Quebec before Bill 101 (living in, mall, airplane)
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People had the freedom to post signs in any language they wished, Montreal was booming and was for a time Canadas number one city, then the language zealots came along and imposed all their linguistic rules and regulations and of course the language police to make sure all the new language laws were obeyed, many left the province taking their money,their companies and their children. Where once it was a union of two cultures today it is almost entirely French with a begrudging tolerance for the 8% Anglo demographic that remain.. AJ your turn
I swear I saw more English signs outside of Montreal and in the Eastern Townships but I guess you can't compare a rural/suburban strip mall to the core of a major city. Still, I as an American find it humorous to find a "PFK" (Poulet Frite Kentuckie) sign rather than a KFC sign up in Quebec.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the pre-Bill 101 Montreal will never come back. A growing new generation of Canadians and others have either never seen that Montreal or have little to no memory of it. Besides, suppose Montreal becomes a predominantly Anglophone city again, would companies really flock to Montreal just because it is mostly English speaking or do you wonder if there is something else about Montreal that might turn them off?
I swear I saw more English signs outside of Montreal and in the Eastern Townships but I guess you can't compare a rural/suburban strip mall to the core of a major city. Still, I as an American find it humorous to find a "PFK" (Poulet Frite Kentuckie) sign rather than a KFC sign up in Quebec.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the pre-Bill 101 Montreal will never come back. A growing new generation of Canadians and others have either never seen that Montreal or have little to no memory of it. Besides, suppose Montreal becomes a predominantly Anglophone city again, would companies really flock to Montreal just because it is mostly English speaking or do you wonder if there is something else about Montreal that might turn them off?
You don't have to be American to find PFK humorous. I do. To me, it's bureaucracy gone made. I mean come on...even in France they don't do that.
Somewhere I read that the French in France are more welcoming to the English language because they don't fear that their language, culture, and entire nation even is going away anytime soon. Some French Quebecois, particularly those living in Greater Montreal, really do fear that their language and culture is disappearing which is why they get so upset at the merest threat- real or unreal- of cultural change. These Quebecois are probably more afraid of their own children becoming obsessed with English language and culture to the extent of giving up their own French Canadian culture than anglophones invading Montreal in droves which they know will not happen. It doesn't help that the US with it's influential anglo-pop culture like KFC, McDonalds, Taylor Swift, etc. is so close by either. Still, I agree that the language situation in Montreal could be better addressed than just by mere laws but laws are what politicians enact.
People had the freedom to post signs in any language they wished, Montreal was booming and was for a time Canadas number one city, then the language zealots came along and imposed all their linguistic rules and regulations and of course the language police to make sure all the new language laws were obeyed, many left the province taking their money,their companies and their children. Where once it was a union of two cultures today it is almost entirely French with a begrudging tolerance for the 8% Anglo demographic that remain.. AJ your turn
Montreal was always Canada's largest city way up until 1980 it was the largest metro in the country and considered number 1. From what I know there was never a time before whereby Montreal wasn't number 1. Toronto has only been number 1 for 38 years which is a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. The separatist movement certainly had a lot to do with Toronto's ascendency shortly thereafter but I really do think it would have taken number 1 spot even without as it was slowly gaining on Montreal before the 70's. You could see it gaining as early as the late 40's early 50's.
People had the freedom to post signs in any language they wished, Montreal was booming and was for a time Canadas number one city, then the language zealots came along and imposed all their linguistic rules and regulations and of course the language police to make sure all the new language laws were obeyed, many left the province taking their money,their companies and their children. Where once it was a union of two cultures today it is almost entirely French with a begrudging tolerance for the 8% Anglo demographic that remain.. AJ your turn
Jambo, did you move to Montreal at a time when some Anglophones were leaving?
I swear I saw more English signs outside of Montreal and in the Eastern Townships but I guess you can't compare a rural/suburban strip mall to the core of a major city. Still, I as an American find it humorous to find a "PFK" (Poulet Frite Kentuckie) sign rather than a KFC sign up in Quebec.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the pre-Bill 101 Montreal will never come back. A growing new generation of Canadians and others have either never seen that Montreal or have little to no memory of it. Besides, suppose Montreal becomes a predominantly Anglophone city again, would companies really flock to Montreal just because it is mostly English speaking or do you wonder if there is something else about Montreal that might turn them off?
Montreal was never predominantly Anglophone. I think just a minority of Anglophones moved away in the late 20th Century. Most stayed and adjusted by learning French.
I like Quebec got to preserve its language and culture with Bill 101 although there were a lot of consequences. If it hadn't happened, Montreal would be the largest city in Canada today and the leading city of the country. However there would probably be little french being spoken in Montreal today, but maybe some of the culture may have been preserved. Who knows. The only thing we know is because of the language laws, Toronto overtook Montreal's power and Quebec has been growing less and many businesses have been leaving the province. It is what it is now, no point in going to the past I am glad that french is a vital part in Quebec so Bill 101 does have its positives in preserving culture.
I like Quebec got to preserve its language and culture with Bill 101 although there were a lot of consequences. If it hadn't happened, Montreal would be the largest city in Canada today and the leading city of the country. However there would probably be little french being spoken in Montreal today, but maybe some of the culture may have been preserved. Who knows. The only thing we know is because of the language laws, Toronto overtook Montreal's power and Quebec has been growing less and many businesses have been leaving the province. It is what it is now, no point in going to the past I am glad that french is a vital part in Quebec so Bill 101 does have its positives in preserving culture.
I think if you actually read up more on this matter that things were changing well before the Separatist movement of the 70's, you may not be so quick to assume that the only reason Toronto became the largest city in Canada was that reason. Look at growth rates from the 40's onwards not just in Toronto, in Southern Ontario and in Canada at large including the west. While I certainly think the separatism movement obviously provided an extra boon to other English speaking cities in Canada - not just Toronto, and of course Montreal was impacted, like most things it wasn't a singular event but a series of internal and external events in both cities. Sort of like an Airplane crash, it is seldom one event that triggers it, it is a series of things that happen.
Preserving language and culture is one thing - ignoring growth trends, communication lines and other factors internal to our country and external however isn't going to make them go away due to how you feel and the only thing 'we' know. If only it were that simple!
I also did a CMA growth comparison between the two and Toronto and Montreal grew 1.7 million and 1.5 million from 1941 to 1971 respectively. You can easily do this yourself and fact check me. Toronto and the urban area and satellite cities surrounding that urban area simply had stronger growth well before the 70's. In 1961 the difference in population between the metro's was only 200K people, in 1971 it was only a little more than a 100K so Montreal's position as largest in the country was under threat well before one event. If that event didn't happen, there would certainly be a closer parity between the two but the end result would have been the same in terms of Toronto still becoming the larger city and larger economy.
I don't mean to go on about this, but i'm reading some things in here that just aren't entirely true so it is important to look at things from more than one angle whether you like it or you don't.
Last edited by fusion2; 01-28-2018 at 06:22 AM..
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