Quebec and Canada: Our common story - by Ken Dryden (from Macleans.ca)

It's the middle of November - A Sunday morning. Last night in Montreal the Canadiens retired the jersey of Serge Savard. It was a ceremonmy done only as a franchsie like the Canadiens can do it. Where else would those speaking be the likes of Dick Irvin, Richard Garneau and Scotty Bowman ?

All this Habs nostalgia got me to searching the net to find the Montreal I remeber of the 1960's & 70's. I started by googling the phrase "Toe Blake Tavern" (you know where my head and herart were) and find a couple of interesting references. This email is about one of them (More on the other in a future posting).

I found an interesting article from Maclean's magazine about squaring being a Quebecois and Canadian. Not until after I started reading it did I come to realize that it was authored by one Ken Dryden. Ken Dryden, the hockey hall of famer. Ken Dryden, the disciple of Ralph Nader. Ken Dryden, author. Ken Dryden, Liberal Party Cabinet member and candidate for party leadership. And finally, Ken Dryden son of English Ontario but a favorite son in bilingual French Canada.

His Maclena's article "Quebec and Canada: Our common stpry" is a good read. It is also insightful in terms of how many of as Canadians or Americans strive to get past battle lines of earlier decades.

Writes Dryden"...our preoccupation is not just about language. It is about the Canadian story, of how we got here as a country. Of why immigrants choose Canada and why they love it here. To those immigrants: be grateful for that French-speaking community in Quebec that has fought so hard to be what it is. They didn't know it, but they were also fighting for you. This 'live and let live' society we have created is what allows a multicultural country to work. This is a story all Canadians can understand".


http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/article.jsp?content=20060925_133515_133515