OK, Pierre Curzi, Now You’ve Really Sunk To a New Height of Embarrassment! And Maybe Helped Harpercons In the Process!

When an ex-pat of twelve years who only recently returned from Japan a few months ago to somewhere in Ontario, far from the Francais Paranoiaque, gets wind of  the leader of the opposition Parti Quebecois’s latest and perhaps most idiotic and embarrassing antics, I think my readers outside of Quebec can understand my embarrassment.  Bravo, Pauline!

What our good friend, the Reverend Paperboy was referring to is that Pauline Marois is now bitching at the fact that the Montreal Canadiens are just not “Joual” enough. Oh, she’s not alone, Pierre Curzi, PQ MNA and language critic said as much with a straight face on the big tv screen, a Tele-Quebec show, Les Francs-tireurs. In fact, I believe he started this mess. Ohhh! Louise Beaudoin and Pauline Marois must be oh, so proud!  He told the host of the show this:

“I don’t get paranoid about conspiracies, but I say that when the biggest symbol of our identity, namely the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, does not play any more francophones, when you go there, that is damned well political,” he said.

The host was having trouble following his logic, so Mr. Curzi elaborated. “It is not by chance,” he said.

“People who are federalists and people who do not want to see Quebec become a country, who do not want French to flourish, they know very well that you have to seize a certain number of symbols of identity. I believe there is a takeover by federal power of the Canadiens club.”

Here’s a thought, if this is really that important, perhaps more Quebec world class hockey players should be produced. 

Curzi’s statement is just another example of that Quebecois romanticism that beats out pragmatism every time.  I mean, would he prefer to watch mediocre games, but Maudit! Ils sont tous Quebecois! or would he prefer to watch a team that can make play-offs and maybe, just maybe, one day, win the Stanley Cup?  Don’t answer that, I think already know the answer. What’s sad, though, is that this particular of the francization of  the Habs seems to be far more important to PQ extremists like Marois and Curzi than it is to your average Quebecois hockey fans.

This isn’t the first such incident neither, I seem to remember back in the days Saku Koivu was the captain of the Habs and he endured much criticism from the  francais paranoiaque element about him being the wrong choice for team captain because his French wasn’t deemed strong enough. Never mind that he may have been picked to be captain because, oh I don’t know, because he was the best man for the job?

Thanks a lot, Curzi, Ms Marois!  Because now, I’m going to have the whiny WASPs of Westmount & West Island giving me a massive head-ache over their English rights in a French province.  Outside of those swanky neighbourhoods, Anglos living in the more working class neighbourhoods have all learned French, embraced the culture and don’t fear separatism anymore, but now, you just set that back because, you just knocked their favourite hockey team! Way to go!

But, the stooopid that is Pierre Curzi doesn’t stop there. Oh hell, no!

In Mr. Curzi’s view, the recent campaign to bring the Nordiques back to Quebec City is also a political project, driven by an urge to have “a team that is going to be our team, that is going to resemble us.”

Well, hold on, now, the lobby to bring the Nordiques back home is political in the sense that it is linked to Pierre-Karl Peladeau’ s bid to get Fox News North on the airwaves. 

However, how is the team going to “resemble us” as Curzi puts it?  More than likely, they would be subject to the same rules of trading players as other teams and more than likely, the make up of the team wouldn’t be much different than that of the Habs.

Wait a minute! Wasn’t one of the reasons the Nordiques couldn’t make it in Quebec City’s market because of that linguistic issue in the first place?

Quebec City is a virtually monolingual francophone city. Unlike in Montreal, nearly all public address announcements were only given in French. Then as now, there were no privately-owned English-language radio stations, and only one privately-owned English language television station. The only English-language newspaper was a weekly. These factors severely limited the Nordiques’ marketability in the anglophone market even in their best years.

I dunno, Pierre, looks like those very same linguistic issues exist in Quebec City today as they did fifteen years ago. Don’t think they’ll survive again, neither.   Great! A team with more than likely, the same make up of players, who will probably end up having to be sold to the US again.

And speaking of dumb-assed  lobbying that backfires, Gilles Duceppe, for all of his share of lobbying for a return of the Nordiques,  ended up shooting himself in the foot.  According to the latest EKOS poll,  the Harpercons’ went up again, and it wasn’t at the expense of the Liberals or the NDP, neither. 

“The CPC has certainly picked up its performance in Quebec (largely at the expense of the Bloc) and one has to wonder if the talk of an NHL franchise helped here,” EKOS president Frank Graves says.

Yes, Gilles, I’m looking at you! All your lobbying for the feds to fund this arena, Stevie Spiteful opens the door, and Duceppe sure doesn’t get thanked for his trouble it would seem.

All in the name of hockey and la langue francaise, some of these buffoons are sabotaging their own cause.

And yes, Reverend Paperboy, given that Curzi and other separatists opposed  the invitation to Paul McCartney to give a free concert on the Plaines of Abraham as part of Quebec City’s 400th anniversary festivities, complaining that it would be too ”Canadianized”,   I would say that you’re right on the money about “Muffin Anglais” being a federalist plot to these weirdoes.

Yes, I think Pierre Curzi and Pauline Marois have just fed fuel to the fledgling Quebec chapter of the tea-bagger hit parade, the Reseau Liberte Quebecois-Quebec Freedom Network. And just think, many believe that Pierre Curzi could well succeed Pauline Marois as leader of the Parti-Quebecois. Oh lawdy!  They will have to change course, here, steer off the French language Paranoiaque stance or else, not only will the cause for sovereignty would be greatly hindered, but also, those Quebec Freedom Network fools, as well as the Harpercons, are going to start to make bigger waves here.