Recent analysis of the municipal elections (November 1st; and don’t you forget it) has made allusion to a possible division between voters; a division the city of Montréal knows all too well. Such a scenario would place current mayor Tremblay as the « anglophone » candidate and perceived challenger, Harel, as the « francophone » candidate.
(As expected, this scheme leaves out all mention of the third and fourth candidates, Bergeron and O’Suillivan, whom many in the media have discounted; thereby doing the public a great disservice – Shame on you press, television, radio, internet, et al. – you are forgiven however when it comes to Michel Bédard of Fierté Montréal and Michel Prairie, the independant; I too know very little about them)
If Montrealers are going to vote along tribal lines, then we are even more stupider than we ever imagined.
A lot of this talk seems to stem from the false debate created around Ms. Harel’s ability or inability or unpossible capability to speak English.
So today, Dimanche démocratique is dedicated to learning you straight.
Is it necessary that the Mayor of Montréal speak English?
Absolutely not.
An advantage? Of course! Why not some Spanish as well? And throw in a little Portuguese and Mandarin for good measure.
Is it necessary that the Mayor of Montréal speak French?
Absolutely not.
An atout? Of course! However, if the person that occupies the big chair at city hall has not beautifully mastered the language of Molière, that’s alright by me. We live in an age where we can leave such translating tasks up to computers, or, at the very least, aides and spokespeople that can help the mayor along.
How do you think the UN works? Or the deaf? Or Stephen Hawking?
John So got by with his heavily-accented English whilst holding the position of Lord Mayor in Melbourne, Australia.
Besides, most organisations run a press office separate from that of its leader.
In fact, fair citizens of Montreal, we shouldn’t give a damn if our future mayor spoke only Afrikaans or Zulu or Klingon. Bring on a speech-impaired spider monkey to preside over l’Hôtel de Ville. All that should matter is:
1. Will our new mayor have a solid vision for Montréal?
2. Will our new mayor not seduce us with empty promises (read: lie to our faces)?
Since when did virtue and ethics and vision and compassion as winning attributes lose out to whether or not the candidate looks, walks and quacks like me?
Alas, Montrealers (along with Quebeckers, Canadians, and the rest of the world) may prove to be too dumb to understand that content, not cover, matters in an election. And since it seems that the number of idiots out number those of us with at least half their brains functioning, I guess we are all in la grosse marde.
Whatever the case may be, I will be voting in the municipal elections this November. Perhaps democracy is too complex for the common man. Nevertheless, it is the best option we currently have.
20 comments
Pas besoin de parler français pour être maire de Montréal? Ridicule. Aux dernières nouvelles Montréal est une ville officiellement francophone, pas même bilingue.
Tant qu’à y être, pourquoi pas un maire de Toronto unilingue francophone. Ou encore mieux, un maire de Québec unilingue anglophone. Non, non, mieux encore, un maire de la ville de Vancouver unilingue espagnol. Si la langue de communication ne veut rien dire, à quand un élu unilingue cantonnais à la Chambre des Communes.
I’d be a bit afraid of a candidate that only spoke klingon to be honest.
It’s interesting to note that a long time ago Montreal mayors were often anglophones. The early years of the city saw french and english alternating almost regularly. The city then absorbed a number of francophone cities and the new much bigger french majority led to french candidates being the only viable ones.
Michel Bédard used to be behind the Elephant Blanc party for those who don’t remember him. They should give him more coverage, it’s always entertaining!
I think your analogy if slightly off the mark. It’s not about anglos vs francos, it’s about the liberal mayor and the one coming from the PQ.
And Montreal can “officially” be a monolingual french city but in practice, it’s not. Anything west of Boulevard St-Laurent is strongly bilingual, if not outright english speaking with french as a second language.
Oui, et l’on pourrait argumenter que ça ne devrait pas être une langue seconde dans ces quartiers. Et ceux qui le feraient auraient le droit de se questionner sur la capacité qu’aurait un maire anglophone à comprendre leur point de vue.
On parle de langue comme si c’était quelque chose d’inné et fixe. Il n’en est rien, c’est un moyen de communication qui s’apprend. Et s’il n’y a pas eu d’apprentissage, le manque d’intérêt pour la culture ciblé n’est pas à rayer de la liste comme raison potentielle.
