Canada, 1534-2020.

Tags

Acadie, Anthem, Canada Day, Dominion, England, France, Montreal, Quebec

Today is Canada Day, 1 July, 486 years old. The Canadian National Anthem first composed by Calixa Lavallée as a French-Canadian Patriotic Song in 4 couplets and performed on 24 June 1880. It Officially became the National Anthem of Canada by Act of Parliament in 1980, though everyone considered O Canada the National Anthem prior to that date. The english words to the Anthem are recent and have been modified several times to suit the taste of the times. The French version is the original, though only the short version is sung usually.

Some dates in the History of Canada,

1534 arrival of French Navigator Jacques Cartier in the Gaspé area and his first encounter with native people. He was looking for a route to China.

1608 Samuel de Champlain founding of Quebec City which becomes the Capital of the French Empire in North America.

1642 Paul de Chomedey De Maisonneuve founder of Montreal with Jeanne Mance who creates the first hospital, L’Hôtel Dieu de Montreal, still in operation today 378 years later.

1755, Deportation of thousands of Acadian people from the Maritime region of Canada by British forces.

1763, Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years War in Europe, France ceding vast territories in North America to England.

1837-38 Rebellion against British rule and demands for elected responsible government by French Canadians.

1855 Creation of the Canadian Militia later known as the Canadian Army whose commander in Chief is H.M. the Queen.

1864-1867 Three Conferences between the British North American Colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Ontario-Quebec) to establish an independent country. 1 July 1867 Proclamation of the Constitution and establishment of Canada as a unified country. Ottawa designated as the National Capital.

1875 Supreme Court of Canada is established by Act of Parliament.

1910 Creation by Royal Decree of the Royal Canadian Navy. Commander in Chief H.M. the Queen.

1914-1918 Canada participates in First World War as an independent nation and sign the Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

1921, The discovery of insulin occurred in 1921 following the ideas of Canadian orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frederick G. Banting, the chemistry skills of his assistant Charles Best, and John MacLeod of the University of Toronto

1924 Creation of the Canadian Royal Air Force, Commander in Chief H.M. the Queen.

1931 Statute of Westminster, British Parliament affirmed Canadian autonomy and recognized the virtual independence.

1956 Canadian diplomat and Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for “saving the world” with a UN peacekeeping force, during the Suez Canal Crisis in the Middle East.

1965, Royal Proclamation of the Canadian  Maple Leaf Flag.

1976 Olympics Games are held in Montreal under the mandate of Mayor Jean Drapeau.

1980, O Canada by Act of Parliament becomes the Official Anthem of Canada.

1982 Proclamation by Constitutional Act of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

1984, Marc Garneau is the first Canadian Astronaut to go to space.

1999 The Ottawa Treaty signed by 133 countries banning Land mines, Canadian minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy launched the Ottawa Process, which led to the treaty ratification banning of Land mines in armed conflicts.

2005, The Civil Marriage Act was introduced by Prime Minister Paul Martin in Parliament on February 1, as Bill C-38. It was passed by the House of Commons on June 28, becoming law in Canada in July 2005. Canada is the fourth country in the World to legalize same-sex marriage.

This rendition of the National Anthem is performed by the Band of the Ceremonial Guard of the Canadian Armed Forces.

 

Change of plans

Tags

Covid 19, Ego, French, language, people, Quebec

Today Monday 16 March the Prime Minister J. Trudeau informed Canadians that our borders are closed to all with the exception of Canadian citizens returning home who are not sick nor have symptoms of Covid 19. American Citizens can still come in if on essential travel, read Trade/commercial trip, but this could change at any moment. Also only four airports will be allowed to screen international flights, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto/Pearson and Montreal/P.E.Trudeau. All goods and services coming in are not affected under Trade/Commerce.  Here in PEI just a few moments after the PM spoke our Premier Dennis King declared a Public Health Emergency meaning that the Chief Health Officer can enforce mandatory self-isolation at home, close down a business and not allow public gatherings. Funerals may also be forbidden meaning no wake or gathering for a service. Here in Charlottetown PEI the streets are very quiet, no traffic and only one or two persons walking. People are conscious of the situation but often see the problem in the other not themselves, thus calls to close the border to exclude foreigners.

