From: steven@spxtech.qc.ca (Steven C. Potter)
Newsgroups: can.general,can.politics
Subject: Re: Political power of provinces
Date: 25 Jul 92 17:53:04 GMT
Organization: Securiplex Technologies Inc., Montreal, Canada
X-Bytes: 2948

From article <12370@audetf>, by audetf@Software.Mitel.COM
 Francois Audet writes:-

> representants in most countries. There are "Maison du Quebec" (or
> whatever they call it) in most major capitals, including London and
> Paris. Note that in the case of London, there is not Canadian embassy:
> there is 11 "houses", one for each province and one for Canada. They
> are set up for political purposes and do have weight. Similarly, there
> are foreign consulates in Montreal (and maybee Quebec city). The
> provinces, especially Quebec, do have their own international
> political importance.
> 

  This will probably add fuel for those who think I am a British 
  colonialist type :-

  Most people I know of in the UK look upon things like "Ontario House",
  "Quebec House", "British Columbia House" as nothing more than a
  glorified Tourist Information Office. The Canadian Embassy (yes, there
  is one in London) carries an image of authority. "[Province] House", I
  am sorry to say, is seen as nothing more than a waste of Canadian Tax
  money. 

  A typical reaction to learning of the existence of a [Province] House
  might be: "If I wanted information about camping sites in British Columbia
  and Alberta - why wouldn't I get it at the Canadian Embassy?; What's the
  point in financing separate offices for provinces?
  That is the way countries are expected to work.

  It isn't so much that Brits are a bunch of die hard Empire loyalists -
  it is simply that they are not familiar with Candaian/provincial politics.

  From this perspective it is possible to agree with the soveriegnists
  that Quebec needs to make her position better known in the international
  field. 

  Much of the publicity she's been getting is that she is a racist,
  intolerant, uncooperative trouble maker.

  That image will have to be corrected sooner or later!

> 
> Well, if you go to France, Italy, Spain, Greece and ask them what they
> think of British, American and German tourists, you might be very
> surprised. They are not very impressed with the Attila-the-Hun-Gets-
> Drunk-and-Destroy attitude.

  What a grouping!

  Quebec's reputation as a source of well-behaved, good-mannered,
  obsequious tourists (in Florida) is rapidly becoming legendary :-)

> 
> PS: You don't even have homogeneity of language in a lot of the
> European country.  In Catalogna (capital: Barcelona), the official
> language is catalan.  Signs are all in catalan, and so is schooling.
> It pissed of quite a bit the spanish...

  Is this a suggestion that "spanophones" emigrating to Catalonia, say
  from Mexico, would be denied access to Spanish schools?

-- 
  ///==================================================================\\\
  ||| Steve Potter:         steven%spxtech@CAM.ORG                     |||
  ||| Expertise/Experience: Computer Systems Engineering / Real Ale /  |||
  |||                       Politics in Education in Quebec            |||
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