Christ, has it really been nearly a month since my last entry? Indeed it has, my friends.
So much for daily entries. I try, I really do. But there's little motivation to write when you've been kicking back in Europe for the last three weeks.
Anyways, so I finally hit Canadian soil again yesterday, and what did I miss? Well, according to a close friend of mine all that happened was "...there was an election, Harper won. And Britney Spears has this new video where she looks like a total slut."
Interesting stuff.
However it was the election part that truly piqued my interest. So I took a peek at this weeks Georgia Straight to see if there was any mention of it. Hey, I don't have the internet, so the free paper is as good as it gets for me.
Anyways, this article caught my attention. It just talks about how former federal NDP-er, turned federal Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh, is now expressing interest in taking the reins of the party from Stephane Dion.
Back when he was with the New Dems I was actually a fan of Dosanjh, and followed his career. Nowadays, not so much. But party leadership does seem like the next logical step for him.
The part that struck me about this particular piece is where Dosanjh essentially says "fuck that" to the Canadian custom of having all our party leaders fluent in both English and French.
“But you know what, while I have the utmost respect for the Québécois, people of
Quebec, I think that those of us that are immigrants, first-generation
immigrants, are already saddled with the burden of having to learn one official
language... maybe they can make an exception”
I think he's right. Why should they have to know English and French? It certainly won't help them to connect with the Quebecois any better. You'd think it would, but not judging from our political history.
We wouldn't expect the mayor of Vancouver to learn Chinese, even though a heck of alot of his constituents speak it. Should it really make a difference wether a language is "official" or not?
It's a rediculous notion that if you don't speak French that you hate the Quebecois, or somehow don't have thier best interests at heart. That's all I'm saying.
So what do you think, my friends? Should a politician learn both official languages? Or is it acceptable to govern in the one language we know best?
Posts
3 comments:
Think about it this way: Stephane Dion can't speak english, and Ujjal Dosanjh can't speak french.
I guess it's the difference between alienating one half of the country over the other.
Then again, one supposes that if Lester Pearson and John Diefenbaker could be Prime Minister while being unilingual, then perhaps Dosanjh can do the same.
Then again, that was a different era of Canadian politics altogether.
I think that knowing both official languages is a valuable skill for a leader to have, however I don't think it's necessary.
I don't have much more of a stance on the matter, other than it's always valuable to communicate with as many people as possible.
Yeah, I fully acknowledge that it is a valuable skill, especially when Canada's unity is threatened. However, I don't see why it should be looked upon as essential.
But maybe that's just because I live in East Van where there is a huge amount of people that speak neither English nor French, and a moderately effective government..
Post a Comment