Penser que la langue ne devrait pas avoir d’importance dans un endroit comme Montréal est complètement naïf.
Il est certain qu’il ne faut pas tout évaluer par rapport à cette seule dimension, mais l’ignorer complètement n’est pas une solution.
French is spoken by 60% of Montrealers and English is spoken by 20%. Sure you could say one or the other isn’t absolutely critical in order to become mayor, but to think you could have a solid view of Montreal without being able to articulate that view to either 3/5 or 1/5 of the population definitely puts you at a disadvantage.
It works for the UN because when the UN reps go back to their country they speak THEIR language.
I see and sympathize with the point you’re making – that it’s better to vote for policies and competence than seemingly superficial identification with a candidate’s background. But at the same time, it’s difficult to understand the needs of a city if one can’t be fully immersed in it’s culture, and it’s nearly impossible to immerse oneself in culture without linguistic competence.
As a recent arrival (from Vancouver) and a monolingual anglophone, I feel hardly competent to even consider voting. In my experience it’s much more challenging to integrate into a new city if you can’t speak the primary language — you just can’t understand what people value, need and think about if you can’t engage with them about it. On that token, it just doesn’t seem reasonable or appropriate to have a mayor who can’t even communicate with the people his/her decisions are going to deeply effect.
I will vote in a major who has an awesome vision. What ever happened to things like: “Hey, you know what? I’ve got a sweet idea. Let’s dig a metro system and then use the dirt to build islands that we can throw parties on!” That’s my type of politics. Language is the defacto fallback topic. It’s kind of like the weather. If this was Vancouver they’d be talking about filling the metro back in with all the party island dirt in order to restore the natural flow of the Fleuve. We need more party islands. Hey, wait a sec, they just announced that wicked big expansion of the Metro….does that mean more party islands?!
who cares what medias says anyway…are we so stupid to believe and follow the medias…..
please!
I’m no so sure that the media is ignoring Bergeron and O’Sullivan. Ok, O’Sullivan yes, but is that so surprising?
This La Presse story today gives Bergeron his due http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/elections-municipales/200910/05/01-908410-richard-bergeron-le-franc-tireur-de-montreal.php
Likewise, the Gazette’s Henry Aubin argues that the Projet Montreal warrants consideration. http://tiny.cc/FHjx6
Are you on crack? Montréal is 92% French and you’re saying it isn’t necessary?
While I don’t believe that the Mayor has be speak English, for me it’s more of an issue of the candidates’ personal qualities: I think that if a candidate for mayor is not bilingual to some degree, it reflects badly on them. I mean, If you’re a North American, well-educated, and living in a multi-cultural, polyglot that is Montreal, I find it a bit unacceptable, if not a bit odd. That said, I don’t even think Mme Harel’s English is bad at all. So really, I think this whole Franco-Anglo thing has a lot of people who get off on social division in Montreal frothing at mouth….
And I will echo another comment: while Montreal may be officially a Francophone city (hmmm, as decided by a government that sits in another city with a electorate that favors the regions) in practice and reality, the city has always had a bilingual tradition.
This is a perplexing article, seemingly beamed to us from an alternate universe.
“We live in an age where we can leave such translating tasks up to computers”
No, we don’t. Computer-assisted translation has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade or two, but only in specific fields where forms are mostly rigid and repetitive. There is no way a piece of software can keep up with the doublespeak and jargon used by politicians. We are decades, perhaps centuries away from developing such software.
And do you seriously think a mayor could be elected by addressing most of the population through an interpreter or underling? That is a ridiculous idea.
Montreal needs a bilingual mayor. I’d go even further: it is downright disrespectful to Montrealers for any party to pick a unilingual candidate as its leader.
This is sort of a typically anti-french framing of the issue of cultural protection — the “both sides are crazy, so let’s lol!” trope.
So much for an analysis of the claims of defenders of the french language in North America, e.g.
1) French is in decline outside of Québec.
2) Assimilation is not desirable — it is the opposite of diversity.
