Fri 4 Jul 2008
Freedom Post for the Fourth: Frenchy Get Cheesed Off
Posted by biggestron
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Many of my readers know that I am a Canadian by birth. If you didn’t - now you do. This might explain my lack of enthusiasm for the 4th of July. I’m not terribly patriotic about my adopted country, but then I was never terribly patriotic towards my birth country. But I know how to give, and I know how Americans feel about French people. So here you go - a real life story that makes them look ridiculous.
This story is the only bright spot in a news cycle that seems to be mostly about how much everything is costing us these days:
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s U.S. embassy apologized on Thursday for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.
They apologized because some Quebecois Nationalists (a contradiction in terms if there ever was one) were upset that the European discoverer (Samuel de Champlain) of their province was being stereotyped as a lover of high dosage cholesterol. The dish in question is called ‘poutine’ and is probably one of the finest things you can eat after an evening of beverages. It is one of the signature Quebecois comfort foods. I think it was even sold in McDonald restaurants for a brief period.
I spent a year of my life in Montreal. It is a great city boasting European architecture, cobble-stone streets, wonderful restaurants, and cosmopolitan people. During my time there (early 90’s) it also featured some ardent Separatists. These pipe-dreamers wanted to split Quebec from the nasty grip of Canada and have a go as their own country, or perhaps join the US as state #51. Either way, they had enough of their evil Anglophone oppressors. After all - we had inflicted our lowbrow but popular ‘Mr. Donut’ stores upon the Quebec people. The Separatist solution? These stores were forcibly renamed, via Bill 101, to ‘Monsieur Donut’. This was all done in the name of preserving French Quebec culture within Canada. Nice use of governmental resources, garcons. These folks faded away somewhat after losing successive referendums in the nineties that sought to liberate Quebec from the rest of Canada. Now it appears that the Separatists/Nationalists are back and they are angry about Monsieur Champlain eating poutine on Canada Day.
Plus ca change, indeed.





