The motto “je me souviens,” which appears on Quebec licence plates is not about the Plains of Abraham, the so-called “night of the long knives” or any other such “humiliation” or slight, either real or perceived. The true origin of the phrase is far more federalist: “Je me souviens que, né sous le lys, je crois sous la rose (“I remember/ That born under the lily/ I grow under the rose)” where the “lys” refers to France and alludes to the French monarchy and the “rose” refers to England and the English crown. The poem itself refers to Quebec’s coming of age under the English banner.