Songs anglos want to hear
Re: “Notre Home project goes on tour” (Gazette, Jan. 18)
There are only two sure fun things that will come out of the Jean-François Lisée/David Hodges collaboration on promoting Hodges’s song Notre Home: an Aislin cartoon and the Bowser and Blue version.
I can’t wait! Greg Weil Baie-d’Urfé
Jean-François Lisée made the following comments to The Gazette while promoting Notre Home, a song that is supposed to make anglophones feel wanted: “You are Quebecers. Stop doubting. Stop asking permission to be Quebecers. Stop thinking that you are defined in the eyes of the other. You are Quebecers. Get over it.”
I hate to disappoint Mr. Lisée, but I can’t think of one anglophone who ever felt the need to ask permission from him or anyone else to be a Quebecer. We are and will always be Quebecers, by right of birth or by choice.
If Mr. Lisée truly believes anglophones are a part of the Quebec fabric, then I suggest he spend a little more money and launch a public campaign that acknowledges the historical contributions of the anglophone community to Quebec and recognizes the tremendous efforts of our community to be part of the French face of Quebec society through immersion programs in our schools and the use of French in our daily lives. Cliff Oswald Pointe-Claire
Break out the tuning forks and dust off the metronomes. The PQ government is going to win over the anglo community through song. To think of all the discrimination the English community has had to bear since the 1960s. If only Jean Lesage had only hummed a few bars of some ditty instead of starting the province on such a long and winding road.
What the anglos want is so simple, it is almost ludicrous that it has to be said out loud: equality for all Quebecers, nothing more, nothing less. Most people in Quebec regardless of language or race live in harmony and only want to live normal, everyday lives. The only song the population needs to hear is the PQ’s swan song. Bruce Hamilton
Châteauguay