Politics
Tuesday March 2, 2004
Quiet Counter-Revolution in Coaticook, Quebec.
Mayor says "family stability, fidelity, lots of children, those are values I would like to preserve"
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
COATICOOK March 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Quebec pro-lifers have for years warned that the French-speaking population of that province is in danger of contracepting and aborting itself into oblivion. Since the so-called "Quiet Revolution" of the 1960's that saw the catastrophic collapse of the overwhelmingly Catholic culture of Quebec, abortion rates have soared along with non-Francophone immigration. Demographers fear that the French-Canadian culture is becoming extinct along with its population. Quebec couples currently produce only 1.4 children on average, far below the 2.1 necessary to keep a population stable. The province has one of the highest rates of abortion in the Western world.
However, one little town, and its mayor have spared no effort to encourage parents to revolt against the revolution. The population of Coaticook, Quebec is remaining stable at 9000 with no help from immigration.
Mayor André Langevin, has instituted an ambitious set of subsidies and incentives for young couples willing to conceive and stay in town. The town provides baby bonuses to every couple having children, starting at $75 for the first child, $150 for the second and $750 for every child after that.
The town budgets about $75,000 a year out of its annual budget of 6.2 million for the family programs which include gifts of dining sets for couples setting up, hockey uniforms for children, and a fund for cotton diapers. With the help of local businesses who want to maintain a long-term healthy local economy, the town funds an annual Christmas raffle with prizes of $750 for all families that had babies during the year.
For Langevin it is clear that to maintain Quebec's traditional French culture and high standard of living, including its public medical system, it is crucial to stem the population decline.
Says the mayor, "Family stability, fidelity, lots of children, those are values I would like to preserve."
In contrast to the rest of the country, where small towns and rural populations are virtually disappearing in their exodus to city jobs, Coaticook's young families are staying. Local businessmen support the family-friendly policies saying that the nurturing of traditional family values helps them keep young workers in town, and that happier, more stable family lives contribute to more productive workers.
International Herald Tribune coverage:
http://www.iht.com/articles/132189.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.