Originally Posted by
Admiral Ackbar
I did not want to wade in to this mess but you summarized it much better than I could. As a French Canadian, I could care less if he is perfectly bilingual, or how much of his speech was in French, blah blah.
It is the complete tone deafness (almost Rhodesian) and lack of political knowledge (at best) to say that Montréal was wonderful because you don't need to speak French. I am annoyed at how stupid he is, not at what languages he may or may not speak.
Add to that an irrelevant mayoral candidate (election is next weekend) that wants a referendum on making Montreal a bilingual city state (shades of the long forgotten Richard Libman and the Equality Party) that is fanning the flames and I feel right back in the 70s when my father was Bourassa's Chief of Staff and half my family hated the other half. Fun times.
Happily, this will all blow over and we can go back to the vast majority of Montrealers that have been getting along for at least the last two decades swimmingly.
But boy is he stupid.
I’ll bite: how would you respond to “how have you managed to live in Montreal for 14 years without learning French?”
There is IMHO no answer that would have not caused offence.
His response - that it was a testament to Montreal that an Anglo can live here without speaking French - basically amounted to calling it a global metropolitan city, which was the only avenue left open to him.
Not that it needs to be said, but Montreal’s global status is directly attributable to its ability to accommodate transitory anglos from the world over for years on end.
Perhaps Rousseau should invest in a “Just Visiting” t-shirt :P. Might not help with those calling for his resignation though.