Many businesses have already announce they are closing for the time being, my barber is one and my favourite Coffee shop and the Art Gallery, this also includes theatres, sports complex. All Canadian ports are closed to cruise ships until July. Health Services are focused only on Emergencies and Essential services, anything non essential or elective is deferred until a later date, this includes dental offices. This is not surprising given the limited ability of PEI Health which now is stretched due to this Pandemic. We only have one confirmed case but 120 people have been tested because they met a criteria for such a procedure. You cannot be tested for Covid 19 because you would like to, you must have symptoms and the authorities are strict about that. In total in Canada some 25,000 persons have been tested and only 4 have died out of 424 cases, all death occurred in one nursing home in Vancouver, B.C. Also tonight across Canada many bars and restaurants are closing.

This means that our trip to Quebec City in May is postponed faced with all these restrictions. We can go in the early Fall which is just as nice. Our friends from AZ have been advised and I am told that our Dr Spo is hoping to learn more French this way. He already has a penchant for Foie Gras, Champagne and big Baguette, Oh lala! I see that I will have my work cut out for me. As for Monsieur Quelqu’un I am not sure what is penchant is but I am sure we will find out. I seem to remember that it is for exotic French Cocktails.

It is a stressful time in many ways, you do not want to get sick with the virus and being constantly careful is wearing on the mind. It is also a boring time since what you would usually do is restricted to your home or taking a walk, reading books, surfing the internet, cooking.  Not listening to the news also helps because the news is bad all the time and social comments is dominated by people who understand nothing because it interfere with their personal plans or lifestyle. People have to think in terms of community not self and that is difficult to do in a society which for the last 50 years has been pushing self above all else. At least for now we are not assign to residence like 170 million Europeans.

So a new mandate

Tags

Canada., Government, Liberals, Ontario, Parliament, Quebec, Queen, Trudeau

Well the National Election is over and Justin Trudeau got a new mandate, despite all the  dirt the so called conservative party and its leader tried to throw at him. The CPC has a unit which works at unearthing anything that could hurt a candidate and then publicize it through right wing affiliated newspapers like The Sun, CTV network and PostMedia including the once reputable Globe & Mail. The negative stories are written for effect and are often inaccurate or right out lies simply repeated. A very disturbing trend but you have to know the background of it, the owners are long time supporters of alt-right conservative policies, some big business interests, some American oil companies, the Trump administration and the Republican party including the one surviving Koch brother. No it is not the Russians in our case but the US Republican party. The Chinese Communist party (Chinese Government) also played a very negative role, given our current dispute with China over the extradition to the USA of the Huawei executive. Two Canadian have been kidnapped by the People’s Police in China and held in secret jails, denied Canadian Embassy Consular services and put under psychological torture for months now. Unfortunately the Canadian Media has all but forgotten about them. The position of the CPC and its Chief Andrew Scheer has been to side with China with the false narrative that this will help resolve the crisis.

So this election confirmed one thing, Canadians are concerned about climate change now seen as a crisis, Canadian want action (84%) and will not vote for a candidate who denies the crisis or has no plans to fight it, as was the case for Andrew Scheer.
Canadians also do not like a candidate who imitates the American fashion of posing as a born again or evangelical Christian, like Andrew Scheer did. Canadians prefer their candidates and party leader to be neutral and quiet on this topic. There were too many stories about Conservative Candidates who came out as being anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ, pro-gun lobby and supporting the NRA, while we get weekly news from the USA of gun violence, something that horrifies most Canadians. Several also were not shy and made hate filled comments and rants against anyone who is not white or christian, thinking that it was ok to do so. Finally Andrew Scheer was the master of avoiding to answer any question on pretty much any topic. He also refused to denounce or remove a candidate who displayed hateful tendencies. Scheer also refused to attend any PRIDE event or parade during the Summer, all other party leaders did and participated. Trudeau was accused by the CPC of being a deviant and corrupt. What was suppose to be an easy victory for the Conservative turnout to be a defeat despite getting more votes and gaining more seats in the House of Commons, though not a majority. But they failed miserably in the two big provinces of Ontario and Quebec and in the Maritimes which holds the bulk of the population in Canada, some 26 million people out of the 38 million. It is well known that if you cannot secure the votes in Ontario especially around Toronto and in Quebec you cannot win an election in Canada.

