"Nous sommes Canadiens" says the big poster erected just this week on the outside of the Bell Centre, as Montreal turns its mind cheerfully back toward hockey.



But not everyone is cheering. Parti Quebecois MNA Pierre Curzi, a well-known former actor, has taken a familiar grumble -not enough francophones on the Canadiens' roster -and made it into a sinister federalist trick.
"Canadiens," you say? Not Quebecois? The shortage of francophones on the current roster is no less than the jackboot of federalism grinding the face of francophone identity! The Molsons who own the team are federalists, aren't they? That proves it!
"We have lost this tool of our identity" Curzi said. "Maurice Richard has become a memory. There aren't any more players who bear this identity." For Curzi, then, "nous" is defined by birthplace and language, not sweater or citizenship or residence. His "nous" does not include Mike Cammalleri.
Curzi later denied seeing a plot in the roster situation, but he also said a revived Nordiques franchise would have a "nationalist identity" the Canadiens lack. (But will he ask for federal money to pay a big salary to Vincent Lecavalier? Or perhaps seek a way to force such players to play here?)
All this has evoked numerous scornful letters to the editor, and mockery on English-language talk radio. Many francophones aren't buying, either -see the La Presse editorial on the facing page.
In a broader context, however, this absurdity is not so surprising. For 40 years, insularity has been a central feature of the sovereignist game plan. The message is only sometimes explicit, but always implicit: Quebecers should fear and shun anglo-Canadians, because anglo-Canadians hate Quebecers. Quebec is for "nous" and nobody else. Paul McCartney should not sing in English on the Plains of Abraham. Alberta resents Quebec's generous social programs. Ottawa won't pay up for a new Quebec City arena. How dare Stephen Harper send a letter to Quebec school kids, as to their peers across the country, inviting them to visit Canada's national parks?
Quebec, in other words, is to be part of the wider world only on the sovereignists' terms, with them as the gatekeepers.
This version of walled-off ethnic identity simply will not fly, because it's out of touch with reality. Vincent Lecavalier plays elsewhere not because of a federalist plot but, among other reasons, because somebody else pays him more. Quebecers jammed the Plains to hear McCartney because he's a world-class entertainer.
Everywhere in the world, national identities that were once monolithic and unquestioned now must compete with growing regional and global consciousness. Quebec cannot be a game preserve where wise politicians keep "nous" safely inside, and exclude "les autres." As that reality becomes clearer, "thinking" like Curzi's stands revealed for the foolishness it really is.