Kintaro

Chuck : The religious picture in Quebec.


Montreal = as multi-ethnic as could be. Therefore religious traditions take a back seat in the public place, but in private are lived any way they wish.

Off the island = More similarity than difference. Remind yourself that Quebec calls itself 80 % catholic yet less than 4 % go to church.


It's the most secular catholic place in the world for one reason.


QC.catholicism = Baptism at birth, (50%) first communion, marraige, death ritual, etc.

In other words, a joke. However, in more rural areas, you may find semi-fundies (even Mormons in Pontiac but oh so far away from Hull (yes!)) and in english areas (west of montreal island, and the Outaouais region (about 20% english)) where protestantism/i-don't-give-a-shit-ism rules instead of catholicism/i-don't-give-a-shit-ism .

However, there are lots of alternate religions everywhere, lots of jehova-friendly spots, the Raelians, we even had Solar Temple people kill themselves here.


Enjoy the land where declaring your atheism is responded to with "whatever" since their own faith is often resumed in that same word.

Mark

Perhaps it's different methods of election? Or some people vote on the federal scale, but are less interested in provincial elections?

mikester

canadian politics have always confused but interested me. i think our government needs a serious overhaul (or at least a prime minister who can talk properly and not make an ass of himself at interviews).


:boohoo:

Zulu

The results were just about perfect. The PQ lost and the ADQ got creamed.

I never understood why Quebeceers didn't seem to appreciate Charest that much... he was pretty much a hero during the referendum. It would have been pretty disgraceful to see the PQ win three times in a row, with Landry, of all people, at the head.

-Zulu

Soyin Milka

I was not expecting my thread to last that long!

I learned a lesson about explaining canadian politics to americans. In the USA, the leaders of states are called governors, while the leader of the country is called the president. It seems to confuse americans that we call both provincial leaders and the country leader "prime ministers". I dunno, it seems to make it easier for them once that's been cleared

About the french language and Qu�bec... Outside metropolitan areas, you'll need the french language to survive. There's a lot of people who only speak french. It's hard to see or rent american movies in english. You have to get used to Bruce Willis' silly voice in the french versions But people are very welcoming. An american who knows 10 words of french will be greeted much more warmly than a snotty parisian who makes fun of our accents or constantly wants to correct us for our "misuse" of the french language. Oh yeah...

Soyin

Comquirk

Actually, in English, we refer to the head of government as the "Prime Minister"and the heads of the provinces as Premiers.

In Canada, we have a much more federally based system than the US. Whereas in the States, the states themselves are like mini nations, in Canada are provinces are more like simple regions than mini-nations.

Soyin Milka

Oooooooohhhh...
That's what it meant?
I'm so embarassed now

Oh well, it just goes to show how much I have left to learn

Soyin

MilitantModerate

And I'll do it again!

Ut

The Qu�b�cois don't want to elect a prime minister who will cave in to the federal government and fail to stand up for the interests of Quebec.

Charest, having campaigned in 1995 for Canadian federalism and coming from the federal political scene, was not thought to be willing to stand up for Quebec against Ottawa. Charest won, among other reasons, because he managed during the electoral campaign to convince voters that he would stand up for Quebec.

I think that the primary thing to sink Dumont was his tour of English Canada months before the election. He went there telling everybody that, if he was elected, Quebec would stop talking of independance or of reforming Canadian federalism or of countering centralization. Of course, the English Canadian press was delighted. We weren't and denied him the highest office.

Ut

Oui, �a marcherait. As Soyin Milka said, we have no problem with people with less-than-perfect French (though you will have to get used to our accent). In fact, there are mainly two linguistic things that bugs off Quebeckers:

1) People who were born in Qu�bec, lived there for decades, and still don't bother to speak French.
2) Arrogant people from France who can't stop making fun of our accent.

The province are quite autonomous, but not as much as the states in the US. The Quebeckers find the Canadian federation to be too much centralized and this has been causing strife for decades.

Qu�bec is pretty secular and quite possibly the most secular place in all of North America. Montr�al is (morally) flaming liberal, while Montr�al's suburbs, Hull (next to Ottawa) and Quebec City are more conservative, and "les r�gions" (the "provincial" part of Qu�bec) are conservative.

Yeah