society seems to move further and further from values that I still hold precious, I cringe to think of how little respect and hard work will be valued in ten, twenty years. The Western materialism has reached its peak when every student in my grade six class describes shopping as a favourite activity and believes they are entitled to a Playstation3 and an iPod. I can't help but think we have gone so, so wrong.

While it is far from what I want, I know that teaching will bring me closer to what I want to do. Hopefully I can manipulate the desperation of the Commision Scolaire de Montréal into a contract that will only amount to part time hours, leaving me open to do other things. In the meantime, it is providing an eye opening experience with this next generation. This post has perhaps seemed negative, and I don't mean it that way. I'm feeling fairly indifferent about my situation at the moment- apart from having to wake up at 6am. I hate 6am.

As I settle into a routine, I'm struggling to balance my life. I don't know how people work a job this demanding and actually have a life... which explains why these posts are becoming fewer and farther between. I started Bykram Yoga last week, in a room heated to 42 degrees celsius to prompt you to sweat out all your toxins and protect your muscles from injury. I felt amazing all last week and have developed quite an addiction to it. Unfortunately, difficult as I am, I had to choose the most ridiculously expensive type of Yoga to fall for and am currenly arguing with myself about whether or not its worth the 150$ per month. My cheap intro pass expired on Monday and now I've decided to bounce around from studio to studio for awhile until I make a choice. I wonder how many cheap intro weeks one can enjoy at Yoga studios in downtown Montreal... I'll let you know.

Losing Steam

Maybe it's the return to the monotony of real life without intriguing observations or thought provoking encounters, maybe I'm drained from my new job that requires me to juggle the behavioural problems of twenty-seven students at a time. Maybe my itchy feet are unsatisfied finding themselves back in Montreal, or maybe the cold has gone to my brain and frozen any creative impulses I once had. Maybe it's a little of this and a little of that.

After two weeks of hard work as an elementary English teacher, I felt I deserved a week off. And it so happened that my wish was granted- spring break, although I can't what this week has to do with spring. I had plans to actively look for a new job, to get some writing done and perhaps even begin to edit my Korean travel account. As it happened, I was sick on Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and yes- even Wednesday. Today is therefore my first real day off and I celebrated by staying in bed all morning and doing nothing at all of interest, unless you count the dishes.

Tuesday I was called up by the Commision Scolaire de Montréal, the largest school board in the city. We arranged an interview for the following morning and the woman gave me the questions that I would be asked, in order to prepare myself, I assumed. So yesterday morning, I dragged myself out of bed down to the metro and all the way to the East end of Montreal for this interview. I had prepared as well as I felt necessary, which wasn't a whole lot. The questions seemed fairly ridiculous to me- and some of them non-sensical given my inexperience as a teacher. What did I think of the role of the teacher in the face of the reforms? Hmm-- I assumed that these reforms are responsible for the lovey-dovey atmosphere of the classes with the younger teachers at my school... the mistaken belief that children do not require rigid rules in a school environment. I imagined that they probably wanted to hear about how I believed that the teacher's role should be that of a facilitator that provokes the children to become interested and engaged in the subject matter. I half believe this, but mostly feel that Canadian children have it easy and should just buckle down and do the work. Also, I've learned I'm not passionate about education- this is clearly not so much a career move as a stabilizing move. In any case, I arrived at the school board, sat down in front of the two men interviewing me and launched into my semi-prepared speech about the eligibility of my candidacy. One of the men interrupted to inform me that in fact I was not being interviewed for a position as an anglais langue séconde teacher, but for a drama teacher. And with that, the little preparation I had done for the interview was tossed out the window.

In any case, I told the men about my experience as an English teacher in Korea. As is usually the case with francophones, they stared at me in disbelief. How did you come across an opportunity like that? Really, a lot of anglophones do that? Why do they want to learn English so badly? Each and every time I have this conversation, I'm blown away by how isolated the French community is from the rest of Canada, and from the rest of the world. I explained to both men that there is a huge push in Asia at the moment to learn English, and that many educated people were bilingual (leaving out the fact that English is the language of business, as I was still hoping to endear myself to these men). I hope that they passed on their disbelief to other school board officials- perhaps these rumours will result in more English in québécois schools, out of pure embarrasment that they have chosen not to learn what people across the world recognize as valuable.

Even though we were sidetracked for quite awhile by a discussion comparing the educational systems of Korea and that of Canada, we finished the interview and they wished me luck on my French test. It seems that since I was being interviewed for a position teaching in French that I could no longer get away with writing the bobo French test. I called human resources in a panic and my good friend Catherine, assured me the test wasn't that bad. Catherine and I have in fact never met face to face, but she feels like a close friend as we have tried to wind our way through a maze of red tape together. The test I was scheduled to write was equivalent to a grade nine French test (or sec 3), but now I'm required to pass the test grade eleven (sec 5). Having made the switch to anglo school in grade ten, I have reason to be terrified. Apparently my interview went well and she was given the green light to hire me, as long as I pass this nasty French test...

