Back on board!

Hello again, demography fans, from Montreal

Marcus Roberts | Apr 17 2017 | comment

Hello again everyone, we hope that you had a wonderful Easter break! Apologies for the radio silence over the last couple of weeks – we have been relocating to Canada (Montreal to be precise) where we will be spending the next few months for work. We haven’t wasted time settling into a very wet and cold city. (Although the middle of Spring, it’s still colder here than the deepest winter back home in Auckland which is certainly something that is taking some getting used to.

Getting two recalcitrant boys changed into wet weather gear, coats, hats, gloves and boots each time we go out is a bit of a necessary pain. On the plus side, they’ve loved playing in the last of the winter snow in the park across the road and chasing the numerous squirrels everywhere.) We have even managed to rent a car and travel to Granby zoo about an hour to the East and to spend one day skiing at Jay Peak in Northern Vermont which was excellent. Anyway, now that we’re settled in and know the bus routes and where the children are going to kindergarten, it’s time to get back to the demography blogging!

As we blogged last year, Quebec is faced with an ageing population and a declining birth rate. At the same time, the politics of immigration are rearing their head – immigrants have to prop up not only the population of Quebec, but also its linguistic heritage as a Francophone province in an otherwise Anglophone Canada. Of course, this is all with the two referenda asking whether Quebec should secede from Canada (1980 and 1995) in the background. Language is political here, that’s for sure! Unfortunately, my medering of the French language is not doing anything for Quebecoise race relations. I will just have to remember to repeat: “Je suis Néo-Zélandais!”

- See more at: https://www.mercatornet.com/demography/view/back-on-board/19648#sthash.eKc93822.dpuf

April 18, 2017

Yes, we’re back. Our demography correspondents, Marcus and Shannon Roberts report in from Montreal, and Yours truly from Sydney. Just as sailors need a few days to get their sea legs back, we’ll be taking things slowly this week. But we’ll have plenty of interesting stories for you.

In this issue below Karl D. Stephan notes the logical inconsistency of stopping people from committing suicide from the Golden Gate Bridge and at the same time facilitating their departure with a lethal injection. And Sheila Liaugminas points out that “fake news” is not a joke. Some people are filling the internet with poisonous theories about everything which may end up undermining our ability to believe anything.