Good evening my dear readers :)

This monday, the general elections took place in Québec, for the number of seats in parliament but most importantly, the new Québec prime minister. So I thought, it would be the perfect timing to tell you a bit more about politics & geopolitics in Québec !

Québec is kind of the "outsider" here in Canada. The french-speaking people are very proud of the french language (even more than us !), and there are several laws concerning the use of the french language in Québec. For example, in shops, salespeople have to say hello in french before saying it in english. In restaurants, the menus have to be put up in french. When you go to McDonald's, you don't buy a happy meal, you buy a "joyeux festin". All the names of the films have to be translated in french. For example Fast & Furious, which has the same title in french, is called "rapide & dangereux" in Québec. And I could go on like this for hours.

Needless to say language creates conflicts between french-speaking & english-speaking people in Québec. This is especially the case in Montréal, because those people meet all the time. St-Laurent, a big street that goes from north to south of Montréal, cuts the city in half between east & west. Historically, the english-speakers used to live on the west side of the city, & the french-speakers on the east side. This isn't so true anymore, but the invisible barrier still stands.

This is partly to "save the french language & heritage" that some people want Québec to become an independent country. The québécois I live with is a so-called "separatist", meaning that he wants Québec to be independent. He's not from Montréal, he was born in the Madgalen Islands, small islands on the West Coast of Québec. You can feel that he's very proud to be from Québec, but it doesn't seem like he has an emotional attachment to Canada.

Anyway, that subject was particularly hot during the elections !

There are 2 very big parties in Québec: The Parti Québécois (PQ) et the Liberal Party. The PQ is the one that, among other things, wants Québec to become independent. If they had won, they would probably have set up a referendum to ask the citizens of Québec if they want to be independent from the rest of Canada or not.

However, and I'm sorry I spoiled it, the Liberals won with 70 seats in the parliament (the PQ got 30), and their leader Philippe Couillard so became the new Prime Minister of Québec.

Well, I guess independence is gonna have to wait... Don't worry Québec, the arms of Mother Canada are still warm & welcoming :)

Laurie