I was born in Montreal in 1964. My parents, having arrived in Canada during the 1950s, learned the language of the country’s majority, English. At home, in addition to a German dialect, it was in English that we spoke to each other.
In September 1970, I started first grade at École Ste-Odile, in Cartierville, in French. My older sisters, for their part, were at Transfiguration of our Lord, in English. I cried all summer, knowing that I would be forced to begin my schooling in a language I didn’t know.
Looking back some forty years later, I can see that it was a good decision on my parents’ part. My father was a businessman, and he saw that for his son, being bilingual in Quebec would be not just an asset, but a necessity. The October Crisis, which happened barely a month later, confirmed to him that his decision had been the right one.
Let’s come back to the present. The reality is that being bilingual (or even multilingual) is a plus. I won’t get into the arguments of those who fear the disappearance of French in Quebec; I don’t believe it. I recognize their passion, but I’m not one of those who believe that it’s by putting restrictions on other languages that we promote our own.
Today I’m married to a francophone who is as bilingual as I am, and our two children are even more bilingual than we are. We benefit from the cultures on both sides, and even a little from that of my immigrant parents.
But even more than culture, I notice other differences between Quebecers and the rest of North America. I’ll talk about just one sector, but I’m sure there are parallels in many others.
In the field of family businesses, in the 1980s, our company joined CAFÉ, the Canadian Association for Family Enterprise. This organization still exists everywhere in Canada, except in Quebec.
In Quebec, for a few years now, there has been CIFA (Centre International des Familles en Affaires), but while its goal is to help business families, its role doesn’t bring families together as members who can then help each other, which is something CAFÉ has always done well.
On the education side, I’m currently enrolled in the FEAP (Family Enterprise Advisor Program). This program, developed by the University of British Columbia, is now administered by IFEA (Institute of Family Enterprise Advisors). In addition to UBC, the FEAP will soon be offered in Alberta, in Ontario at Western, and at Dalhousie in Halifax. Montreal? Not yet.
But let’s widen the scale once more. In the United States, FFI (Family Firm Institute) has existed since 1986. This organization is dedicated to all the professionals who do business with family businesses. There is a chapter in Canada, in Ontario, unsurprisingly.
The world is getting smaller and smaller. There are many good models elsewhere that could be copied here in Quebec, but we don’t necessarily have the scale to guarantee their survival.
On the other hand, for those who speak English, that world is open to them too. I take advantage of it. I hope others will do the same. The world is small, but it’s also big.
