Carney's use of a famous Quebec slogan sparks claims of 'appropriation'

In the midst of Canada's federal leadership race, Mark Carney and the federal Liberals are facing accusations of "appropriation" by Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet for using a flagship slogan of the province’s Quiet Revolution.

When Carney dropped the phrase “masters of our own house” in a speech near the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., his advisers were surprised. It was a 1960s slogan used by the Quebec Liberals. The candidate knew it well and felt it applied to the current moment in Canada, with a hostile U.S. president.

“Mark just said it,” a source close to the candidate told this newspaper. He kept saying it across Quebec and the rest of the country. In front of dozens of supporters in Quebec City, the crowd reportedly went wild when he uttered the words “Maîtres Chez Nous.”

But, like Blanchet, some Quebecer found the use of the phrase grating. Liberal supporters told National Post they weren’t impressed with Carney’s turn of phrase and felt he was using a reference he had recently learned.

“I think it’s probably a smart strategy, because it’s something that people associate positively with. It’s about pride. Economic pride,” said Jonathan Kalles, a former Quebec advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who remains neutral in the leadership race.

However, according to Blanchet, this is going too far. “It takes nerve to appropriate such a strong national theme of the Quiet Revolution while having campaigned so hard to drown its effects in the great Canadian void,” he wrote in a LinkedIn publication.

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