Friday, September 05, 2014

Cartier Week, #5: making the papers

Jennifer Ditchburn does my work for me today, with a story on Cartier commemorations and an account of his role and reputation:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to be among the dignitaries celebrating the 200th anniversary this weekend of the birth of George-Etienne Cartier, the Quebecer instrumental to the founding of the Canadian federation.  ....
 Quebec’s sovereigntist St. Jean Baptiste Society has criticized the planned celebrations around Cartier’s memory. Ironically, Cartier himself was a member of the society back before it became committed to independence.
“He was a corrupt figure,” society president Maxime Laporte told La Presse newspaper last month, vowing to deconstruct the Confederation “myths circulated by the Conservatives.”
 
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