Bonjour, Hi.

It's one of those expressions that defines us in Montreal.

I say "Bonjour Hi" all the time and I hear it wherever I go.

Sometimes I will follow it up with a ça va bien? How are you?

From time to time, I find myself speaking to another Anglo in French, or to a Franco in French, or--the best of both worlds--en franglais.

Ça marche à Montreal.

But bonjour hi is traitorous, and poison to the ears of our language czarina Diane de Courcy.

She is promising a PQ majority would mean tougher language laws.

If you thought bill 14 was hardline, just wait.

And the top of her agenda is doing something about bonjour hi.

She says Montreal is not a bilingual city. While it may not be one officially (since it needs to be more than 50% English to qualify...) it is in practice.

No politician has the guts to call Montreal what it really is: the world's greatest bilingual city.

What ever happened to serving your customer in their language?

If you think Pastagate made Quebec look insular and downright stupid, then I fear what's next.

Will Go Habs Go be forbidden?

I mean they are Les Canadiens after all.

Perhaps De Courcy can establish reeducation camps for wayward bonjour hi offenders.

Pity petty Pauline

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying we are all born ignorant but we must work hard to remain stupid.

There is stupid -- and there is stupid.

The language inspectors are going after a Gatineau storeowner because her Facebook page is in English. That is insane.

Pauline Marois could not bring herself to use the word Canada in congratulating the men's gold-medal-winning hockey team.

Credit goes to Gerald Deltell of the CAQ for calling her on it, saying "It's small, it's disgusting. I'm not proud to have seen that. I think it's the first time that a political leader cannot identify clearly which country won the golden medal. It's so typically pequiste."

No mention of Canada. Only naming the players who were born here.

I guess she forgot how much Carey Price and PK Subban contribute to government tax coffers.

Small minded and mean indeed.

Hebert needs a history lesson

Just when you thought it could not get any sillier our health minister is trying to rewrite history.

Dr. Rejean Hebert said this week that the Anglo exodus beginning in the 1970s never happened.

He later admitted perhaps some did leave but that was a long time ago.

Why planet is he living on?

Sometimes I feel like they just don't know what to make of us.

Hebert admits Anglos are only suffering from anxiety now and they should be should be happy to be here. Yes Dr. Hebert, this is our home too and we belong. We don't like being treated as strangers in our own land.

Our community was decimated.

From my high school class alone, most have left.

We have lost an entire generation and more.

We feel the same threat, that same sick feeling all over again, from separatist doctrine and identity-based policies emanating from what is supposed to be a government for all.

But most of all we are tired.

That's what they don't understand. Or choose not to.

Maybe the more troubling issue is not bonjour hi, but but salut bye.