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“Les Ontarois”: More than double Acadia’s population, yet they rarely get outside attention (#219)

March 25, 2015 8:40 pm / Leave a comment

Here is a short, but controversial post for you.

There are more than twice the number of Ontarois as there are Acadians (note: Ontarois(e) is the new name which people use more and more to describe Franco-Ontarians).

But strangely enough, outside Ontario, they do not garner nearly the same amount of attention as Acadians.

Yet, Ontarois also

have a few distinct accents
have a Francophone history just as long as Québec’s and Acadia’s (Samuel de Champlain also founded Ontario, just like Québec. He lived in Southern Ontario for over one to two years in 1615. His home was just North of present-day Toronto, in what is now Midland in Cottage Country. I guess he liked his cottage at the lake too! Even today, if you drive 90 minutes North of Toronto to the towns of Penetanguishene and Tiny-municipality – where he established the first European settlement in Ontario — you’ll see and hear wall-to-wall French with an Ontarian accent).
have many Francophone media super stars (Marie-Mai and Véronique DiCaire among the most recent ones, but there has been a long line of Ontarois celebrities)
have given Canada some of its foremost politicians and other personalities (the recent and former Prime Minister, Paul Martin, is Ontarois from Windsor)
have a provincial government, hospitals, and grade-school & post-secondary education institutions which operate or serve its population in French
live in a province where some areas are over 85% to 90% Francophone (even more Francophone than numerous areas of Québec).
have their own extensive media industry
- Radio-Canada has numerous studios across Ontario,
- there are more Francophone radio stations in Ontario than anywhere elsewhere outside Québec,
- there are numerous Francophone newspapers, among which Le Droit is one of the largest daily newpapers in Canada,
- the Francophone Toronto-based television station TFO is one of (and possibly is) North America’s largest educational TV stations,
- the national Francophone TV station UNIS is based in Toronto, which broadcasts coast-to-coast-to-coast
are growing in overall numbers (with those speaking French at home having grown by 9.5% from 2006 to 2011 according to the 2011 Statistics Canada census, one of Canada’s largest growth-rates of any community!)
shares a province with an an Anglophone community, of which large numbers are able to speak both French and English, and thus lends much moral support and understanding for their Francophone communities (I placed the bilingual numbers on the above map).

Heck, when Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, recently won the mayoral election, the first words of his live televised victory speech were in French, not English.

There are more Francophones in Ontario than there are Anglophones in Québec (yet people always talk about the Anglophones in Québec, but hardly ever about the Francophones in Ontario).

Considering all of the above, I remain completely baffled as to why only Québecois and Acadians get the bulk of the attention when people outside these regions or outside Canada think about, talk of, or write about French in Canada or of Francophone Canada.

It looks like a case of the Two Solitudes on many, many different levels (Francophone-to-Francophone, Region-to-Region, Québec-to-Ontario, Country-to-Country, Anglophone-to-Francophone, and on and on).

I have some (rather complex) pet theories why this may be the case, but I’ll leave them for another post (check in a couple of posts from now… I have a stab at jotting my thoughts on the issue in a separate post).

I can give you an excellent example of what I regularly see. Yesterday a private foreign company published a post on their blog pertaining to French in Canada (I won’t mention who they are, so as not to single them out). Frankly speaking, from a historic and language-explanation perspective, it was one of the best “short” descriptions I have ever seen (better than any Wikipedia article). I was more than impressed. Yet, even though they said French in Canada has many dialects and is found across the country, they mentioned the most important and main French speaking areas in Canada are Québec and Acadia.

There was just one problem with this article (which was supposed to discuss Canadian French), there was zero mention of Ontario — one of the largest components in Canada’s overall French and Francophone realities.

It’s just not the above article either… In fact this happens over and over again all over the board when people write and talk about French in Canada. I find this chronic omission of anything Ontarois-related to be endemic and representative of many articles, blog posts, and general media coverage. Even I was guilty of falling into this trap in my younger years. Ontario is scarcely ever mentioned, whereas Acadia gets the lions share of the attention – either abroad or elsewhere at home.

Although I consider my own personal background more tied to Franco-Albertan, Franco–Prairien and Pan-Franco-Canadian culture than what I consider it tied to Ontarois (or Franco-Ontarien) culture, the longer I live in Ontario, and the longer I see and hear Ontarois in my everyday life, the more perplexed I become by this question.

On top of it all, I happen to live in one of the least Francophone regions of Toronto, yet I hear French in my neighbourhood more often than you’d think.

