Politics, Religion, Sex

So you know how you're not really supposed to talk about politics in polite conversation?

Yeah, living in DC for a couple of years made me forget about that, too. In college most of my friends were interested in politics and activism and that sort of thing, and moving to the Washington metro region didn't exactly help me kick the habit. Most of DC's economy rests on the government, so even if you don't work directly for the gov, you're most likely working for an association or a group that lobbies or you work in a non-profit that is trying to squeeze grants or whatever.

So when I came up here, I did some looking around and some research on the Canadian government and the kinds of social issues Canadians are interested in. I'd taken a sociolinguistics class a few semesters ago with a prof who'd taught here at Macgill for a while--the same one who gave me the tip about the pretzels also gave us an overview of the kinds of identity politics that are going on in Quebec and Canada as a whole.

But nobody wants to talk about it. Canadian citizens--both anglos and francophones--either jump at talking shit in a completely unproductive way about the other side, or they get uncomfortable and change the subject. I personally am interested in what's going on with the Quebecois identity and how that's tied into the French language and Canadian politics, but nobody's talking.

I decided to stop trying the other day; Ben had his yearly "don't harass people" workshop at his job and apparently talking to someone about Quebec sovereignty is on the same NO list as sexual harassment and threatening people. So rather than harass people about politics, I'll stop. It's just frustrating when I take a "who should you vote for" quiz online and that is where I find out that Canada has a Senate that might get dissolved.

I am apparently suited to the Bloc Quebecois, even though I answered every Quebec-related question with "I don't know."