French B-- Je Me Souviens

So, this is some cheesy but super politically motivated Quebecois pop music from about 1988 or so.

My sister brought this song home on a mixed cassette tape after she spent the summer studying French in Jonquiere sometime in the late 80's. Jonquiere is about 8 hours north-east of Montreal, and not far from where we traveled this summer to see whales.

It's separatist country, but not really in a mean or aggressive ways. Many people seem to take it for granted that they should be their own country, but don't seem to talk about it much, or at least not with anglos.

The video is pretty much a non-stop political slideshow of Quebec history-- it would kind of need a short book to explain it all. But they're all pretty familiar to us in certain ways, as Canadians.

For me, one of the most interesting images, though, is near the end, showing the results of the 1980 referendum, where nearly 60% of the votes were for staying with Canada.

15 years after that, and 8 years after this song was recorded, the second referendum was almost a 50-50 split.

So what changed in those 15 years?


"Bye, bye social harmony
bye bye Quebec history
bye, bye du Lac Meech

bye bye french-speaking population
bi-bi-bingual signs
bye bye bi-lingual population

bye bye mon cowboy!"