This lack of awareness of Francophone Ontario’s existence (versus an extravagantly large amount of attention accorded to a much “smaller” Acadia) is a real head-scratcher. One would think Ontario would find itself on near-equal footing with Acadia, in terms of attention from elsewhere in Canada or abroad (Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying… Acadia is certainly unique in many important ways, and does deserve every bit of attention it gets… But one would also think that Ontarois culture and Francophone Ontario should be right up there too).

Am I missing something here?? It sure makes you think, doesn’t it? What are your thoughts?

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“Tant à Découvrir”: The Ontario Government’s French Licence Plates issued to the public… Seen on vehicles across Ontario. If you keep your eyes open for them, you’ll spot them around Toronto, and the North & East of Ontario.

“Tant à découvrir”… Funny how the logo plays right into this theme. Ironic isn’t it?

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SERIES: FRANCOPHONE ONTARIO & ONTAROIS (6 POSTS)

FR – L’Ontario francophone — Grand, fort, fier, mais peu visibile dans l’esprit des autres (#224)

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The end of SNL Québec? (#216)

March 22, 2015 10:14 am / Leave a comment

Télé-Québec (Québec’s public television broadcaster, but perhaps only in fourth of fifth place in terms of ratings among non-specialty channels) is currently undergoing a round of budget cuts.

Last September, they launched Saturday Night Live Québec (SNL Québec). The novice comedians of the new series became instant stars and household names across Québec and Francophone Canada. They have since forged a high-profile media presence for themselves on talk shows, at comedy festivals, and in television and media in general. In a nutshell, SNL Québec allowed us to view the making of new TV stars (and boy, have they been high-profile the last few months).

However, the nature of Télé-Québec’s cutbacks have finally hit home, and they had to cancel SNL Québec. Last night’s airing could very well have been the LAST episode ever made.

For the moment, you can still view prior SNL episodes on Télé-Québec’s website, here: http://snlquebec.telequebec.tv/emissions

I’ve seen it mentioned in the media a few times that Télé-Québec is trying to sell the program to a different network- but only time will tell if they succeed.

Regardless of whether or not another network buys the show, the following TV stars have been born and are taking new roles across all media platforms:

Phil Roy
Virginie Fortin
Mathieu Quesnel
Léane Labrèche-Dor
Pier-Luc Funk
Katherine Levac

The show may have come to an abrupt end, but I have a feeling these six individuals will continue to be highly visible for many years to come.

A very funny, well made movie: “Henri Henri” (#210)

March 16, 2015 6:00 am / Leave a comment

Flights are amazing for getting things done – be it work, reading, or movies. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time I need to see many of our movies in French here in Toronto. But I’ve been fortunate in the sense that I could rely on numerous flights the last couple of years to catch up on movies. Air Canada usually has a very good selection of the top box-office Montréwood movies.

On a flight a few days ago I watched ‘’Henri Henri”. It was the first time I had seen a Montréwood film like this. The entire movie had the feel of “Forest Gump” meets “Amélie” meets the quirkier, innocent feel of the small town setting in “Edward Scissor Hands”. It was quite different for a Montréwood film to have this sort of atmosphere.

Best yet, it was funny – in an adult / mature kind of way (I don’t think kids would find it funny – so that should say it’s perfectly suited to adults). I had my big earphones on, so I couldn’t really hear myself laugh, but I must have laughed loud enough a few times because people across the aisle looked at me more than a couple of times (but they just smiled, so all is good!).

Here is the trailer:

Montréwood can pull things off amazingly well… and here is yet another prime example.

I’m not going to spoil the plot for you, but I’d don’t mind leaking a little bit of the storyline. Henri was an orphan, who took a job as the convent’s “lightbulb screwer” (he screwed in burned out lightbulbs… let’s be clear about that). Once he grew up and had to leave the orphanage, he kept his pleasant nativity from an isolated childhood, and subsequently took a job doing the only thing he knew, screwing in light bulbs. With the encouragement of his older co-worker and a customer who he befriended (who both doubled new friends and & life coaches), he met a girl. What happened after came with a twist (both due to his background and hers). The rest I’ll leave for you to find out when you watch the film.

If you’re learning French, this movie contain NO Joual (which is great for learners whose French is closer to entry level). Everything is in international French, and the Québecois accent is toned down to a minimum (it could not be toned down any futher). Thus this would be a perfect film for anyone learning French, even at an elementary level. Much of the movie is carried by the actors’ actions anyway.

Hats off to the writer/director Martin Talbot, and the producers Christian Larouche and Caroline Héroux for a job well done. And the acting by Victor Trelles Turgeon, Sophie Desmarais, Michel Perron and Marcel Sabourin was excellent. It had the feel of a big-budget movie, right from the beginning. Great job!!

