confusing editorial cartoons

As the blog.macleans.ca community is already deep in thought about the New Yorker‘s Obama cover (which we think is brilliant, by the way), we thought it would be a good time to solicit opinions on The Globe and Mail‘s Saturday editorial cartoon.

We have agonized over this editorial cartoon from Saturday’s Globe and Mail (click to enlarge), and we have no idea what it’s supposed to mean. Is this Quebec’s present? Its future? By what mischance did this friendly merchant find himself with his multiethnic panoply-on-wheels in Hérouxville, of all places? What has this unimpressed-looking man been served, and why did he order it if he didn’t want it?