Quebec, its Media, and the Habs

[MXD]

Do people there there consider TVA/RDS rhetoric outdated and 'small town' too? This is how my de souche family members and colleagues (I asked) see it. Obviously me too.

YESSS.
___
I'd say to this that, as far as "diversity" is concerned, the two most diverse areas in Québec are Montreal and Gatineau.

For whatever it's worth, I feel more at home in New England than in Ottawa.

 

[Milhouse40]

Do people there there consider TVA/RDS rhetoric outdated and 'small town' too? This is how my de souche family members and colleagues (I asked) see it. Obviously me too.

Yes
It's pretty simple.

They don't hired anything else than outdated analysts or ex-something-related-to-hockey (who wouldn't even be able to comprehend advanced stats and technical stuff about hockey...with the internet a lot of us know way more than they do).

And the new guys they are getting don't know **** about being on TV or how to analyze the game for us Fans.

Who trained them?
Who are they trying to emulate?

Well, those outdated analysts...they are trying to fit in the mold and only spew the same rhetoric over and over again. Never nothing new.

We have TVA sports and RDS who broadcat about 8 hours a day about hockey (when the hockey season is on) and yet, are unable to produce something different, poeple with different point of view....not one single hour with advanced stats and advanced stratgies and explaining system (other than G. Therrien who got it wrong every single time his pen is out).

 

[MXD]

Yes
It's pretty simple.

They don't hired anything else than outdated analysts or ex-something-related-to-hockey (who wouldn't even be able to comprehend advanced stats and technical stuff about hockey...with the internet a lot of us know way more than they do).

And the new guys they are getting don't know **** about being on TV or how to analyze the game for us Fans.

Who trained them?
Who are they trying to emulate?

Well, those outdated analysts...they are trying to fit in the mold and only spew the same rhetoric over and over again. Never nothing new.

We have TVA sports and RDS who broadcat about 8 hours a day about hockey (when the hockey season is on) and yet, are unable to produce something different, poeple with different point of view....not one single hour with advanced stats and advanced stratgies and explaining system (other than G. Therrien who got it wrong every single time his pen is out).

...And both are rather successful, from what I gathered.
So they have no incentive to change anything.

RDS different point of views mainly come from the person of PJ Stock. I applaud his desire to do shows in French, but nobody would mistake him for a "quality media guy".

The best rookie has been Guillaume Latendresse. Who also happens to be the youngest of those persons on the shows.

 

[radicalcenter]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

One of my uncle's customers is a big separatist but told me that in hockey, the organization should just worry about winning. It's a place where politics shouldn't play a role. As an Anglo fan, I agree with that, obviously. Politics will always hold the organization back.

 

[ECWHSWI]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

I think there's a divide (?), as there's a group like those we see on RDS/TVA who think in term of language spoken and skin color (not saying they're racist) when it comes to identifying who's Québécois and who's not, the other group, usually younger, seems to identify more based on geography and culture, so to speak.

For example, for the former group Giroux is treated as a local while the Lombardi or Mitchell are clearly not... for the latter, Giroux is neither Québécois or local.

 

[MXD]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

I care, but mostly because that's the immediate surrounding the team is operating in.

Of course, there could be none too (a distinct possibility next season, mind you).

 

[bogolisk]

I think there's a divide (?), as there's a group like those we see on RDS/TVA who think in term of language spoken and skin color (not saying they're racist) when it comes to identifying who's Québécois and who's not, the other group, usually younger, seems to identify more based on geography and culture, so to speak.

For example, for the former group Giroux is treated as a local while the Lombardi or Mitchell are clearly not... for the latter, Giroux is neither Québécois or local.

The former group also seems to treat Torrey Mitchell as an outsider. They were all surprised that he can speak french let alone being perfectly fluent in it.

Back to the survey, I would prefer to have at least one "quebecois" on the team just to not let the likes of Rejean Tremblay to do ****-stiring. OTOH, it would be fun to have Torrey as only quebecois on the team so if the likes of Mario Roberge complained on Antichambre that there was no quebecois on the Habs, then I could just throw the "racist" paint back right on their faces.

 

[LaP]

I agree with you overall, but i still find nationalism patronizing.

