The old American canard that "Any little boy can grow up to be President" does not apply in the Great White North. We have never had a Prime Minister who rose from the lower levels of society such as, for example, William Clinton, who's dad booked while his mom was preggers with him. Or the present head dude who's dad also got out of Dodge pretty soon after the cord was cut.
Another example of elite accomodation is the insanity of the need to let the tail wag the dog, the tail being the requirement to be bilingual to get a top shelf job in our Canada.
Dan Gardener makes the point in this cut and paste number from the Ottawa Citizen:
Most of us need not apply for the top jobs
By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen
April 10, 2010
The hunt is on for Michaëlle Jean's successor at Rideau Hall and Graham Fraser insists the next governor general must not only be an accomplished and respected individual.
He or she must be bilingual.
Those who cannot speak both French and English should not even be considered for the job. He would say this, of course.
Fraser is the official languages commissioner and a passionate advocate of bilingualism. And this sort of talk has become standard fare in Official Ottawa. Supreme Court appointments. Senior civil service positions. Any of the country's top jobs. Whether they're covered by the Official Languages Act or not, any opening at the top prompts Fraser and others like him to pop up and insist that bilingualism is a mandatory qualification.
For the most part, Canadians agree. Or they shrug and say nothing, which is the quintessentially Canadian form of agreement. It is telling that a private member's bill that would make bilingualism a legal requirement for appointment to the Supreme Court recently passed the House of Commons -- it's now in the Senate -- with little public controversy.
But let's take a quick peek at some numbers, shall we?
According to the 2006 census, the rate of bilingualism among francophones was 42 per cent. Among anglophones, it was 9.4 per cent. Among allophones -- those whose mother tongue is neither French nor English -- it was 12.1 per cent.
Bear in mind that as small as these numbers are, they actually exaggerate the real extent of bilingualism in Canada because they measure only people's self-reported ability to carry on a conversation in French or English. Not only are people notoriously generous in their assessment of their own abilities, being able to chat about the weather falls well below the standard usually expected when bilingualism is a qualification for employment.
But let's take the numbers at face value. And turn them upside down to reveal the portion of the iceberg that lies below the waterline. The rate of unilingualism among francophones is 58 per cent. Among anglophones, it was 90.6 per cent. Among allophones, 87.9 per cent.
Thus, according to the conventional wisdom as enunciated by Graham Fraser, the overwhelming majority of Canadians should never be considered for any of Canada's top jobs. It's an interesting state of affairs, particularly when it is contrasted with one of the traditional arguments in favour of gender equality. Women make up 51 per cent of the population, this argument goes. If they are excluded, one-half the available intelligence and energy is squandered.
Thus, a country, corporation, or government that wishes to accomplish all it can must make every reasonable effort to include women in their recruitment pool. Every rational person accepts that argument today. And yet many of the same people are content to say that, for the top jobs in Canada, the overwhelming majority of Canadians are automatically disqualified. No matter how talented and capable they may be. No matter how accomplished. No bilingualism, no job. Consider what this does for the current search for a governor general.
Thanks to the tradition that vice-regal appointments alternate between French and English Canadians -- which is itself arbitrary and dubious, but let's fight one battle at a time -- making bilingualism a mandatory qualification bars at least 90 per cent of candidates before the search even begins. No one would dream of hiring a janitor for Rideau Hall this way and yet lots of people think it's reasonable when deciding who will be in charge at Rideau Hall.
The consequence of mandatory bilingualism is as obvious as it is unmentionable in the polite circles of Official Ottawa: the top jobs often won't go to the best people. Former Supreme Court justice John Major -- his tongue liberated by retirement -- has been blunt about this. Make bilingualism mandatory for Supreme Court judges and you'll still get good people. But you won't get the best. This is especially true of Canada's court of last resort, where the bilingualism that would be required is not the ability to hold one's own at a cocktail party: It's the fluency needed to hear oral arguments in complex cases and interpret arcane legal texts without benefit of translators.
At the same time as we demand this, we will continue to expect that Supreme Court judges will be among the very most brilliant and accomplished jurists in the country. And we will continue to allocate spots regionally: Three go to Quebec, three to Ontario, two to the West, and one to Atlantic Canada.
In all of Canada, the number of truly elite jurists with the bilingual fluency of a Pierre Trudeau is tiny. How many do you suppose there are in Alberta? British Columbia? Nova Scotia? Right.
Bonne chance, recruiters. Of course there's a standard response to this: If you want the job, get the qualification. But in almost every case, those who are so flippantly dismissive either grew up bilingual, or became bilingual in their youth and live and work in those small and unusual pockets where bilingualism is the norm. They have no idea how hard it is for a middle-aged person -- no matter how intelligent or determined -- to achieve bilingual proficiency, particularly if they live in a unilingual environment. The cost in time, effort, and money is enormous. If it can even be done.
The wise employer doesn't expect reality to adapt to his wishes. He adapts to reality. But Official Ottawa has never been keen on reality. And anyway, the top jobs can always be filled, no matter how tiny the recruitment pool, if we reduce our expectations sufficiently. Graham Fraser for governor general, anyone?