So since the Liberal party victory on 21 October, Andrew Scheer has felt the heat of this party who is planning to replace him ASAP. No despite Trudeau having a minority government he has a workable minority and does not need to have a coalition with another party like the Green or NDP. The way our Westminster Parliamentary system works, there is a way to govern and you can always find support here and there in the House to pass your bills. No one wants another election for at least another 14 to 24 months for the simple reason there is no money and the Conservatives will be looking for a new leader soon.

The media also do not help the issue by spreading false concepts borrowed from the USA. Canada is NOT a Republic we are a Kingdom and our Parliamentary system is a copy of Westminster so it is quite different matter.

When the Prime Minister went to see the Governor General Julie Payette to ask she dissolve Parliament as is her role as Head of State, the Prime Minister and the Ministers all remain in Office for the duration of the election. The Prime Minister only  resigns his position after the election if he or she looses the election and IF he or she can no longer hold the Confidence of the House. That is very important to understand, we have had historically cases where the Prime Minister lost an election but stayed in power because he could hold the confidence of the House. Strange but true in Canada, that is our system.

The day after the election the Prime Minister returned to visit the Governor General at Rideau Hall to inform her of what his intentions were for the new Legislative program and priorities. This is largely a courtesy call because the Speech from the Throne (in England it is called the Queen’s Speech) is read by the Head of State in the High Chamber our Senate by the Governor General or the Queen if she is in Ottawa, but it is all written by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The Press got it wrong by talking about Trudeau seeking permission to form a government. What nonsense, he is the PM and remains so, he has a new mandate NOT a term, we don’t have those in Canada. The only thing Trudeau needs is to get the confidence of the House through a formal vote in the House of Commons on the Speech from the Throne or on the Budget bill. Very unlikely that he would not be able to get it under present circumstances. In Canada the role of the Queen or Governor General is to warn on a course of action or counsel the PM, the power to govern rests entirely in the House in Parliament, this is why we have responsible government since 1867. It is quite amazing to see how many journalists and editors get this wrong, watching too much of The West Wing I suppose.

On November 20 the Prime Minister will announce his new Ministry or Cabinet, a shuffle of portfolio is the big challenge for Trudeau or any Prime Minister because they have to make sure they have all regions of Canada represented in Cabinet and this is tough at the moment with no Liberal Member of Parliament from Alberta or Saskatchewan, pop 5 million total, Trudeau will have to be creative but there are various workable solutions.

So the final result of this election Canadians want modern and progressive governments and NO we are not revisiting the Abortion debate it was settled decades ago, we have rights for all including the LGBTQ and same-sex marriage and Canadians don’t want to deny rights to segment of the population, we also want the right to die which was legislated and gun control including hand guns. It should also be a warning to any new conservative leader at the Federal level not to associate with Neo-Nazi elements and other white supremacist hate groups as Andrew Scheer did thinking that it was a winning card.

I do expect that with the beginning of this new mandate the conservatives and their friends in the right wing press will continue negative attacks against Trudeau but hey that’s life. At least we do not have a Conservative government and that is a blessing. No one wanted the sort of horror show we see in Ontario at the Provincial Level with Doug Ford who emulates Donald Trump his hero or the politics of civil war and hate in Alberta with Jason Kenney. Interestingly the Conservative Premier in Manitoba does not want to associate with Kenney or Ford and the Premier in New Brunswick who is himself in a minority situation is walking back on his own extreme positions which are mostly anti-French in a province considered to be  the heart of French Acadia.

 

 

485 years ago

Tags

Canada., Fête, French, Gaul, nationhood, PEI, Quebec, St-Jean

Today 24 June is the National Day of French Canada also known previously as La Saint-Jean Baptiste. A very old holiday which goes back to ancient times in Gaul, a feast day relating to the worship of the Sun. Today one tradition that remains is the huge bonfire lit at night. PEI was known before as Saint-Jean Island until the British got here.

I remember from my childhood the parades, concerts, bonfires and fireworks on 24 June in Montreal and in Quebec City, huge crowds everywhere. The French presence in Canada is 485 years old and still dominates our National politics to this day.

