Michaelle Jean, again

Damian Penny thinks that the evidence of Jean’s separatist leanings is fairly convincing and that Martin should have chosen someone “less polarizing”:

Being a former Quebec separatist shouldn’t, all by itself, disqualify you from being Governor-General. But when Jean won’t say how she voted in the 1995 sovereignty referendum, and when her “loyalty” statement contains little more than weasel words about never belonging to “a political party or the separatist movement”, well, what are we supposed to conclude?

For a completely opposite (and more optimistic) view, here’s Josh Freed in last week’s Gazette on how Michaelle Jean can be considered the first “cool” federalist in Quebec – and perhaps could even start a trend:

As long as I’ve followed politics in this province, the fun, cool, party people have always been on the separatist side, while the federalists have been square. Sovereignty attracts all the singers, artists, poets, writers, dancers and everyone else who dresses in black. Federalism attracts business types who look grey.

In Quebec’s 30-year-old Cool War for the hearts and minds of young francophones, the federalists have been massacred. To even suggest in public that you back Canada can get you tarred as a nerd.

So when Jean recently announced she was “proud to be Canadian” and “fully committed to Canada,” she became the first cool federalist I can recall to come out for Canada since, well, Pierre Trudeau. That’s probably why she’s such a threat to hard-line sovereignists. They seem to spend every waking hour issuing documents to show Jean is really a separatist, as if they’ve ever really cared who represents the queen they can’t stand.

I guess they sense that Jean may make it fashionable to be a federalist in Quebec and threaten to close the cool gap.

[ . . . ]

As governor-general, Jean is a great new role model: she’s a highly articulate woman and a Haitian immigrant who became a TV star. She’s in a mixed-race marriage with an adopted child – and she speaks five languages.

She couldn’t be more 21st century unless she was gay, too. And yes, she’s also a great dancer.

Maybe she once drank a toast to independence at a party. Sure, her husband was probably in favour of sovereignty. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, you can’t throw a stone in Quebec without hitting a separatist. Most francophones have flirted with independence at some stage in their lives and many still double-date even if it irks their English-speaking partner.

All that federalists should want is to make it easy for more Quebecers to release their inner Canadian child – and Jean seems willing to be the poster girl.

Who knows? She’s so appealing Jean might even tempt a couple of other trendy Quebecers to come out for Canada, and help make it as fashionable to be a Quebec federalist as it is to be a Quebec separatist.

That would be cool.

Yeah, I’m not so sure… but hey, could happen.