[wildmXranat]

Yep. Most online services that have a presence in Canadian market will start to see cuts in their revenue. I was using NetFlix, but no longer. Many of my friends and co-workers are not using Dropbox for backup anymore. It makes no sense. Many went back to good old fashioned portable drives.

In addition to purchasing less of online services, many people that I know refuse to buy anything from Bell and Rogers. No cable, no landline phone, no satellite tv. In fact, with the new mobile companies popping up in the last 12 months, you can save quite a bundle.

There is an angst growing amongst customers that spreads like wildfire. In past few years, I converted almost every one of my friends and relatives to Teksavvy internet. At that moment in time, it made sense. It no longer does and I wish that this turns up the heat enough to make it an election issue. It is, pardon my french, a fucking racket.

[samatman]

A total OT, but is "pardon my French" at all PC in Canada? Serious question!

[fooandbarify]

I'm French Canadian (well, half) and I've often heard other French Canadians use the same expression in French - "excuse mon français". I consider myself relatively plugged in to French politics here and I've never heard of it being an issue.

[gyom]

I'm a French Canadian guy working in an English workplace and I feel a bit insulted whenever I hear this expression. I never hear anyone complain about it, but it makes me want to start saying "pardon my English" right after belching loudly (on purpose for that occasion).

The only thing keeping me from doing that is that I don't think people would make the connection and understand the reference.

I don't know how Jews feel when they hear someone say that they've been "jewed" by their ISP or some other company ripping them off. Probably something like that.

[caf]

It's not supposed to be a slight at the French. It's a "polite fiction" - the user of the phrase is pretending that the swear word was a (non-offensive) word in another language, and the other party is pretending to believe this (since of course they are so pure that they have never heard the word in question before). Both parties of course know exactly what is going on, but the device allows the first person to apologise without implying that the second person is so uncouth as to know the word in question.

[tel]

I thought it was always a part of the (possibly true, but I'm no francophone) mythos that French just has a much better swearing vocabulary. A statement like that, I'd think at least certain parts of French culture should get behind.

[GrooveStomp]

I think I've heard "Pardon my English" before too. I wouldn't be at all offended if I heard that term. In fact, I'll make a point of using it in the future. :)

[GrooveStomp]

I suspect it is. I've heard the term used and nobody's batted an eye. Could be because we're on the west coast, though.

[jarek]

Never seen it as an issue in Ontario. It's not all that common, but it's not offensive either.

[secret]

My old boss was born and raised in France and would use that expression all the time. She thought it was funny.

[wildmXranat]

I haven't given it much thought, really. On a deeper level, it probably stems from communication roots of English and French languages colliding, where a foreign phrase would be mentioned, but you would apologize for saying it, just to be polite.