Matthew Steinbach opinions @theotherpress.ca I can't understand you, @h? 2», vers cas I was in London Drugs the other day trying to do the impossible: buy a stencil. While approaching an on-duty employee, I overheard an interesting conversation that he was having with a co-worker. “You want something from the Chinese place?” “Can you bring me back an English menu?” “They don’t have one.” This really got me thinking. I quickly realized that even on Victoria Drive there are signs that I can’t read or understand. I mean, there are even places where I can’t even read the prices! I began to question my long-held beliefs on the Quebec language laws. You see, up until then I had never fully appreciated why they needed to exist. Quebec of course, is arguably the most unique province in Canada. What sets it apart is its language and culture. However, its language laws have been a source of contention among Canadians. In an effort to protect the French language, Quebec introduced language laws that made French the province’s only official language. This is allowed only under the Notwithstanding Clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I have to agree; sometimes a language is worth protecting. I would love to be able to walk down Victoria and be able to conduct business in the stores there. However, I don’t think that I should have to learn another language, along with its two dialects to do so. I’ve already learned the official languages and one would think that it would be sufficient in order to participate fully in my community. However, that’s simply not the case. I certainly do not feel comfortable when I walk into these stores and can only occasionally recognize something like a number. I find it so unfortunate. I appreciate other cultures and their languages, but this is Canada. When I go into a store or what have you, I expect to be able to converse with the employees. I don’t find this unreasonable. Nor do I find it unreasonable that all signs in Quebec be French first, English second. I mean, at least when I go to Quebec I can converse with the people there. I have difficulty doing that only three blocks from my house! Before we in English Canada jump on the backs of the Quebecois, perhaps we should be looking at ourselves first. | mean, we expect them to bow to our supposedly “superior” language, but fail to ask that of those who live and work here. Somehow, we in B.C. get offended by the secondary status of English halfway across the country, but don’t say so much as a word as it begins to happen here. That seems to be a bit hypocritical in my mind. Of course, there is little hope for change here. In five years I expect that restaurant to still lack a menu in English. I also fully expect to hear ranting about the language laws in various contexts. Oh well, some things never change. DION ISN'Et a LEAME|R sy ci sicrsins Win the 2008 Canadian election campaign in full swing, Canadians are routinely bombarded with advertisements telling us why we should vote for a certain candidate, or why we shouldn’t. Of all the candidates that we shouldn't vote for, one man stands alone. Stéphane Dion is quite simply one of the poorest choices. He has no leadership skills, barely speaks English, and has zero charisma. Just look at the polls: at last count, Harper’s Conservatives are a staggering 14 points ahead of Dion’s Liberals. In a poll of B.C. residents, Dion was picked as the worst leader in the race, behind even May of the Green Party. The public also voiced their disapproval for Dion in a separate survey. In a national poll, only 34 percent of Canadians said they had a positive feeling about Dion, while 55 percent of them said they felt negatively about him. On the other hand, 52 percent of people said they are positive about Stephan Harper, while 40 percent said they had negative reservations about him. The key reason for British Columbians’ distaste for Dion is the former environmental minister’s unpopular Green Shift program that is calling for a national carbon tax. That carbon tax will hit those living in B.C. with double carbon taxation: a provincial one and a national one. This at a time when gas prices are at record highs and we already have a gas tax in B.C.! The plans for Dion’s gas tax have become so muddled and confusing that even his own party members are beginning to turn on him, both in regards to his carbon tax and his leadership in general. A number of Liberal MPs have stated that initiating a federal gas tax will be very expensive, confusing and risky for the Liberal party. After a private meeting with top Liberals, an anonymous Liberal MP spoke to the Hill Times newspaper and said, “It appears that Liberals have accepted that StéphaneDion’s presence at the top of the party is just a formality.” I don’t know what that sounds like to you, but to me, if you can’t keep your own people in order over your most important issue, how do you expect to run a country? When Dion first became leader of the Liberals, Federal by-elections were held in Quebec. The Liberal lost every single one of them. Dion, a Quebecer, has a mere 14 percent approval rating in Quebec. Of the by-elections that the Liberals lost, one of the most prominent was the Outremont district. Outremont has been Liberal almost uninterruptedly since 1935. Jocelyn Coulon was the Liberal running for Outremont. She was hand picked by Dion and got slaughtered by Thomas Mulcair, the NDP candidate. After the most recent federal election, which the Liberals lost, Quebec’s lieutenant for the Liberals resigned from his post. Dion had to ask multiple people before he could find a replacement. Shortly after that, at Stephan Harper’s initial throne speech, the Conservatives drew controversy and a no-confidence vote was called. Dion was bitter towards the NDP and ensured that all the Liberals abstained from the vote. As a result, Harper overwhelmingly remained in power. A real leader doesn’t sit on the sidelines. Even before he became the Liberal leader, Dion has a history of poor decisions and bad leadership qualities. For someone who cares so much about the environment, when Dion was the Environmental Minster for the Liberals, Canadian gas emissions rose 27 percent, and 35 percent over Canada’s Kyoto targets. That’s a pretty miserable failure. In the Liberal leadership debate a few years ago, one of Dion’s rivals in the race, Michael Ignatieff, challenged Dion and called on him to explain his failures as environmental minister. Dion responded with the now infamous line, “You think it’s easy to make priorities?” That’s right; the man who wants to run the nation said it wasn’t easy to make priorities. Not about the economy or anything like that, just the environment. It wasn’t easy to make priorities about one topic. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence. In the current race, Dion initially said that he would scrap the $1200 per year child allowance for low-income families. However, when the other leading politicians called him on it, he then flipped sides and said that he would double the current allowance. That’s a bigger flop than most pancakes. Stéphane Dion is not the man to lead this country, and his record more than attests to that. Canada deserves better than him.