La Maison Bleue (AH Republic of Quebec)

[marcpasquin]

A new french-canadian alternate history tv comedy will be shown starting next week called "La Maison Bleue". It takes place in 2016 in a timeline where the Yes side won the 1995 referendum so that Quebec is now an independent republic. The story centers on the current president of Quebec, Jacques Hamelin , who faces the lowest approval ratings compared to all previous presidents.

In one scene (1:05), officers of the "Forces Armées Québecoises" can be seen. They appear to wear canadian armed forces green dress uniform but with black upper lapels and shoulder straps and a white stripe along the lapel. Ranks appears to be Unification era insignias but in white with the generals' maple leaves replaced by fleur-de-lys.

the collar pins of the general appears to be R22eR collar pins.

The show will be available on Radio-Canada's streaming service, ici.tou.tv

footage (in french)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nkJkRF8Zx4

[jrichardn2]

I haven't read Hébert's THE MORNING AFTER, which I understand to be the definitive account of what might have happened immediately after a Yes. But it's fertile ground for counterfactuals that surprisingly hasn't been tilled.

I'd be interested in your insight into which direction an independent Québec's armed forces might take for uniforms. It's fascinating to me that countries will fight horrific wars after which their armed forces wear the old antagonists' uniforms with some updated emblems (top-of-head example: South Sudan; but also pretty much every ex-British or -French colony).

Would Québec adopt the CAF uniform (which was intended, after all, to be non-British for the most part), or would they invent something or (less likely, I'd think) adopt e.g. French rank insignia?

[marcpasquin]

Would Québec adopt the CAF uniform (which was intended, after all, to be non-British for the most part), or would they invent something or (less likely, I'd think) adopt e.g. French rank insignia?

You have to remember that quebec was conquered by the british back in 1763 so that not only do Quebecois not consider themselves french anymore (in the same way that people from the US don't see themselves as british) but that modern french insignias were adopted in the late 19th century meaning that these were never used in what is now Quebec and would look as foreign to us as british insignias would be to people from part of the US which might separate from that country.

The rank insignias seen in those 2 images are in line with rank insignias used by police forces and some provincial agencies in Quebec which in turn are based on Unification Era Canadian Armed forces insignias.

These are the ones used in Montreal for the sake of comparison, a major is equivalent to a commandant and General being equivalent to a rank just above Directeur:

https://spvm.qc.ca/upload/pdf/Tableau_des_grades.pdf

[Torg003]

Marc,
Just wondering if you're planning on doing up a table of ranks for the Republic of Quebec (and posting on here)?

[marcpasquin]

Marc,
Just wondering if you're planning on doing up a table of ranks for the Republic of Quebec (and posting on here)?

will be binge watching the show at some point so I'll keep my eyes peeled. So far based on the pictures I posted, I would assume they will largely retain the Unification Era Canadian Army forces insignias but in white instead of gold.

[Torg003]

Any update on this?

[marcpasquin]

Any update on this?

sadly, no. It's geoblocked in australia and I can't find (yet) a DVD version of it.