Pierre Falardeau 1946-2009

So, another icon of Quebec culture has died--Pierre Falardeau, aged 62, died yesterday of cancer.

This is a truly hilarious scene from Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulien's 1978 film "Pea Soup", what they described as "an ethnographic portrait of the people of Quebec." This kid is fabulous-- ("And where is Kentucky?" "In the east. On Ste. Catherine street.")

As someone who isn't 100% in support of a sovereign Quebec in which everyone should assimilate completely to French-speaking culture or else be forced to leave, Pierre Falardeau consistently referred to me (or people like me) as "the enemy".

I don't know anything about him personally, and so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that, in his personal life, he was a fabulous man. In his public life--print, radio and TV, and movies--he was an angry, angry person. Whether that was a character he chose to play, or that was the real person coming out, isn't really for me to say. But it's hard to like someone who actively encourages others to hate you.

In any case, rest in peace PF. Hopefully the afterlife will provide you with a place where you and John A. Macdonald can sit across a table from each other and bicker eternally in both official languages.