[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoons
Title: Canada's untouchables (click to view)
Date: July 9, 2010
Stephen Harper announced his pick for Canada's next governor general yesterday, and in a somewhat surprising pick, selected University of Waterloo president and longtime law professor David Johnston. Somewhat surprising, but not really.

As you can see by consulting my handy governor generals chart, there has never been a governor general from British Columbia, despite the fact that it's Canada's third largest province, and an extremely influential part of the country, both culturally and economically. Prior to the Johnston announcement, the B.C. media was thus giddy with anticipation, assuming that this would finally be our year. But once again, it was not. Not even with a noted "friend of the west" like Harper as prime minister did B.C. get one of its own in Canada's top job.

The major reason, once again, was apparently bilingualism, a cruel and inescapable expectation of all holders of high office in modern Canada. Almost no one in British Columbia speaks fluent French, not even people in extremely elite positions of society, simply because there is no real need to. B.C. is not a province with an ample French population, so important people tend to focus their educational time elsewhere, studying matters that may actual have some tangible relevance to their career.

But British Columbia is hardly unusual in this regard. According to the Government of Canada's own statistics (PDF link) only a measly 8.8% of Canadian Anglos can speak French, meaning about 91% of Canada's majority population can never hope to be governor general (or prime minister for that matter). As a result, the people who do get appointed to the office are either French-Canadians, who have a much more immediate interest in being bilingual, or strange lawyer-types like Mr. Johnston, who come from a very isolated, elite subculture in Eastern Canada, centered around the greater Ottawa-Montreal axis, in which functional bilingualism is common and practical.

At one time, right-wing politicians like Mr. Harper criticized official bilingualism for extracting such a high toll on Canada's majority population in order to appease French Canadian resentment — which didn't even seem to be lessening, by the way. Now, however, Harper seems perfectly keen to continue to prop up the system he once opposed, in his suddenly pressing pursuit of eastern votes. The substantial differences between Canada's two political parties continue to lessen as a result, and unilingual are once again left wondering if anyone in the political system actually cares about their interests.

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[CKASlacker]

Newsbot wrote:

strange lawyer-types like Mr. Johnston, who come from a very isolated, elite subculture in Eastern Canada, centered around the greater Ottawa-Montreal axis, in which functional bilingualism is common and practical.

A colleague and I used to say that if a Canadian can speak French and English without any accent in either language, then they must be from Ottawa.

[Zipperfish]

Great cartoon, JJ. Though as a BC guy, I'm clearly biased--there's always a certain vindication in being painted as the victim, right?

I should point out that, the barrier to learning French is not only that we don't need it here. An added barrier is that, even if we take the time to learn it, there's no way to hang on to it. There's no where to speak it and few to speak it with. Knowledge of a second language learned after childhood will quickly decay.

The natural reaction for BC is to limit federal influence by exerting more forcefully provincial constitutional powers. This was an approach Harper used to support. However, the province of BC has allowed a serious and permanent federal influence by handing over the collection of sales taxes to the feds.

[JJ]

Premier Campbell seems to want BC to be the new Ontario, and is aggressively trying to make our political culture resemble theirs as much as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if he begins to embrace bilingualism at a provincial level.

[Robair]

In Keremeos BC, you can speak French all summer long to any of the fruit pickers...

[BartSimpson]

Canada needs to have one language. Doesn't have to be English, but it needs to be one or the other especially when you've got 90% of the Anglophones (and probably a similar number of Francophones, I imagine) disenfranchised from governance.

[Robair]

How's your Spanish, Bart?

[BartSimpson]

Robair wrote:

How's your Spanish, Bart?

Good enough.

Muchacho, tráeme una mas cerveza, por favor.

[GreenTiger]

BartSimpson wrote:

Robair wrote:

How's your Spanish, Bart?

Good enough.

Muchacho, tráeme una mas cerveza, por favor.

Your Spanish is better than mine.

[Zipperfish]

Qu'est-ce que fuck?

[DerbyX]

BartSimpson wrote:

Canada needs to have one language. Doesn't have to be English, but it needs to be one or the other especially when you've got 90% of the Anglophones (and probably a similar number of Francophones, I imagine) disenfranchised from governance.

No we don't. China and India exist with many dialects. Hell I work with a couple of girls from India who can only communicate with each other in English.

Canada does very well with 2 official languages and I think we should make provisions for native languages to be included some how.

Bart, in the same way you said Canadians will never understand the US and its view on rights and the government you will simply never be able to understand Canada and bilingualism and the monarchy.

[Proculation]

Zipperfish wrote:

Qu'est-ce que fuck?

Qu'est-ce qu'un phoque ?

[raydan]

CKASlacker wrote:

Newsbot wrote:

strange lawyer-types like Mr. Johnston, who come from a very isolated, elite subculture in Eastern Canada, centered around the greater Ottawa-Montreal axis, in which functional bilingualism is common and practical.

A colleague and I used to say that if a Canadian can speak French and English without any accent in either language, then they must be from Ottawa.

Wrong!!!

I'm from Montreal and I've never even been to Ottawa.

[CKASlacker]

raydan wrote:

CKASlacker wrote:

A colleague and I used to say that if a Canadian can speak French and English without any accent in either language, then they must be from Ottawa.

Wrong!!!

I'm from Montreal and I've never even been to Ottawa.

Then you must be an Anglophone naturally, because even those bilingual Montrealers I've met who speak Quebecois as a first language have *a bit* of an accent when speaking English. Such that native Anglos like me can pick it up.

I say this as a piss-poor Anglo who can only speak "emergency French" (ie. I can order beer and ask for directions to the washroom).

[KrytenKoro]

DerbyX wrote:

BartSimpson wrote:

Canada needs to have one language. Doesn't have to be English, but it needs to be one or the other especially when you've got 90% of the Anglophones (and probably a similar number of Francophones, I imagine) disenfranchised from governance.

No we don't. China and India exist with many dialects. Hell I work with a couple of girls from India who can only communicate with each other in English.

Canada does very well with 2 official languages and I think we should make provisions for native languages to be included some how.

Bart, in the same way you said Canadians will never understand the US and its view on rights and the government you will simply never be able to understand Canada and bilingualism and the monarchy.

So...what about that whole "disenfranchised British Columbia" thing, then? I mean, it seems like you're just waving away the problem being talked about here.