Financial Post
for June 13, 1998

For some years I've been privileged to share this page with William Johnson. I've never met the man - I spoke with him for the first time last week when he came on my show. He's my kind of guy ... and I never miss his column. You're never unsure of where he stands. I like that.

I congratulate Bill on his election as president of Alliance Quebec.

The first thing I noticed was that the "establishment" shook their collective heads in disbelief. Why this will make politics more confrontational! Ye gods, political volatility could well follow!

There's this feeling that if you aren't rude to separatists they'll be swept away by the voters as a reward for your good manners. Johnson knows this is nonsense and says so. The enemies he has are eloquent evidence that he's right.

Second, the "chattering classes" - those who brought us those great unifying schemes known as Meech and Charlottetown are appalled - Bill couldn't hope for higher praise than that.

I'm told that as a lifelong British Columbian I shouldn't comment on Quebec. But I beg your indulgence on the grounds that if there is such a rule, it has certainly never prevented Central Canada and its government in Ottawa (always masquerading as a "national" government of course) from commenting incessantly on our affairs with a smug confidence that if the CBC and the Liberal Party agree, what's good for Southern Ontario is good for the country. Ottawa is entitled, though unwise, to hold such a view. I'm entitled to my opinions and though they may be unwise, they're not uncommon in B.C..

There are some principles which have become eternal truths, one of which is that appeasement merely increases the appetite of the appeasee. Bill Johnson constantly says this and is pilloried by "higher purpose persons" who still don't understand what happened in the Charlottetown Referendum.

Another principle was enunciated by W.A.C. Bennett - must I really remind you that he was premier of B.C. from 1952-72? - who said "if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." Surely one can only criticize Bill Johnson on the gound that he's not politically correct according to those whose creed begins and ends with the hope, in Churchill's words, that if you feed the crocodile, the crocodile will eat you last.

Now what calamity is going to befall the Alliance Quebec now that William Johnson is in charge?

I hope Bill Johnson will bring home to all Quebec communities that thinking Jean Charest will save the country betrays more naiveté than a child waiting by the chimney at Christmas. I trust that he will plead forcefully that the problem is not one man's to solve and that national unity also involves places far away from Quebec's borders. People might understand that Charest losing may not be as calamitous as Charest winning. Not that Charest isn't a decent patriotic chap because he is - but the obvious expectations his victory would raise are irredeemable.

Johnson will make it abundantly clear that Quebec's language and education laws are anti democratic. While heaven knows he needs no words in his mouth from me, he might point out that if a province, say British Columbia, were to become unilingually English and restrict the use of other languages on signs or discriminate in any way, large or small, with the use of other languages, the Federal government would probably use their never used colonial power of disallowance.

Now I concede that B.C. is not trying to protect a language perceived to be under threat. But if French culture is threatened in Quebec the danger isn't from Canada - quite the reverse. It's from the global acceptance of English as the language of commerce and the second language of those not born to it.

Quebec culture and language has survived and prospered because (italics) of Canada, not in spite of it. Independence will leave Quebec strictly on its own surrounded by 250,000 Anglophones who won't care a fig what Quebeckers speak, read, watch or listen to.

Johnson will not be popular because he'll use honest unadorned language instead of the weasel words common to the appeasers. He'll be ignored, as people of principle usually are, by those who think that never-ending retreat somehow leads to victory.

If you're judged by your enemies, Bill Johnson's in good shape.

His voice and leadership are badly needed.