American media does the same thing during the olympics and world cup, they only focus on american players, instead of appreciating talent.

Felix Seguin does not need to say "le quebecois" every time. I think once per game would be enough.

Omce per game is still too much. Once at the beginning of a series would be perfectly understandable and okay.

 

[deandebean]

Giroux played in the Q after being ignored bu the OHL. Maybe that's why. Personally, I think the Habs scout very badly the Q, regardless of the ethnicity. I do believe the scout-in-chief had an issue with players from the league. I know that Grant disagrees with me there, but I had friends who worked with the Piques at the time Giroux was here and they had talked about Giroux with Timmins, who believed he was only dominant because he was playing in the Q. He had seen him numerous times here at the Bob.

Habs haven't been scouting the Q adequately for more than a decade. And on that subject, media has a right to grill the organisation.

As for the francophone factor, problem is this organisation is stuck with the lousy ones.

 

[Richiebottles]

Giroux played in the Q after being ignored bu the OHL. Maybe that's why. Personally, I think the Habs scout very badly the Q, regardless of the ethnicity. I do believe the scout-in-chief had an issue with players from the league. I know that Grant disagrees with me there, but I had friends who worked with the Piques at the time Giroux was here and they had talked about Giroux with Timmins, who believed he was only dominant because he was playing in the Q. He had seen him numerous times here at the Bob.

Habs haven't been scouting the Q adequately for more than a decade. And on that subject, media has a right to grill the organisation.

As for the francophone factor, problem is this organisation is stuck with the lousy ones.

To be fair, over the last few drafts were have picked up quite a few players from the Q and the CHL in general. Our drafting seems to be from everywhere.

 

[Dannyhab]

I'm Anglo and I kinda like hearing the french broadcasts point out the Quebecois players on opposing teams..because I'm also a Quebecer!

 

[Peasoup]

To me, the weird thing has always been to identify to a team simply because they just happen to be playing in your city.

I may never understand how people end up so emotionally involved in this manner.

 

[bsl]

He tells me that what will be the downfall is some economic factors, like rampant inflation not equal to wage hikes and internet with the younger crowds. What else donyou see? And you know you are taking great chances writing this?[/QUOTE]

Yes, eventually internet will be blocked in Hong Kong, the Party will not tolerate these type of posts. And I am on a list. Of course I am.

 

[Kimota]

I'm french and all of my friends are too.
All hockey fans too and none of them gives a **** about french or anglo player or coach and some of them are really pro-quebecois.

After a couple of research and even survey about this, this is what i found out.

Most of the minus 40 years old don't care at all about the provenance of a hockey player.
Most of the plus 40 years old care a lot about having french player with the Habs....

And there's the tons of fans who can't generate an opinion by themselves and simply repeat what they are hearing on the mainstream media. (And there's a lot of them)

In my book, this is sports and the only goal is to win the Stanley Cup and NOTHING else should matters and i mean nothing.

Nobody really know why we need french players, media likes them cause they can get some easy interview and even scoop (cause most of them simply sucked with the english language) and others wants to "identify" themselves to them (which is dumb to identify to a millionaire pushing a puck for living)

French player aren't nothing special

But with the media, the french players are always: Hard worker, devoted and so on.....hell, Mathieu Darche was define like that, when in fact he was a marginal player that were even bad on the bottom 6. But for some old Dinosaurs like Bertrand, G. Therrien, Tremblay....it matters more than winning.

We're not in 1980 anymore
Times have changed.....and some still living in the past tried to bring back their good old days but all they are doing is destroying our good old days.

Well I've never heard anything about someone saying that french players were anything special. It's more like guys like Lapierre and Darche and Begin, etc...it felt like they were giving an extra effort cause they played for the Habs. Begin actually cried when he left. Every year Lapierre wants to sign back.

Look if Don Cherry can praise hard working Canadian players all over the NHL, there's nothing wrong with doing the same from french guys from Quebec. Also people didn't just love Begin cause he was from here, they loved him cause he would hammer guys like the thunder and Habs fans were starved of physical play.