On this day I remember my own ancestor Nicholas Beaulieu dit Lebel who came to Canada 357 years ago on a troop ship part of Le Régiment de la Reine, something I am very proud of and of all that he accomplished.

 

La Saint-Jean is and has been the French Holiday for millennia, it is certainly older than any other holiday in France and it resonates with French speaking people because of its origins in ancient Gaul.

Here I present songs from the 1970’s which have a special place in my memory and that of so many French Canadians and/or Quebecois. The words and the music have such meaning to me.  One by Claude Dubois about people in Montreal belonging to a certain economic strata and social class and the other by a famous group Beau Dommage about Ginette a girl in the popular imagination.

 

Towards Xmas

Tags

Canada., Christmas, Food, French, life, Montreal, Music, Quebec

This week listening to Radio-Canada in the morning I heard some old Christmas favourites from my childhood. One was Mon Beau Sapin, Roi des Forêts known in English as O Tannenbaum. This was the song the second wife of my maternal grandfather, we called Tante Fernande would sing each Christmas at lunch at my grandfather’s house when all his children and spouses and us grandkids would gather for the traditional meal, gifts and benediction. It was an old, I dare say a very old tradition going back several generations, the family patriarch would bless is family for the New Year. Tante Fernande would have cooked a turkey it was always an excellent birds and very juicy, serving peas and mash potatoes and cranberries which she called Atoka, dessert would be a mix of chocolates, Bûche de Noël and other sweets. I always thought that Atoka was the real name for cranberries but it turn out that Atoka is a Quebec recipe for processing cranberries after they are harvested. It gives a much sweeter fruit and has none of the tartness found in canned cranberries. Tante Fernande was a cook who did everything from scratch including her cranberries. You could not buy canned cranberries back then or if you could it was not done on good homes.

The dishes used to serve the Christmas meal was on two dinner sets, one was white with a dark blue and gold rim, the other set was their wedding dinner set which I have now.

There were other songs and my aunts knew one each, a favourite, one was Petit Papa Noël, my Mom use to sing that one. It is not an old song, the melody is taken from an old Ukrainian song and the words written in 1944 were about a child asking Santa to bring his father home for Xmas from the POW camp in Germany. After the war the words were changed erasing any reference to the war to what we hear today. It is a song that you would learn in school and my mother knew it well.  It was part of every Christmas music recital at school in French Canada. Tino Rossi premiered this song in 1946 and it became his Christmas signature song. Radio-Canada played it today as part of their weekend Christmas show it brought back a tidal wave of memories.

On this score the French service Radio-Canada is doing a much better job with their Christmas programming than the CBC who is playing a mix of commercial music. Tomorrow 23 December, the CBC will have an all day Christmas concert as they do every year from the European Union broadcasted live starting at 9am. Radio-Canada will have its programming, vintage shows from the 1940 to 1970. Despite the fact that such programming might be speaking to an older generation, it is still enormously popular.

Maybe it speaks about a time when Christmas was not about shopping and stress. The Media today puts a heavy emphasis on how stressful and unpleasant it is, with those awful relatives. I wonder why it has to be this way, not to mention the trove of bad news. It sounds almost perverse.

Gifts use to be in my mother’s childhood an orange which was a luxury then, books, clothing like a scarf or a sweater. For us it was books, sweets or the dreaded Fentex slippers your gradma knitted for you, some small amount of money like a $5. bill new and crisp or a board game. The adults were not stressed, no one was driving around shopping in malls, it was a nice holiday with a focus in Roman Catholic Quebec on religion and midnight mass recalling the traditions of Old Canada and France.

The other popular song and remains so to this day is J’ai vu maman embrassé le Père Noël sung by Line Renaud who is 90 years old. This 1956 version is one you will hear on the radio. Renaud was and remains one of the great French singer of her time.

Well we avoided the stress of Christmas and it is something I never quite understood why so many people whipped themselves into a frenzy.  I think that a lot of the stress is made up on false notions about gifts and having to please other people, it is somewhat artificial. I hope you all have lots of fun and enjoyment out of the Holiday Season.

My Best Wishes to You!

