It was in 1977, a year after the Parti Québécois first came to power, that la Saint-Jean became la Fête nationale. Then-premier René Lévesque said that the point of switching from a holiday honouring the patron saint of French Canadians to a non-denominational, non-ethnic-specific celebration was to make sure the party included everyone residing in modern Quebec.
Or so went the theory. But the holiday has often looked, as Journal de Québec columnist J.-Jacques Samson put it, like a "sovereignist high mass." Politics took to the stage along with the chansonniers. The message was not lost on either francophones or non-francophones: Quebec's June 24 holiday was mainly a way of pumping up enthusiasm for independence.
Cut to 2009. With the exception of a small, slapstick dust-up over two English-language music acts at l'Autre Saint-Jean in Montreal's Rosemont borough, festivities across Quebec were reportedly a laid-back, mellow welcoming of summer - which finally showed up, just in time, after weeks of wind and rain.
And that's the way it should be. Next week on July 1 there will be less celebration, but just as much relaxation - and a certain amount of satisfaction, we hope, in being part of a federal state that functions so well.
And it does function well, despite the inevitable few who try to play politics. In Rosemont the other night, a mere dozen protesters jeered the anglophone group Lake of Stew. Band members yelled back, "Monsieur, on vous aime. On est Québécois, aussi." Some in the audience cheered the group on, drowning out the heckling. When the second anglo performer, Bloodshot Bill, started to play, some protesters were seen dancing - a perfect illustration of the power of music and good vibes.
Throughout Quebec on Wednesday, people took a day to relax and be happy with family and friends. There were big parties in Montreal and Quebec City. About 250,000 people came out for the festivities in Maisonneuve Park in Montreal. In both cities arrests were few, mainly for drunkenness.
Language tensions? Disunity? Look around the world. There might be no place anywhere that manages diversity-in-unity as well as Quebec-in-Canada. Where is it as easy to understand that there's no need to choose between one sense of belonging and the other? In fact, we do so well that we really need two days - or even the whole week in between - to celebrate how lucky we are.
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Published by The Montreal Gazette
Friday, June 26
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