Le Devoir, the Montreal newspaper about ideas -- take note, important ideas about Canada -- celebrated its 100th birthday Jan. 10. Not well recognized outside Quebec, the French language daily was founded by the political leader, and journalist Henri Bourassa. Bourassa was the man who made the case for Canadian independence from Britain and its empire, thus becoming the patron saint of Canadian nationalists, you might say, except ... Le Devoir was not founded to urge Canadians to stand on their two feet.

Today the Plains of Abraham serves Quebec City well as a city park, though strangely it is still run by a National Battlefields Commission established by Ottawa 100 years ago. Two hundred fifty years ago last Sunday, the Plains were the site of the Battle of Quebec, where the forces of the King of France, commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm were defeated by the British Army headed by General James Wolfe. This past weekend, the Plains hosted the Moulin à Paroles (Chatterbox) a public reading of poetry and prose, to mark the historic battle that changed the direction of Canadian history.

How about calling ourselves the "Democratic Party" instead of the New Democratic Party? That is one of the questions the NDP will address at its upcoming Halifax convention, Aug. 14 to 16.

The English colonization of Ireland suppressed the Irish language, but the advent of the Irish republic showed you can virtually extinguish a language, and not kill nationalism. British Lord Durham wanted to assimilate Quebecers to the English language majority.

The Act of Union of 1840 failed to achieve that imperial objective, and the Irish example suggests that even if the French language had been substantially weakened, Quebec nationalism would not have disappeared.

The history of de-colonization shows how much trouble multi-linguistic states have creating a sense of identity strong enough to engender national feelings. The primary attachment remains the linguistic community.