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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (2007)	3/19/2003 2:38:16 PM
From: Lino...	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37098

From a purely common sense perspective, I could go with offering french language instruction for 2 years in HIGH SCHOOL to kids that are old enough to make other important choices on their own (we won't go into that here), but I cannot support forcing instruction on children under 14. That amounts to nothing more than social structuring. As far as communicating in quebec is concerned, if I wanted to go there I would an attempt to learn their language. If a person wants to enter a career that would place him in quebec, he would have to be some lazy SOB to not go and learn the language on his own. The fact of the matter is that it should be a FREE CHOICE.....which seems to be in sad short supply in this country lately. Case in point: Liberal MPs warned to toe line on gun registry or face expulsion By The Canadian Press Wednesday, March 19, 2003 OTTAWA (CP) - Liberal MPs who vote against continued funding for the controversial federal gun registry risk being expelled from caucus, says party whip Marlene Catterall. "That's certainly one of the possibilities," Catterall said as she left a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday. "It's very clear that the prime minister feels that if he doesn't have the support of his caucus and the House of Commons on the matter of the gun registry, that this is a matter of confidence." The remarks came after a half-dozen MPs and senators circulated a letter to their colleagues urging them to oppose $59 million in supplementary spending estimates for the financially troubled registry when the Commons votes on the matter next week. The letter was signed by MPs Roger Gallaway, John Efford, Lawrence O'Brien and Joe Comuzzi and by senators Anne Cools and Herb Sparrow. Prime Minister Jean Chretien had no comment after the caucus meeting, but MP John Harvard said it was made clear to members behind closed doors that the registry must continue to operate. Harvard said there were no threats, but MPs can figure out on their own that if they vote against the government on a key money matter ``there could be possible consequences.'' The gun registry has been under heavy attack since December, when Auditor General Sheila Fraser delivered a damning report on cost overruns that are expected to drive the price tag for the program to $1 billion by the time it concludes its first decade in operation in 2005. It was originally supposed to cost taxpayers just $2 million.

To: Stephen O who wrote (2007)	3/19/2003 3:02:49 PM
From: marcos	Respond to of 37098

The exact same dynamic of inter-language jealousy goes on in a lot of places ..... the other day i typed a bit of one here - #reply-18717792 .... there is a lot more to the story - the place is removed from, but not far from, a fairly active tourist area to which come people speaking dozens of tongues ... my good friend the publican is right now building a house right beside an italian speaking swiss who speaks english with an irish accent because of where he learned it, strange man in some ways but so is my friend so they get along fine, they're sharing a water system now, which takes mutual trust .... the man who introduced me to my current wife speaks eight languages fairly well, when the president of Japan or Russia or France comes to visit, he is the head guide ... many more like this, quite a cosmopolitan area, then less than an hour's drive away you have only spanish and the mayan dialects, and people who feel threatened by introduction of any other .... especially english, as they see it becoming dominant as the lingua franca, and with all the ancient associations to aggression ..... but this is stupid, language is a tool not a policy, best to keep it sharp, use it or lose the opportunity, imho

To: Stephen O who wrote (2007)	3/19/2003 4:50:13 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37098

...you will get farther [in Quebec] if you speak French because you can communicate with more people.... I was going to stay out of this one until I read that line. By western Canadian standards I am fluently bilingual. I've done media interviews in French, both in France and with French Canadian media. I have worked in the French language in Ottawa. For all that, on a driving holiday between Ottawa and Quebec City not a soul, aucun gen pur laine, understood a word I said. I stopped for gas in a town called Epiphanie, east of Montreal, and ended up acting out "check the oil." In Montreal, sure, they'll understand "proper" French. Of course, being adept business people, by the time the first word has completely departed your mouth they will have switched to English (which made French immersion courses in Montreal challenging, to say the least). It's true that in the federal civil service if you can demonstrate skills in the language you can get your promotion. Within Quebec, however, while they might pay lip service to fluency in French, the fact is it's a tribal thing, not linguistic. They don't want to hire anglos, no matter how well they might happen to speak French. I'm all for learning other languages. It's an incredibly valuable learning experience. I happen to love the French language, but it's only realistic to point out that Mandarin or Cantonese are going to be more practical things to know in the future. Learn French if you want. Middle class Quebecois will be pleased when you meet them. But lets not get all starry-eyed about what it will do for national unity -- the core PQ vote doesn't give a flying, er, fig.