 

Souvenir from long ago

Tags

Augusta Holmes, Canada., France, long ago, Mathé Altery, Noël, operetta, Quebec

This morning we were listening to Radio-Canada programming from Montréal and the weekly show was playing music from the 1950’s and 1960’s. French singers who are well known and were the big names of their time with many hits. On the weekend Radio-Canada has a programming of Oldies but goodies, tunes anyone over the age of 45 will recognize. This programming of French musical hits is highly popular. This is the sort of music my Mom would listen too and often sing along, she had a nice singing voice.

One of the French singers was Mathé Altery,  a French soprano singer prominent in the 1950s and 1960s for singing operettas and French songs. She was my Mom’s favourite French singer and we had all her records at home. Altery came to Montréal and gave several concerts. My parents met her, she was staying at the hotel my father managed at the time.

Here she sings an old favourite, Noël, trois anges sont venus. This piece was composed in 1884 by French composer Augusta Holmès. It is so very nice to hear this music for its quality in composition and lyrics.

This brings back a lot of memories from my childhood and Christmas then. Altery who is 91 years old now, lives in France. Her singing voice and her French diction was impeccable. She was the French voice of Julie Andrews in the movie the Sound of Music which came out 53 years ago. She sang the well known musical score in French, it is just as charming as the English version.

 

The words to this Christmas song,

Trois anges sont venus ce soir

M’apporter de bien belles choses,

L’un d’eux avait un encensoir,

L’autre avait un chapeau de roses,

Et le troisième avait en main

Une robe toute fleurie

De perles d’or et de jasmin

Comme en a Madame Marie.

Noël ! Noël !

Nous venons du ciel

T’apporter ce que tu désires,

Car le bon Dieu

Au fond du ciel bleu,

Est chagrin lorsque tu soupires.

Veux-tu le bel encensoir d’or

Ou la rose éclose en couronne ?

Veux-tu la robe, ou bien encore

Un collier où l’argent fleuronne ?

Veux-tu des fruits du Paradis

Ou du blé des célestes granges ?

Ou comme les bergers, jadis,

Veux-tu voir  Jésus dans ses langes ?

Noël ! Noël !

Retournez au ciel

Mes beaux anges, à l’instant même ;

Dans le ciel bleu,

Demandez à Dieu,

Le bonheur pour celui que j’aime.

Augusta Holmès

 

What a week

Tags

blood, Canada., intolerance, massacre, Muslims, PQ, Quebec, Separatist, Trump, violence

Lots of emotions this week which leaves me somewhat exhausted. Though I live in Canada the circus at the White House and the dangerous buffoonery, the constant stream of bluster politics is dragging the USA down into a level that is very difficult to understand. This is somewhat like an early dusk as day light slowly vanishes, it is very sad to watch. It also makes me fearful for what is coming.

Then this week we had an attack on the Grand Mosque of Quebec City, six men shot dead while at prayer and 19 others badly injured. The terrorist was a White young man, Roman Catholic, raised in an upper middle class family, well educated, still attending University. Again we saw the fake news phenomenon claiming early on that a second gunman, a Moroccan was also involved, FOX News reported this ad nauseam until the Prime Minister’s Office got involved and told them to remove the tweet in question since it was false, they did finally. This did not prevent alt-right groups in Canada to spread more false news and conspiracy theories to slander the dead and other muslims in Quebec City. The next day another mosque this time in Montreal was attacked and vandalized. The police have reported that more anti-muslim attack have taken place in Quebec.

The leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois, Jean-François Lisée nonetheless continued when interviewed by journalists with his Ethnic Identity speech and could not see how this type of speech could lead to actions by individuals like Alexandre Bisonnette. We have had decades in Quebec of such speeches by so called Nationalists. The day of the massacre Monsieur Lisée continued with a declaration on Economic Nationalism in Quebec clearly stating that those Foreigners who come to Quebec come here to take our money and this does not profit Quebec, that is no longer acceptable. The Parti Quebecois has a way of always positioning itself as they did in the past with their Quebec Values debate as a Us against them the foreigners. It is a seductive speech for many and the Alt-right groups and what is called the Radio poubelle (garbage radio) shows constantly attack anyone who appears different, Muslims have been a special target and constantly vilified. This is a disease in Quebec and it is very troubling how diversity has been rejected by many and cannot be accepted because of the threat it represents to those so called mythical Quebec values and the survival of the French fact, which is not in danger except in the minds of the Quebec Alt-right groups.

