Toula Drimonis: I love Quebec but the politics can be exhausting

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When retired school principal Ronald G. Macfarlane — inspired, no doubt, by the CAQ government’s constant attacks on Quebec’s minority groups — wrote a rather blunt (dare I say, defeatist) opinion piece encouraging young Quebec anglophones to make a go of it elsewhere in the world, I knew it would ruffle feathers.

Macfarlane’s perspective predictably generated a strong reaction among readers — some agreeing, but most lambasting the octogenarian for daring to suggest that Quebec’s mostly bilingual and trilingual young anglophones and allophones should abandon their roots here for greener pastures. I found the outrage excessive. While I disagree with him, I understand where he’s coming from.

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“The truth is that there are many of us who stay in Quebec not only because of what is offered here, but despite what is sometimes offered here. Acknowledging that doesn’t make us traitors and disloyal to the city or the province. It makes us realists.”

I wrote that a decade ago after N.D.G.’s pride and joy, Montreal actor Jay Baruchel, jumped ship for Toronto.

After Baruchel candidly admitted that “Quebec politics did (his) head in,” French-language columnists — outraged that a Montrealer who routinely professed his love for the city would bid us adieu while also airing our dirty laundry — angrily berated him.

Amused by the torrent of hate poor Jay received, I shared that many Quebecers have at one time or another contemplated leaving. While some saw Macfarlane’s piece as a “plea to surrender,” I saw it as an octogenarian’s advice to his grandkids to perhaps make their lives a little easier.

Globally speaking, linguistic squabbles and being told to “go back to where you came from” by language zealots and ethnonationalists who are convinced that you — and only you — stand in the way of their dream of an independent Quebec may weigh low on the CrisisWatch conflict tracker. But that reality — coupled with what at times seems like our government’s incomprehension of Quebec’s linguistic, cultural and religious minorities — can be draining.

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The relentless barrage of measures — the proposed “Charter of Values”; Bills 96 and 21; attacks on English educational institutions; language directives that may compromise access to health care; government decisions that aim to assert Quebec’s French identity at the expense of, well, everyone else’s; along with a steady stream of legal action to protect against all of this — can understandably affect people’s sense of belonging.

Quebec is a great place to live. There’s a vibrancy here that I treasure and routinely and publicly praise. Montreal is my chez moi. But I’d be lying if I said identity politics and the constant need to defend my Québécitude weren’t occasionally exhausting.

Just because I love this place doesn’t mean I’m blind to its drawbacks.

With the Coalition Avenir Québec at the helm, politics in this province have only become more parochial and reactionary. But this current wave of regressive nationalism represents past grievances of an old Quebec — not its future. There’s a lot to love here, and many Quebecers agree it’s worth fighting for an even more inclusive vision. That requires all hands on deck.

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Truth is, there is no place on Earth without its share of challenges and irritants. Moving elsewhere might alleviate the angst you experience here, but you’d only be dealing with different triggers.

Ultimately, young Quebecers will make their life choices based on what they prioritize and value and what they’re willing to tolerate. I know many born-and-raised Quebecers who long ago packed up and left, while many “others” from elsewhere have found a permanent and happy home here.

Perhaps Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz was right: “Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease.”

In a world where people are on the move more than ever, no one is really bound to the place of their birth if they don’t want to be. Despite everything, substantial English-speaking and allophone communities have decided this is their home. There are many excellent reasons for that.

Toula Drimonis is a Montreal journalist and the author of We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada. She can be reached on X @toulastake

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