Summary:    This blog is in English. There will be a French language podcast in the future. Ce blogue est en anglais. Il y aura un podcast en français dans le future.

I knew that by writing my blog in English, I was opening myself up to criticism. Not only from the nationalists who want to ghettoize us with the French language but also by the average French-speaking Canadian who might feel affronted by my choice to write in English.

I like English and Anglophones.

While French will always be my native language, I like the English language. I love how you can randomly invent words and, with widespread support, they’ll make it into the dictionary. I like how you can make a mistake in English, and the interlocutor will just go with it. I love how English moulds itself to a local population allowing for multiple dialects, none of which are ‘wrong’. So when I make a mistake on this blog, I’m going to point back to this paragraph.

And I like Anglophones. Like Francophones, they’re warm, funny, and accepting. They’ve adopted me as one of their own and to ignore that would be doing us all a great disservice.

Where the conservatives are

On average, over 31% of the population of Canada is conservative (or more accurately, voted Conservative in 2015). In Quebec, it’s about half that (16%). In Alberta, it’s nearly double the average (59%) with Saskatchewan a close second at 47%. I’m not forgetting the other provinces, but except for Newfoundland and Labrador, every other province has more conservatives than Quebec.

In the last federal election in the UK, approximately 42% of the population voted Conservative. In the last US presidential election, the Republicans took 46% of the vote. In Australia, well, I’m still trying to sort that out but if you can help me make sense of it – get in contact.

So this blog is my way to interact with the conservatives outside of my neighbourhood. I’m not forgetting about Quebec (Good to see you! Thanks for stopping by my blog….)

L'homme qui sait deux langues en vaut deux.

In the future, there are plans for a French-language podcast. The idea behind the podcast is to do interviews and interviews tend to fall a bit flat in print. There will also be shorter ‘solocasts’ where it is just me but with the mix...well, a podcast seemed more interesting. I cannot give a definitive date for several reasons: 1. The ‘team’ is my wife and myself; 2. I want to get this blog up and running first; and 3. It takes time to produce a quality product.

If there is something you’d like to see me cover, either on this blog or on the upcoming podcast, please let me know here lcf@louischarlesfortier.com.

“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” Robert Benchley