On the day of the funeral it was revealed that the Muslim community in the City of Quebec did not have its own cemetery, discussions for the establishment of such a place have been dragging on for 10 years, politicians were afraid to offend again the Nationalist groups. Now the Mayor of Quebec Regis Labaume who has been visibly shaken by the events of this week promised that a Cemetery for the Muslim community will be established soon.

I heard all the political speeches at the funeral of the 6 men and I thought that there was some grand standing but all the calls for tolerance, acceptance and respectful  co-existence will probably fall on deaf ears, you cannot change the hateful attitudes of the Nationalists in Quebec who are convinced of being a superior race.

Changing attitudes is according to psychologists one of the hardest thing to do for humans. Here we have ignorance fuelling prejudice which are deeply seated. I saw it in Gatineau which is across the river from Ottawa against the African community. Some in the White, French speaking town did not like the fact that these French speaking Africans were better educated and held it against them. There is wide spread and systemic discrimination in Quebec against the non-white non-Christian segment of the population in the Province. The current Provincial government has not been very forceful in moving against Alt-right groups or Radio stations in Quebec City whose well known and popular hosts have broadcasted hate speech often singling out Muslims or other minority groups.  This is turn has led to a view that it is normal and acceptable to have racist opinions because it is only your opinion.

You can read the comments on chat lines or in newspaper, to say that they are vile is putting it mildly. In Quebec, Donald Trump has lots of fans cheering for him, the hate of the other is that well anchored. That is not to say that other provinces in Canada are immune from hate, in other regions opinions run against Asians, Native groups, Blacks, Jews and Muslims and immigration in general. Our Conservative Party politicians like Kellie Leitch and her Canadian values speech, it’s not racist she insist or Kevin O’Leary who thought it was funny to show himself on YouTube shooting several high powered fire arms hours after the Quebec city massacre or other conservative leadership candidates trying to imitate Trump with pronouncements, fear sells by time. These people have aspirations to one day lead the country.

What I would like to know is how do you change attitudes, open minds, educate people. Is that possible at all when so many have closed minds and refuse to listen. They may be a minority group on the margin of society, they may be 1 in 10 but still they poison the social discourse with their nonsense and it leads like in this case to murder of innocent people whose only crime was to look different.

photo of the funeral for the victims, a very large crowd came to pay respect and the political leadership was also present to honour the dead.   

   

Saturday 4 February 2017, 1000 + march against Islamophobia in downtown Charlottetown. People do care about their neighbours safety and well being. Good for you PEI!

The road trip

Tags

Acadians, Edmundston, Fredericton, Highway 20, Lévis, New Brunswick, PEI, Quebec, Temiscouata

I do not do road trips, since I do not enjoy driving that much outside the City. In the city we live near shops, so we can walk. In this case with the move I had to drive to Charlottetown from Ottawa, crossing several Canadian Provinces to get there. The road all along is the Trans-Canada Highway and is an easy drive with beautiful scenery. The highway from Rivière du Loup on the Saint Lawrence river which at that point is so broad that you cannot see the other side, to Edmundston in New Brunswick is really glorious passing by Lake Temiscouata. The highway which is only a few years old passes high on the ridge so you can admire the panorama. There is also a fence all along to prevent herds of Moose from  crossing  the road, special tunnels under the road allows them to move across in safety, warnings all along to watch out at night when this is likely to occur. You should dial 511 if you see a moose who has cross the fence or is on the road. These animals weight upwards of 3 tons, you do not want to hit one. This is an area sparsely populated and with few service stations, so fuel up and keep your tank full the next gas station could be 70 Km away. I never let the tank to go pass half full and was doing 6.5 Km per litre of gas.

We stopped in Edmundston on the way to Charlottetown. Ottawa-Edmundston is about 8 hours of driving, I was very tired but had a second driver with me, an old friend who also took the wheel. I discovered while stopping at a gas station to fuel up in New Brunswick that you can buy hard liquor, beer and wine, the last time I saw that was in Texas. In Quebec you can buy beer and wine, in Ontario it is simply not allowed to sell any alcoholic drinks.

Edmundston is on the border with Maine, the border is just across the river St-John. The area is called the Republic of Madawaska, the story is about complicated negotiations between the USA Government and the British Government about the exact border between the two countries which were established in the latter part of the 19th century. In the end the population led by an American by the name of Baker established in name this Republic.

