Quebec Traditions of Separatist Grievance

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is unique as an individual, a politician, a statesman. His indefatigable journeys hither and yon, to the world's trouble spots and beyond, mark him as one who insists he has solutions to many of the world's problems. Whether he really is that capable of solving the insolvable, or whether he simply enjoys disporting himself on the world stage, is yet to be fully realized.

But he is no Charles de Gaulle, whose undisguised support of Quebec sovereignty, its willingness and ongoing initiatives to separate from the union of provinces and territories that make up Canada, earned him undying gratitude in Quebec and piqued scorn from the rest of Canada. President Sarkozy made no secret of his distaste for divisive and blame-filled acrimony.

He prefers a world united in a common purpose of placid togetherness. A world that will pull together to create harmony between countries. And during this time of especial global unrest with nations' economies collapsing, and the threat of trade wars on the horizon, he deplores the continual restlessness evinced by Quebec's inability to wean itself from grievance.

"Do you really believe that the world, with the unprecedented (economic) crisis that it is going through, needs division? Needs hatred?" Thus said President Sarkozy at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, awarding Quebec Premier Jean Charest with the Legion of Honour. Wot? Jean Charest, the Legion of Honour? Oh. Well.

Disunity, went on President Sarkozy, is not the message he would wish sent to the Francophonie alliance of the world's fifty-six French-speaking countries. The Francophonie, he stressed, should reflect unity, tolerance and openness. Yep, from the European Union to the African Union, to the Middle East, and Asia.

"Those who do not understand that, I don't think they like the Francophonie, I do not think they have understood the message of the Francophonie - the universal values that we share in Quebec as in France; the rejection of sectarianism, the rejection of division, the refusal to retreat into oneself." And the romantic love of language.

What an orator, what a diplomat, what a sterling politician of outstanding calibre. He should be invited to Canada, to address the House of Commons, and to be awarded our highest citation of courage and peripatetic showmanship. That fortunate Carla Bruni!