Why poutine is no longer politically correct in Quebec

What's in a name? Well, quite a lot, as it happens, when that name is Putin.

You might think that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", but a Quebec restaurant is taking no chances. Roy Jucep restaurant in Drummondville, an hour outside Montreal, claims to have developed the original poutine - now widely  accepted as pretty much Canada's national dish - back in 1964, a claim that I imagine is much contested. But the restaurant, which garners much of its popularity from this dish, has changed the menu item to the descriptive but rather bland name of "Cheese-Fries-Gravy".

The problem is that Poutine is also the French spelling and pronunciation for a certain Vladimir Putin, and Roy Jucep just didn't want that name on its menu (as for why the French and Quebecois feel the need to French-ify Putin's name, I have no idea). 

It is not the only food facing a name change as a result of Russia's occupation of Ukraine. UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's is changing their Chicken Kiev to the more politically correct Chicken Kyiv (the Ukrainian spelling of Kiev), as are many restaurants around the world. A pub in Tel Aviv is changing its name from Putin to, er, Pub. And many bars are changing their Moscow Mules to Kyiv Mules (or in one case, Snake Island Mules).

Call it commercial sensitivity or marketing smarts, call it bandwagon-jumping, call it just plain silly, but you can absolutely see where they're coming from.