Edmundston is a small town of 16,000 people with pulp and paper mill and lots of cross-border trade with the USA. We found a good pub and had a nice meal.  Edmundston is named after Governor General Edmund Walker Head who was the Head of the Royal Government in Canada prior to Confederation in 1867. The population is 95% French speaking Acadians.

The ride to Charlottetown the next day to PEI is 5 hours, easy ride by-passing  Fredericton, the Capital of New Brunswick and then Moncton to the sea bridge to PEI. Once the bridge is crossed you are minutes away from Charlottetown.

I always have to remember once in Charlottetown to slow down to 30Km or less, you cannot drive fast because you will overshoot your destination easily, also pedestrians have priority always.

The ride back was uneventful, we drove to Lévis which is across the Saint-Lawrence from Quebec City. My ancestors settled there around 1662 in the St-Romuald area. Had not been there in many decades and was surprised to see how affluent and developed it has become, no longer a farming community.

The driving portion of the Trans-Canada Highway 20 between Drummondville and Montreal is unpleasant on week days because of all the big transport trucks, dozens of them in the right lane, you have to be vigilant. Lots of police patrol also to check on speeding.

All in all a good trip to open up the apartment and organize things. Oh, did I mention I manage to get invited to two cocktail parties while in Charlottetown, loads of fun.

At the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, late night party

 

 

 

 

 

What pronunciation?

Tags

1789, 1841, accents, Canada., French, Pronunciation, Quebec

I am currently reading a book on traditional accent and new accent in French between 1841-1960. This book is the work of Jean-Denis Gendron who is a Professor and Doctor of Phonetics from the Sorbonne and Strasbourg University, he is also a Professor at l’Université Laval in Quebec City. The work is easy to read but academic in nature and nonetheless fascinating. Dr Gendron has written many books on the evolution of the French language, phonetics and pronunciation since the French revolution in 1789.

In large part this is an historic essay on pronunciation and how it changed the French language with the victory of the grande Bourgeoisie over the Royalists in France after 1789.

Prior to the Revolution the French King spoke French and used a traditional pronunciation similar to the lowly peasant. Unlike other countries where Royalty spoke and used an effete pronunciation very different from the common person, think of Japan, China, Poland, Spain, Latin America etc. in France the aristocracy spoke and pronounced words like the little people they ruled over.

However with the French Revolution in 1789 suddenly everything changed including the way to speak French and how words would be pronounced, every syllable had to be distinct and clear and even exaggerated in order to make the sense of the word clear. However such a drastic change does not happen over night and took decades to be implemented through the education system and the training of teachers in phonetics in France and as of 1841 in Canada.

The Bourbon who fell in 1789 and returned to power in France in 1814 only to fall again in 1830 had not learned the lesson of the revolution and King Louis XVIII and his brother Charles X still pronounced and spoke French like their unlucky older brother Louis XVI, despite being advised by their ministers to change their ways and speak like the Bourgeoisie.

King Louis XVIII of France 

King Charles X of France

It was the Bourgeoisie who imposed on French Society this new pronunciation in a show of fervour to change France from the old ways to the new mercantile, consumer values but also snobbism to differentiate themselves from the common people and the peasants.

In Canada after the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and the end of the Seven Year War in Europe, French Canadians were unable to travel to France and then with the Revolution and the ascension of Napoleon Emperor and the 12 years of war he unleashed on Europe the connection to France was cut.

Prior to 1789 many French luminaries still travelled from France to the new country of the United States of America, people like De Tocqueville and Bougainville wrote that the French Canadians spoke as well as the Parisian despite their isolation. However all that changed and in 1841 when the first French Canadians like Louis-Joseph Papineau and others travelled to France for the first time since the sea blocus was lifted, they noticed that their French-Canadian pronunciation was markedly different from the French Parisian Salon Society.

Louis-Joseph Papineau

They pronounced words in the old style no longer fashionable in Paris, though despite the Revolution most Frenchmen living en Province had a mixed pronunciation of old and new accent. So this was the beginning of a change in Canada mostly first in Quebec City and later in Montreal where the French speaking Elite lived. The rest of French Canada such as Acadia in the Maritimes and elsewhere in Canada, French was already different in its pronunciation.

