In the distant but cold lands of Quebec, Professor Andrew Potter of McGill University wrote an article for Maclean’s Magazine;(Article be here)  where he all but toss the province under a bus. In it he claimed; “Quebec is an almost pathologically alienated and low-trust society, deficient in many of the most basic forms of social capital that other Canadians take for granted.” His evidence steams from the recent storm where hundreds of people where caught in traffic pile up on a major highway during a very nasty storm. Other evidence includes; “We’re talking here about a place where some restaurants offer you two bills: one for if you’re paying cash and another if you’re paying by a more traceable mechanism.” (Note the editorial change “Due to an editing error, a reference in an earlier version of this piece noted that “every restaurant” offered two bills. We have clarified this to say “some restaurants will offer you two bills.”) And let us not forget: “Since 2014, municipal police across the province have worn pink, yellow, and red clownish camo pants as a protest against provincial pension reforms. They have also plastered their cruisers with stickers demanding “libre nego”—”free negotiations”—and in many cases the stickers actually cover up the police service logo.” By way of conclusion, he writes; “And then a serious winter storm hits, and there is social breakdown at every stage. In the end, a few truckers refuse to let the towers move them off the highway, and there’s no one in charge to force them to move. The road is blocked, hundreds of cars are abandoned, and some people spend the entire night in their cars, out of gas with no one coming to help. Forget bowling alone. In this instance, Quebecers were freezing, alone.” With respect Professor, I would suggest sticking with things you know, like that fantasy quidditch league you are in, or making up thing for Maclean’s magazine to yet again slander Quebec.

Let’s unpack this snowbound snow job and see just what happened. In a recent nasty snowstorm, Quebec was hit with huge amounts of snow, some place 70 cm worth and very high winds 140 kmph, which is a gale force range. So very nasty weather. It happens up here every winter. In this year’s case it was also a perfect storm for government. Or more specifically, the traffic department. While the finger point is going on, it is clear the Transport minister and his department failed miserable to deal with this situation, but the problems can be spread around. Two trucks where stopped by the weather on a highway in Montreal. The tow truck arrived and the tow was declined. Why? If the trucker approve the tow, they have to pay, a fee of 2000$ was mentioned. That a lot of money for a guy making less than a 1000$ gross a week, if that. So what normally happens is Transport Quebec calls in the Provincial Police. They arrive, see there is a danger and order the tow. Since the police ordered the tow, the company pays for it not the driver. And everyone is happy. The QPP, as they are called, never showed up. The tow never happened, and the cars piled up. Now then where is the “Low trust” part of the argument? The truck drivers trusted the police to order the tow. Transport Quebec trusted the police to show up. The Police trusted that Transport Quebec would call them if there was a problem.  But it gets better. The people stuck in cars began to call 911 to get help and were referred to the QPP. However, when it was notified at the city level that there was an emergency, because the fire department was called in to rescue people, the city sprang into action to help and assist those people. Through it all, where did most people stay? In their cars trusting one another to help, waiting, trusting that the state would come to help them, and trusting that they were safer waiting then risking the blizzard. Strange reaction for a bunch of low trusting people. Speaking of those police in clown costumes, it seems they were trusted to help as well. The police seemingly trust the population to not hold it against them they wear different coloured pants because they are protesting government contracts. Why, it seems that the police are also trusting in their Charter Rights to bring grievances to the government demanding redress in a peace manner, if but a riot of colours. In the end, the people were right, help did come, after all it was not the apocalypse. It was only a traffic jam on the highway in a snow storm. Both happen all too frequently in Montreal.

As for “Harry’s” effort to bring in “Facts” (TM), Please note the trade mark for these “Fact” (TM), so not to be confused with alt facts or the more boring, plain and simple, normal facts. Potter writes; “Quebec isn’t just at the lower end of a relatively narrow spectrum: rather, most of the country is bunched up, with Quebec as a significant outlier.” To which any researcher would ask the pertinent question of; “So what, outliers happen?” There is a reason we do focus on outlier. We do not even consider them as part of the study. We report them and move on. For any number of reasons from poor translation, remember Quebec is French, to cultural shifts to simply bad sampling. In statistical research you expect there to be outliers, you do not make your research findings based on them. Sorry no points for Huff(ing) and Puff(ing).

My last point is to a much wider issue. What exactly is MacLean’s problem with Quebec? Seems to me they try to sell as many copies on the back of a scandalous Quebec. No matter how wrong an opinion, how insulting or how wrong head they are, they never yet fail to print an article insulting Quebec. Only now armed with a Quisling, he teaches at McGill, and McGill is in Quebec so he knows… As they pat themselves on the back for having done due diligence. Except they failed to be diligent or give the commentary its due, rather overdue, past due, and that it is really a Do-Do.

“Andrew Potter has resigned as director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada, two days after writing a controversial Maclean’s column…” (Link)

This was his dream job? Insulting people, make false assertions and soiling the reputation of 6 million plus province? Cause we all eat at restaurants that give two bills? Professor Potter’s next job will be with the American White House where he will investigate the Bowling Green Massacre, The Swedish Massacre; how the audience vanish at Trump inauguration, even though Sean Spicer say’s it is the largest so it must be true, and he will be backing up Kelly Ann Conway by showing us how our microwaves can be turned into cameras that will spy in you. On second thought, best stick to the fantasy quidditch league, I hear tell you have Viktor Krum in your draft.