3) Bilingualism hasn’t stopped the above when it is adequately enforced (and it is not even adequately enforced all of the time)
4) The territoriality of a unilingual-french Québec (Montréal is in Québec) is the best way to preserve the French language
5) A french-language metropolis (Montréal) guarantees the economic well-being of francophones and prevents a “louisianization” where the cultural and economic attraction of the French language would be lost.
It’s very convenient for english-writers/readers on an essentially english website, sitting comfortably in the middle of a hub-and-spoke world, to think that language doesn’t matter.
Klingon. Really.
Anyone still lost in the language debate in 2009 needs to grow up just a little. Sadly, those emotions will lead them straight to Harel or Tremblay or the lunatic fringe. Projet Montreal is the best alternative out there. Richard Bergeron has a PHD in urban planning, so it s not like this is some whackjack out of left field movement, it’s the real deal.
I understand what you’re saying Émile but I do think that the mayor of Montréal must speak both french and english (more would be a bonus). They don’t have to be Molière or Shakespeare, but they must be able to communicate with both their contituents and the mayors and delegations from the rest of the continent.
I’m voting for Bergeron, but if Kyle ever decides to run (and he speaks both french and english) he’s got my vote!
L’incapacité à parler à l’électorat anglophone n’est pas ce qui m’inquiète de l’anglais catastrophique de Mme Harel. Après tout, les anglos peuvent toujours s’informer sur le Net ou avec les divers médias anglophones pour connaître le programme des candidats.
Ce qui m’inquiète, c’est que je m’attends à ce que la mairesse de Montréal soit capable de conclure des accords commerciaux hors-Québec, de visiter les maires d’autres grandes villes du monde pour échanger des idées et de rester informé de ce qui se passe en dehors de “cheu nous” en général.
Ceci dit, j’en ai vraiment ras-le-bol des chicanes anglais/francais. Il me semble qu’on pourrait mettre nos énergies à des endroits tellement plus utiles.
–Xavier
PS: Je vote Projet Montréal…
Of course language matters. And of course the language of the mayor, premier, MLA, et al, matters. To say it doesn’t is to be disingenuous, superficial, naive, and ignorant of history. This entire country, and especially this province, has built itself because of and inspite of language. While we might wish we could transcend some of the pettier issues, the fact of the matter is, language matters.
Likewise, what if an American said something like – who cares what colour Obama is? He could be green for all I care! Yes, well, on Sesame Street that would work. But the US has had a horrible and heavy history concerning skin colour, so damn right electing a black President is important.
And what is that accompanying photo all about? Not only is there no editorial comment or context for it, but its been so cutely inked over with our so-called tribal lines. Sorry, but I expect more from Spacing.
Well if you want to be elected in Montreal you must speak french, sorry I have to disagree on that. In general your blog has better content than this one.
You don’t seem very familiar with computer translation, you propose also to translate live speeches?
Hello!!!!!
Hyperbole aside (klingon?), I agree that language should not be a criteria in choosing the mayor-their platform (or lack thereof) is.
And sorry, being black in America comes nowhere close to bring francophone in quebec. To say so is disingenuous. When’s the last time you’ve heard someone in quebec get tasered by the police, threatened with nooses in trees, or given unfair justice because they spoke french?
I disagree that a ensuring Montreal is defined as a French language metropolis is what guarantees Francophones (as a social or cultural group) social and economic well-being. Education does that. The higher the better. The lack of education for generations is what caused the socio-economic discrepancy in Quebec. While English culture in Quebec stressed education, education, education and indoctrinated youth with that, the Catholic clergy preached rural life with bare-bones education.
Just because you speak English does does not mean you are self-assimilating. Ensuring the French language survives has a lot to do with personal responsibility. Not necessarily government enforcement. I will say that the school system must ensure that both languages are mastered by EVERYONE. That is certainly where it begins…
Let’s face it: Quebec outside Montreal will always be French. There is no threat that it will go the way of Lousiana. That said, no one is disputing Montreal is a primarily Francophone city. However, we should not discard the history of Montreal and place of the English in the building of it. Nor should we disrespect the traditions of bilingual nature of the city. Any leader should be trying to reach out the the various communities that make up the city and that includes speaking the language – whether it is English or Russian,….