 

[Kimota]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

I think most people living in Quebec just want the Habs to win. But I think the reason RDS and TVA are pushing this it's cause these shows are in Quebec and believe this type of Nationalism might give them better ratings. You watch TVA Sports and they keep talking about Cédric Paquette over and over. It might get annoying but it's easy to understand why they are doing this.

 

[bsl]

I'm french and all of my friends are too.
All hockey fans too and none of them gives a **** about french or anglo player or coach and some of them are really pro-quebecois.

French player aren't nothing special

Yes they are special. The coach is not special, but the players are. I saw Savard, Lemaire and Cournoyer at the forum live. They were magnificent.

I dream of a great french player for Habs again.

I can't tell you much on a personal level (it will be interesting to read what bsl has to say on the subject) but China's economy has been very interesting lately.

Wages last year grew by 8% after controlling for inflation. 9.2% for rural income vs 6.8% for urban income thus reducing the gap between rural and urban income from a peak of 3.3:1 in 2009 to 2.9:1 last year. (source : The Economist)
Another interesting fact is that the services sector accounted for 48.2% of the economy last year.

As wages are growing low cost activities are being passed to large low income populations in South-East Asia. In a near future China won't be seen anymore as the world's manufacturing plant.

Not everything is bright though, China's GDP is about half what it was 10 years ago and their stock Market will come crashing down sooner or later. Stocks are valued about 30% more in mainland than in Hong kong and the CSI 300 (index that includes China's biggest stocks) has risen by 150% over the past year which is crazy.

Not later than this week, MSCI refused to include China's shares into its index which mean that China won't be able to have access to billions of foreign dollars.

On the other hand though, China has been able to convince 57 countries so far to join its new asian infrastructure investment bank (AIIB) to fund its $8 trillion infrastructure investment projects within the next 10 years. The AIIB could become a competitor to the World Bank down the road, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I read the Economist as well. Great post. We shall see.

To me, the weird thing has always been to identify to a team simply because they just happen to be playing in your city.

I may never understand how people end up so emotionally involved in this manner.

That is because you never sat in the corner at the forum at age 11 and saw Lafluer give a perfect pass to Lemaire, who then drilled it into top corner. The lights were incredibly bright, and everything was painted and new, in red, always.

Habs are in my blood. They are Montreal, french and english. I am objective on everything else in life, but with Habs I am not objective. I want them to win, every day.

 

[Lshap]

Yes they are special. The coach is not special, but the players are. I saw Savard, Lemaire and Cournoyer at the forum live. They were magnificent.

I dream of a great french player for Habs again.

That is because you never sat in the corner at the forum at age 11 and saw Lafluer give a perfect pass to Lemaire, who then drilled it into top corner. The lights were incredibly bright, and everything was painted and new, in red, always.

Habs are in my blood. They are Montreal, french and english. I am objective on everything else in life, but with Habs I am not objective. I want them to win, every day.

I also saw those players live, and yes, they were most definitely special. But not because they were french. In fact, as a little kid I was totally unaware of which players spoke which language, nor did I care. I was lucky enough to watch Beliveau, my first hero, at the end of his career, thought Gump Worsley looked 50, loved Dick Duff's stickhandling and Cournoyer's speed, cringed when young Serge Savard crashed into a goalpost and broke his leg, and then, slightly older, I got to see Lafleur, Robinson, Shutt, Lemaire et al plenty of times at the Forum. Loved them all... up to the moment they opened their mouths. Nice guys, but boring. None of them spoke french or english -- put a microphone in front of them and they all became unilingual dronephones. Monotone assembly-line responses filled with cliches. Equally irrelevant in either language. Dryden was the exception. But did they fight and win for the bleu-blanc-rouge? If so, they spoke the only language that mattered.

Same thing today. Love the team, love the characters, love the compete, but not particularly interested in hearing another Petry "Y'know" or Markov "Umm...". Subban, of course, is today's exception. And the single worst interview has to be Therrien. For all the hoopla over a francophone coach, frankly, they're still looking for one. From Jacques Martin to Michel Therrien, Habs are still waiting to find a guy who can speak above a mumbly monotone. Having these gentlemen as our linguistic torch-holders seems the ultimate irony.

