Quote:
Originally posted by bcdphie
Charles De Gaulle - especially for that bonehead thing you said during your visit to Quebec in the 60's during the FLQ crisis 
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I wasn't sure what that was, so I had to look it up. Here is the explanation for those who wanna know (hey, I took history back in High School...it's been a while!) :
On an official State visit to Canada in 1967 to celebrate that country's 100 years of nationhood, President de Gaulle ignited a storm of controversy in the anglophone world when he stood before a crowd of 100,000 Quebecers in Montreal and uttered: Vive le Québec Libre! (i.e. Long live Free Quebec) While this support for Quebec's liberation was a monumental diplomatic blunder and interference into another country's private affairs, it was one that inflamed the passion of some nationalist Quebecers and inspired members the emerging secession movement. Following de Gaulle's remark, the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson, cancelled plans for de Gaulle's visit to the capital of Ottawa, and asked the French President to leave the country. Criticized at home in France for the remarks, his opponents reminded the wartime general of the thousands of Canadian soldiers (see: Vimy Ridge) buried all over France who fought and died for France's freedom in both World Wars. Critics also drew the parallel for interference between Quebec independence and the Franco-German historic contestation of ownership of the German-speaking Alsace and Lorraine regions seized by France after the War.
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