Aaron Rand, Bill Brownstein and Lesley Chesterman chat with Jack Jedwab, President of the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and Metropolis Canada, on The Corner Booth at the Snowdon Deli in Montreal on Friday July 5, 2024.
Bonjour / Hi is irritating not because it undermine french. It's irritating because It's a symptom from a well known problem. I've never seen an non-francophone who didn't know what BONJOUR meant. Bonjour/Hi is just plain ridiculous.
I used to live in other province of Canada and I respect them by speaking to them in english, now I am in Quebec so I respect them and I speak french. If an english Canadian that live in Quebec, speak to me in english, I answer in french. if it is a tourism I answer in english.
Do I know Marie-Mai… yes because my daughter was a huge fan. Ask Anglos of my mid-sixties age if they know Beau Dommage or Charlebois or the song « je suis cool ». Many would if you played it for them. Back then CHOM played a great deal of francophone music. The CRTC, based on complaints from Franco stations, forced CHOM to be English only. For those who remember, many DJs back then spoke with a very thick French accent. Like it or not, English will remain a high value language… easy to learn, far fewer rules and the access to such a vast array of music, movies, engineering and so much more. A non-Anglo will always see the value of learning English as much higher than a non-Franco learning French. For that reason alone, the government must accept to invest highly in making French as « easy » as possible to learn.
Different people settled in different parts of country which created a wonderful country and at first it was perfect. It’s still wonderful to view a part of beautiful France. I love that a part of our country and the rest of the country. It also brought people who initially brought people from over parts of England etc Ireland went to London most then when to other areas, grimbsy were from and it went on.
