Wednesday, July 25, 2007

An inauspicous historical anniversary in Canada

I suppose that this could be reason #12,093,481,902,478 as to why I hate France. We have reached the fortieth anniversary of former French President Charles de Gaulle's visit to Canada, where he set in motion the wheels which would lead to the eventual election in Quebec of a separatist government by proclaiming from a downtown Montreal balcony "Vive le Quebec Libre!" (Long live a free Quebec): http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/07/24/qc-vivelequebeclibrea.html.

Let's leave aside for the moment the fact that de Gaule is one of the most overrated historical figures in World History. What he did was to interfere in the purely internal affairs of a supposed ally. By way of comparison, it would be like an American President going to Belfast and declaring "Long Live a Free Northern Ireland!". Odds are, the U.K. would not be happy at all if that happened.

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