Acadian Invaders!

Happy August 15th! Yes, it's the Acadian National Holiday, and I've got the day off mwah-ha-ha! It pays to work for an Acadian institution. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, I explained it last year - check it out. Regardless, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate my roots by showcasing the absolute ABSURDITY of there being a car called the Acadian Invader.

Let me explain: In the 60s, Pontiac-Buick dealers in Canada couldn't sell the Pontiac Tempest (Wiki won't tell me why), so to give them a compact model to sell, General Motors retrimmed the Chevy II and branded it the Acadian. The Acadian Invader was the mid-price model, and the top of the line was the Acadian Beaumont. Absurdity #1 - Though made for the Canadian market, it was manufactured in the U.S. (and not a lot, only a few thousand were ever made between 1962 and 1971, by which date it was rather based on the Nova).

Why the Acadian? Well, apparently, they were looking for "nationalistic" names, perhaps to mirror the U.S. brands named after Native tribes or whatnot, and GMC's equivalent of Amerind words was... French words. I believe they also had a car call the Laurentian, named after a region in Quebec (relating to the St.Lawrence River) and a Parisienne (not so Canadian then). That Acadians were considered for carhood is quite a coup (yeah... that's a pun in the making, but I didn't do it on purpose). I'd go so far as to call it bizarre. But not as strange as calling one of the models an "Acadian Invader". That's Absurdity #2 - The history of my people is that they were pacifist Catholic salt marsh farmers of French descent who clung tightly to their neutrality as their territory changed hands repeatedly between the British and the French. Refusing to sign an Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown (which would have turned them into Anglicans), many were deported, either back to Europe, to the American colonies or even the Caribbean. This is not an invader's story, and more often than not, their role as victims has compared them to sheep, not wolves.

Sorry U.S.A., we didn't invade, we were dumped on your shores against our will! Of course, the Beaumont isn't any smarter. It's a town in Quebec. There IS a connection to Acadia, but a strange one. It's a street corner in Montreal, Place l'Acadie & Beaumont. A later Acadian model was called the Canso, which is the name of the straight between Nova Scotia (historical Acadia) and Cape Breton. And what is possibly meant to be retro-cool, GM currently has an SUV called the Acadia on the market. It's time to invade again!