Mainstream media stomping on the Stampede

Did you hear about the “controversy” caused by the Calgary Stampede using an English only version of O Canada?

Oh it is causing a furore among the chattering classes.

“Giving in to the redneck fringe. Dropping French in anthem at Calgary Stampede.”

Said Montreal Gazette columnist Peggy Curran on Twitter.

Thatta girl Peggy go for the stereotype and respond to an imaginary slight by calling your fellow countrymen rednecks.

What an elitist snob.

Oh, wait, I just did what Peggy did. That’s not nice.

Tough, let’s say it again, Curran, you are an elitist snob.

I’ll grant that the Stampede has done a bad job of communicating this but let me point out a few things.

First off the liberal left reporters from the Calgary Herald that broke this story did so because they are liberal left reporters that want to enforce their view of the world.

Secondly, would anyone do a story about a Quebec City festival doing a French only version of the national anthem.

In fact, we’d be shocked if they even played the national anthem.

If you look across the skyline in Quebec City you see lots of flags flying but they are mostly the provincial flag and virtually the only place you will find the Canadian flag flying is atop federal buildings.

Do we hear complaints about this? Does it cause the chattering classes to get into a tizzy?

I’m actually fine with it. Just as I’m fine with the Stampede playing which ever version of the anthem they want to play.

In about two months, in early September there will be the second biggest rodeo in Canada attracting an estimated 600,000 people. Where will it be held? In St. Tite, Quebec a town not far from Shawinigan. Will they play a bilingual version of the national anthem?

I don’t know. I’ve never been. I’ve been to the area and I can tell you that if you visited you will experience some great comfort food and some great hospitality. But I don’t know and I don’t care what version of the anthem they will play. Maybe they won’t play any at all.

I do know this.

The Calgary Herald won’t be sending anyone to check up on whether the anthem is bilingual or if they are insulting Anglos by playing French only. The Globe and Mail won’t be sending their crack team out to festivals across Quebec to check up on anthems.

No, that could cause unrest in the country.

What’s better is to attack any slight real or imagined by Western Canadians and then stir the pot in Quebec.

That’s what they are doing here and I’m calling BS on it.

It is yet another story by the type of people that want to impress their friends back in Toronto – oh, look Calgary doesn’t like French. Oh look the Stampede is mean to animals.

It doesn’t matter that it isn’t true. They just want to feed perception. Let’s call it what it is, BS.

I’ll leave you with this thought and I say this as someone who still visits Quebec, who knows most of the people, the regular people you will meet are hospitable and great to deal with.

But have you ever noticed that our English media, our mainstream English media, only has the outrage machine pointed in one direction – Quebec’s direction. They are attuned to what any of us might do to offend Quebec and they act like little policemen but they don’t give a tinker’s cuss about anything that happens in Quebec that could upset English Canada.

Time to call this what it is, BS.

And that’s the Byline.

Categories: Byline

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