The other irony is this battle is being fought over something coach and players don't even want to do. Speaking to the media is their least favourite part of the job, plus they suck at it. Maybe the solution is to give players' names a local flavour (Pétry, Pacioretté, Gallaguerre) but never let them talk. Keep it a mystery. People can assume they speak whatever language they prefer and we'll never know for sure. We're happy, the players are thrilled, the coach can print his response after the game with the appropriate cliches ticked off -- win, win, win.

 

[Alex514]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

I dont know about a survey but I do think the population of Quebec cares about having one or a few prominent Quebecois player(s) on their team. Which fans around the league dont love a local boy playing for their team? Its just more acute here because of the language issue and the team's heritage.

 

[hersky77]

I remember during a Habs Avalanche game this year, Talbot and I think Tanguay were on a 2-1. And instead of saying the names of the players, Felix Seguin said les deux quebecois or on a 2-1 or along the lines of that. I've never laughed so hard in my life.

 

[FuzzyWuzzy]

I like the OP, it provides a lot of intellectual stimulation and got me thinking!

Who here considers the OP's post to be a jeremiad in itself?

Who here considers Quebec culture to be Canadian culture?

Who here identifies themselves closely to Canadian culture?

Who here considers the OP post to be a true an accurate representation of the sentiments of majority of province?

Who here considers the Habs, the Montreal Canadiens closely tied to Canadian culture?

Who here considers Canadian content to actually be an issue not given enough attention?

Who here recalls the resignation of Michael Chong?

Who here can spot the OP accurate assertions and contrast them with the inaccurate ones?

Alright lets have a field day!

1) Not me, it's a great, well articulated post that manages to paint a realistic portrayal of the situation without sounding biased. Judging from the numerous positive comments, most people on this thread seem to agree with my assessment of the OP's quality.

2) Québec culture is Québec culture. Canadian culture has litteraly nothing to do with it. Even worst, they appropriate Québec culture all the time without contributing anything to it and then pretend it's Canadian culture. Pure hypocrisy & cultural appropriation.

3)Not me and not 80% of Québécois who consider themselves Québécois before Canadian, and then there's still 60% of us who simply dont consider themselves Canadian at all. (source is some reuters poll i read last year)

4) If not the majority, then at the very least an extremely large segment. I do believe it represents the majority, in any case. No way to be sure however.

5) NO ONE!! Holy ****, the Canadiens are the french canadian team, made by and for french canadians. They are NOT in any way part of "Canadian" culture, what the ****!?! The TML are the "Canadian" team. MTL has always been Québec/french-Canada's team. Anglophone fans are always and will always be welcome to the fandom, but dont you dare start acting like the Canadiens are a "Canadian" cultural icon. There's a reason the name's in french and STAYS in french. It is ours.

6)I'm not sure what you mean by Canadian content? Explain pls.

7) No one gives a **** about Michael Chong. He's a xenophobe conservative who cant even deal with the concept of Québec being a distinct nation and cultural entity, even when worded as "within Canada".

 

[FuzzyWuzzy]

I'm asking again

Has there ever been a survey done asking habs fans from Qc if they care about having Quebecois on the team?

Because OP assumes that the majority of the population cares about that, I would like to know if it's really the case or if it's just TV channels pushing their agenda.

RDS has done a few over the years, most of the time it comes back positive in that people do care about having Québec players on the team. Personally, i love when we have someone from Québec on the Canadiens but there's no way in hell i'd want to keep him on the team if he's nothing but a token Québécois and he doesnt contribute to the team.

 

[Greek]

Greek or Greek

I wonder if Macedonian news make a point of saying "The Macedonian" Steve Stamkos when discussing hockey.

And if so does Greece/do Greeks get angry at the fact that he is not referred to as "The Greek" Steven Stamkos.

Oh wait... nvm he is Canadian

 

[lo striver]

I wonder if Macedonian news make a point of saying "The Macedonian" Steve Stamkos when discussing hockey.

And if so does Greece/do Greeks get angry at the fact that he is not referred to as "The Greek" Steven Stamkos.

Oh wait... nvm he is Canadian

"son of a black immigrant from Jamaica shots from the right point! scoooores!"

 

[MXD]

I don't want to turn this thread into camp, but if we go with any of the above, well, let's describe all players as descendants of Genghis Khan and John of Gaunt and call it a day.