WFDS
Bullshit. It's always loser anglos who are too lazy, selfish or stupid who write this shit. As Trudeau said: "Le Canada sera bilingue ou il ne sera pas." Obviously, not everyone, but institutionally, yes. I've spent many long difficult years fighting for Canada, federalism and anglo rights in QC, but if one thing could make me a separatist, like pretty much everyone else, it would be such a stupid bigoted view taking hold. Bigoted because when there is 3-1 to 4-1 disproportion of majority to minority, and said minority in mostly concentrated in one geo-political space, it is completely obvious that without both rules and ethos that make our institutions and workings bilingual, it will inevitably be the large majority that will win out, and by a margin larger than their proportion of the population, AS WAS THE CASE PRE-TRUDEAU AND THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT. So when anglos say this, what they are really advocating is affirmative action for their own large majority. So whatever egalitarian fairytale of principles they may tell themselves, they are advocating the advancement of the majority at the expense of the minority, as the real-world outcome. Very similar to the Reaganite rhetoric and policies that hid anti-black, anti-hispanic anti-minorities policies behind the pretext of simple absolute egalitarianism of opportunity, conveniently ignoring the real-world context and the fact that the minorities, far from having the same equality of opportunity, are heavily disadvantaged and thus such policies could only entrench and worsen the outcome differences between whites and blacks/hispanics, AS THEY DID! What Gardner & you are advocating is that we return to the pre-1967 situation where there was a massive under-representation of francophones in federal institutions, and those few were almost all in the most menial positions, tea ladies, cleaners and the like. Gardner and your position is Orange Order intolerance dressed up for modernity in the robes of imbecilic decontextualised egalitarianism. Which should come as no surprise from a Carleton student as Carleton was founded so anglo protestants from the Valley could avoid having to mingle with all those Frogs and Papists at the University of Ottawa (ever ask yourself why Carleton wasn't just a 2nd UofO campus?). And Gardner, Ottawan, in this column, is redolent of that Orangeman bigotry that has been and continues to be the blight of the Ottawa Valley: see Cheryl Gallant's contributions to the House debate during the Coalition "crisis". A question: 40 years after the Official Languages Act, in a country close to 1/4 francophone, what percentage of the Anglo Press Gallery are bilingual? And how does that affect their coverage? Poser la question, c'est y répondre. Finally, if these are your views, are you sure you're a Liberal? Randy Hillier's Ontario Landowners Association is always looking for more cranks, kooks and bigots - maybe you should check them out.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama...mom had a Ph.D. in anthropology and dad was a Kenyan senior governmental economist with a master's degree in economics from Harvard. Sounds like just plain folk to me.
ReplyDeleteGeorge W. ...son of a President, grandson of a Senator with Wall street connections
Clinton's father died before he was born....his step father owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas
Carter's father was a prominent business owner in the community and his mother was a registered nurse.
Ford's father was a wool trader and son of prominent banker Charles Henry King ... When Ford was three, Mom married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family owned paint and varnish company.
Kennedy's material grandfather was Mayor of Boston and a three term congressman. His father embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries. He was later the first Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Ambassador to Great Britain
...anyone see a log cabin
Moreover, according to Miles Corak's analysis,in the US 47% of the parents earnings advantage is passed on to their children and only 19% in Canada. Meaning US myths aside, Canada provides greater opportunity for all.
http://www.competeprosper.ca/images/uploads/Corak_for_Institute_for_Competitiveness_and_Prosperity.pdf
The answer is to ensure that every Canadian has a working knowledge of both languages, as well as, if Aboriginal, their native tongue. It is such an advantage for everyone to have more than one language, and, certainly the elite, or those assuming high office should take it upon themselves to learn the 2 official languages of this country. Try not to inflame the debate, show a little wisdom and tolerance, learn French if you have great aspirations for yourself and try not to say stupid things on this blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful thoughts men.
ReplyDeleteNote to Anonymous re log cabin: Abraham Lincoln.
Note to Eugene Forsey re Orange: Just coz I cheer for Syracuse doesn't make me Orange; I am as Irish as Paddy's Pig.
WFDS
Dan I'm surprised you forgot a rags to riches Canadian example: Jean Chretien.
ReplyDeleteThe 18th of 19 children, 10 of whom died in infancy. Don't think that tends to happen to rich families does it? Not to mention his Bell's Palsy that disfigured his face, I'd say it's actually a pretty stong story.
And you might not admit it, but Stephen Harper didn't come for a rich background and neither did Brian Mulroney (though both of their families were wealthier than Chretien's).
So yes people have risen from the bottom in Canadian politics, whether Liberal or Conservative.
You can't be a successful Canadian diplomat unless you can speak at least three languages.
ReplyDeleteSurely, we can expect the ability to learn two as a minimal requirement for our GG.
You can be an awfully talented and capable jurist but if you only speak Arabic you're not qualified to adjudicated English law. You can be an awfully talented and capable jurist but if you only speak English you're not qualified to adjudicated French civil law. The bilingual requirement doesn't come at the expense of competence - it enforces a minimal level of competence.
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to point out that I did not grow up bilingual, or become bilingual in my youth, and I do not "live and work in those small and unusual pockets where bilingualism is the norm" (what faux populist tea party garbage that all is, by the way). My bilingualism is very much a work in progress, and it's nothing less than a patriotic duty. This country will work in two languages or it won't work.
Both Michaëlle Jean (who BTW speaks English French Haitian and Italian) and Adrienne Clarkson arrived in Canada as penniless refugees....so much for only elites being bilingual... if they can do it, even a lazy Anglo with a chip on his shoulder can do it.
ReplyDelete