"They're not very nice" -- a view of Americans and Anglo-Canadians from a neighbour (?)

Big news from Montréal, where, just in time for the Glorious Fourth -- well, almost -- Michel Brûlé has thrown his chapeau into the race for the mayoralty, in the municipal election due in November.

At the moment, Montréal is under the leadership of its third mayor, so far this year. The one who was elected resigned in the wake of revelations at the provincial Charbonneau Commission concerning corruption in the awarding of municipal construction contracts. This is something of a national sport in Québec, but the magnitude of the graft this time -- not to mention connections with a group of patriotic Italian-Canadians -- was such that nothing would be but a change at the top.

Sadly (but not surprisingly), the interim mayor -- a bilingual Jew, this time -- appointed to clean up the mess, was quite quickly accused of being likewise tainted by the stench of "business as usual at la Mairie". So now there is a second interim mayor, and a vigorous campaign to be next at the trough is under way.

Yesterday, staunch Québec indépendentiste ["separatist", surely! Ed.] Michel Brûlé announced his long-shot candidacy. The writer, book publisher, and, errr, former bar owner says he doesn’t expect English-speaking Montréalers to vote for him – and says he isn’t working to get their support, anyway. He doesn't like les maudits Anglos, as a group.

On an individual level, it's a different story. M Brûlé has said in the past that he doesn’t have anything against Anglos as individuals; he could even have one as a girlfriend. But still, he says now, the English culture is not  very nice. And "English is not a nice language," he told Métro reporter Catherine Girouard in April 2009 (according to yesterday's report in the Montreal Gazette) while promoting his published essay on the scourge of English.

"Intolerance and all the most extremist, racist, segregationist movements -- they’re the KKK, White Power, the expression 'Speak White' -- these are all English things. They come from the United States, Canada, England."

Walt notes that Americans are at the top of M Brûlé's fecal roster. In the same 2009 interview, he allowed that not all Americans are dumb, obese, imbecilic, uncultured ignoramuses -- only about 80% of them! "If I say Americans are a bunch of big, obese, imbecilic, ignorant, uncultured dummies, it’s the truth," he told Métro.

"Of course it’s sure bet that out of 303 million Americans, there are maybe 50 million who aren’t like that. But, collectively, they’re still a bunch of uncultured imbeciles."

So far, no other candidates for the mayoralty have taken issue with M Brûlé’s statements.