Teaching Position Near Seoul

I have a friend just outside of Seoul whose school is desperately looking for a kindergarten teacher. It's a great school, the owner and boss are super nice and the accomodations are way nicer than the usual. They need someone to start ASAP- preferably within the next two weeks. If anyone is interested, leave me a message and let me know.

My First (real) Snow Day

A snow day is a rite of passage for most Canadian kids. Waking early on a weekday and waiting in anticipation by the radio-- will it be closed? Can I go back to sleep and spend my afternoon sledding instead of studying? But of all those mornings that I awoke and hoped for the good news that would liberate me for the day, it happened only once.

Grade twelve. Now, I went to a weird high school. I didn't have to attend classes (which served my ADD just fine). Instead I just showed up at 9am, sat myself down with some books and studied whatever I felt like that day. I had skipped my evening math class (yet again) at Viscount Bennett (those of us from Bishop Carroll High that had motivation problems went there for real classes ) and opted for smoking a joint and going to see a movie with Colin, the boy of the moment. I don't remember what movie it was, but I know we were the only people in the theatre. We left the movie theatre and walked across the deserted parking lot to the car, buried under a foot of snow.

I contemplated how I had mocked my mother for keeping a shovel in the car, but being a Montrealer to the bone, she had refused to remove it. I hate it when she's right. With much difficulty, I drove Colin home. A group of drunken young men helped me push the car out when I got stuck on his street, and I continued home. When I finally reached my driveway, I tried to pull the car in as far as I could, but ended up leaving it half in the street. At 3am I wasn't about to start shovelling snow. I went to bed and awoke early for school the next day. School was cancelled! Finally in my grade twelve year I got the snow day I had been waiting for since grade one. I called around to find out how everyone was celebrating the day off and was invited to go sledding with Colin and his friends. I got dressed, keys in hand and made my way out to the car, determined to dig it out and enjoy my day off. My mother met me at the door and asked where I thought I was going. At the time, she was quite accustomed to saying no to everything under the sun, so I had simply stopped asking her and had begun telling her what I was doing.

She looked at me and shook her head. I wasn't going anywhere until I shovelled the drive-way, she told me. I looked out the window and saw that the foot of snow that had greeted me at 3am, had become nearly two feet of snow in our drive-way. Despite my best efforts to recruit various boys who called themselves friends, none of them came to my rescue. I began to dig. The snow was past my knees and heavy. I glanced up and down the street and saw families outside shovelling the mess together. Tyler and Travis were at my dad's place for the week, and my mother had put her back out, so it was me and me alone. It took me six hours to shovel the drive-way, and I took plenty of breaks to complain to my mother about lack of solidarity in our family. I was nearly finished, and gazed with some satisfaction at our neighbour's house. She hadn't even started shovelling yet. I laughed to myself about how she would be up all night. Just then, the garage door opened and a snow blower emerged. She was finished in twenty minutes.

Colin called later on and infuriated me by recounting how much fun he had had that day. After twelve years of anticipation, my first snow day had been absolutely terrible. I got in the car to drive to school the next morning and arrived to find that the crew in charge of plowing our school's driveway had also opted to take the day off. I had to park on Crowchild Trail (on the highway) and walk for half an hour to get to school. Stupid snow day.

This morning, I awoke at 6 am. I accidently turned the radio on as I fumbled in the dark and the announcer declared that it was going to be "An absolutely terrible Friday." Words of encouragement. I got dressed, grabbed my coffee and left the house. I could barely see across the street. The snowflakes stung my face as the wind whipped them at my cheeks. I caught the number 11 bus to take me over Mount Royal, not my usual route to work but a better one given the weather. I got off at my transfer point and noted my bus would not come for ten minutes, so I started to walk. I arrived at school half an hour later- the bus had never come. I glanced in the mirror on my way to my desk and found mascara running down my face and snowflakes frozen to my hair and eyelashes. Madonna continued to blare away from my mp3 player, and I made a note to myself to remove her songs. Fred had been wrong, I didn't like her new album. I took off my jacket and walked past the secretary's desk to my first class. I heard her tell a parent we were closing the school and a smile broke out across my face. Woohoo! Snow day #2!!

I left the school amidst grumbles as teachers and parents complained about having to turn right around and go home. It was fine with me. The trek home was long, but enjoyable because I knew I had the whole day to myself. My first real snow day- and it's full of possibilities!