Vive le difference!

The sky fell in that day! Pierre Trudeau turned over in his grave!

The Parti Québécois, which is dedicated to separating from Quebec, has never been popular in Westmount, in fact when PQ leader René Lévesque renamed Dorchester Boulevard after himself, Westmount Mayor Mae Cutler steadfastly refused to change the street signs on the east side of Atwater Street. With all due respect to local author Hugh Garner, there has never been any communion between the 'Two Solitudes' here.

Until now, that is.

Generations of Westmounters have been raised from childhood to adultery in an English-only community, but a recent observation that French has all but overtaken English as the lingo franca of Westmount should come as little surprise to anyone who has studied the names in the Exanimer’s monthly list of real estate transfers. Month after month, the majority of home sales show people with English names selling to people with French names. This means that sooner or later, those with French names will outnumber those with English names, all the stuffy Westmount stereotypes will be broken, and there is even a chance that the main telephone line at Westmount City Hall may one day be answered in French.

Furthermore, a respected economist has pointed out that dropping the letter U from Westmount would save several dollars per year in printer’s ink.

Political resistance to the francais-ization of Westmount has always been popular here. The late Pierre Bourque was sent packing when he tried to incorporate Westmount into his ‘Big Island, Big City’ concept, which would have made Westmount a borough in a French-speaking megacity. Luckily, that never happened!

Instead, Westmount became fully bilingual naturally, all on its own. We didn’t need legislation; we didn’t need referendums… all we needed was to answer nature's call and let it take its course, and voila — a modern city where mutual respect runs rampant and everyone is respectful of each other’s linguistic heritage.

We can only reiterate the words of World War One General Charles de Gaul, who once famously belched from the balcony of Westmount City Hall, “Vive le difference!”