Ding et Dong (#196)

March 2, 2015 7:24 am / Leave a comment

Did you happen to guess the answer and cultural context for the last post?

If you missed the last post, click here to see the hilarious advertisement with half of “Dong”:

The answer to the last post is “Ding et Dong”.

Perhaps you recall I mentioned in the post on Elvis Gratton that Québec had a couple of close equivalents to Anglophone culture’s Cheech & Chong, with Elvis Gratton being one of them (the on-screen component), and Ding et Dong being the other (the stage comedy component).

Ding et Dong were a very popular comedy duo from the 1980s. But as you can see from the last post, people are still talking about Ding et Dong — to the point that we still see very regular pop-cultural references to them, such as in the advertisement which was the subject of the last post.

With time, Ding & Dong have become pillars in Québec’s cultural psyche. In this sense, they mean much more to Québécois culture than mere comedians.

Ding et Dong was a stand-up comedy duo, played by Serge Thériault and Claude Meunier. They came as an inseparable pair.

This inseparability was also the metaphor for the punchline of the jokes in the advertisement in the last post. The advertisement in the last post was from the Testicular Cancer Society, warning men to be vigilant and have regular health checks, otherwise, you may lose half of the “pair”. (In Anglophone North American culture, it could be as if the Breast Cancer Society made an advertisement stating “Thelma and ________” in order to entice women to seek regular check-ups).

As a pair, they (Thériault & Meunier, that is) spun off acts which later created some of the greatest successes in Québécois comedic and pop-culture history – most notably, the sitcom series La Petite Vie (the most successful sitcom in the history of Canadian and Québec television) and the “Les Boys” movies (again among the most successful movies in history of Canadian and Québec cinema).

I was quite young when Ding et Dong were in their hayday, but I still recall bits & pieces of their acts from when I was a child. As I grew older, many of their punch lines became part of everyday vocabulary and jokes between friends.

Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault have reunied on the odd occasion over the years, and have brought Ding et Dong back to life for special one-off shows. We may see some more of these rare stage-reunions in the coming years — and I guarantee you they will be the hottest tickets in all of Canada the moment any such show is announced!

Anyway, I’ll leave it there for now — I have to drive right now from Toronto up to Témiscamingue on the Québec-Ontario border for some work-related business (that might make for interesting post in itself). But I can already see some potential posts on the horizon relating to Les Boys, Claude Meunier, and Serge Thériault.

Have a great start to your week !

A bit of humour – See if you can figure this out (#195)

March 1, 2015 9:54 am / Leave a comment

Here is a bit of humour for you. I just saw these signs around the more Eastern areas of Montréal (the most Francophone areas of the city), however I have not seen them in more mixed areas of the city. the likely reason is that the cultural significance of these signs would be easily recognized in the East End where people mostly grew up in French. But they perhaps would not be so recognizable in areas of Montréal with larger anglophone or immigrant communities who have not necessarily grown up in French or perhaps have not lived in Québec for very long (this serves to highlight the demographics and cultural decisions which go into marketing, but which also contributes to the notion of the Two Solitudes).

The cultural reference behind the sign, and how it has been used in this context is hilarious! I laughed out loud the moment I saw the first sign. People around me must have thought I was a “few screws short” when they heard me laugh to myself.

Here is the sign. See if you can understand the cultural subtext (if you have regularly been reading this blog, you may have clued into it).

Click the picture to expand it, because you’ll need to read the two larger words at the very bottom of the sign to understand the goal of the sign.

Did you get it?

I’ll give you a hint: Several days ago, in another post, I made a reference to the same pop-cultural sub-context contained in this sign. Here is a second hint: A few months ago, I presented you with a link to video advertisement from the same charitable organization.

Still stumped? I’ll give you the answer in tomorrow’s post.

Here’s the next post with the answer (click here): https://quebeccultureblog.com/2015/03/02/ding-et-dong-196/

And on unrelated language notes… Above I used a couple of slang expressions in English.

1. If you’re wondering how someone might say “a few screws short” in Québec and Canadian French (the expression I used above), you can say a few things:

Il lui manque un bardeau
Il lui manque un bardeau dans le pignon
Il lui manque un bardeau sur sa couverture
(In Europe, people might say “Il a une araignée dans le plafond”)

2. If you’re wondering how to say “stumped” in French (a word I used above), you can say a couple of things.

In international French, people say “Ça m’échappe” or “Ça me dépasse”.
But in very local French in Québec, you’ll also hear “Ça m’embête”.

Quebec Culture Blog