So the Bourgeoisie in the Province of Quebec had to be convinced that their accent and pronunciation had to change, many linguists, grammarians and other language specialists wrote books and developed teaching methods to bring forward this new French pronunciation. However it was not easy and the great schools and Universities had to change their curriculum and enlist leaders of society who often themselves did not have the new way of pronouncing words and speaking.

It is a fascinating book and certainly lifts the veil on a very old polemic on the origins of accents in Canada and in France. The book does not touch upon French pronunciation in Belgium or Switzerland or other regions of France where regional accents are still present and have an impact on pronunciation.

If it is true that this pursuit of clear pronunciation and speaking was en vogue until 1960 in Quebec schools, today it is a different matter and I often think, if I listen to children today and adults under 40, that we are going backwards in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation and the use of anglicism. 

Mom reading the newspaper in our living room in Saska Kempa in Warsaw.

My Mom who had been trained to become a teacher was big on new correct pronunciation and I remember her correcting our French and listening to our reading out loud and correcting any mistakes in the pronunciation. She was a stickler for that, to her it was a sign of a good education. My paternal grandmother on the other hand would use to old accent and pronunciation when she wanted to mock my mother’s efforts, she made Mom mad. We never spoke with the old accent and pronunciation and to this day my French speaking is more on the neutral international accent which often baffles our acquaintances in France, but then again they too have fallen to the snobbish attitude nowadays of using English words when you have a perfectly good French word you can use. Who knew that the new accent and pronunciation from the French Revolution of 1789 was more a matter of snobbish fashion amongst the Bourgeoisie than anything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

about the reputation of General Wolfe, oh my!

Tags

Charlottetown, Duke of Westminster, PEI, Plains of Abraham, Quebec, Reynolds, Townshend, West, Wolfe

A dear friend of mine Dr. Spo https://sporeflections.wordpress.com was visiting us this Summer with his much better half Monsieur Someone. Now the good doctor took a private tour of the National Gallery of Canada with Monsieur and came about one of the most famous War propaganda painting (done in 1770) by Benjamin West of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of Quebec City in September 1759 during the Seven Year War. This painting was a gift to the NGC by the Duke Westminster in 1919 in thanks for the enormous support given by Canada to Britain during the First World War. Dr Spo wanted to buy it on the spot for his Office, he was convinced to buy a facsimile instead.

Now by doing some research on this famous battle you realize that General James Wolfe (1727-1759) had thrown down his cards in this game of war poker against the French. The campaign had started some years back and was going very badly for the British. There was also much snipping amongst the British Officers who all thought they knew better than their fellow Officers. General Wolfe was a young man in his early thirties and a bit of a prig and very full of himself. One of his fellow Officers took a strong dislike to him and did very unflattering caricatures of Wolfe and circulated them around to the great amusement of the other Officers. He also wrote some little ditties none of which showed Wolfe in a good light.

The fellow was George Townshend 4th Viscount Townshend who had his portrait done by none other then Joshua Reynolds one of the Founders of the Royal Academy in London. Townshend was merciless towards Wolfe, he wrote; I never served in such a disagreeable campaign. It is war of the worst shape, General Wolfe’s health is very bad and in my humble opinion, his generalship is not much better.

When Wolfe heard of this he declared; If we survive this war, there will have to be an enquiry. Lucky Townshend, Wolfe died on the Plains of Abraham.

 The war ended in Europe and the powers, Britain, France, Prussia and Austria negotiated the Treaty of Paris which became effective in 1763. However the British government despite having won the war made a very bad settlement accepting lands in Canada instead of the Caribbean (Martinique and Guadeloupe) which brought five times more revenue in Rum and spices than all of Canada in a single year. The government of Prime Minister Pitt fell and the next government mismanaged further the whole matter. Canada was not the prize the British wanted but were stuck with it. Taxes were raised to pay for this long war and in 1776 the colonists in the Thirteen Colonies revolted.

All this history came about when we visited the exhibit of the Great Map of the Island of St-Jean now PEI by Samuel Holland made in 1766 which is on show at the Gallery of the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI. This year the City of Charlottetown celebrates its 250th Foundation Anniversary in 1765.