Canadians Have True Class

[IslandTractor]

Garandman, This works both ways. As an Anglo Quebecer, when traveling into America. I say im from "Montreal" or Canada and not form the Province of Quebec. It makes a world of a difference how well I get treated as a Canadian or Montrealer VS a Quebecois. I notice this about 6 or 7 years ago on vacation in North Carolina. The staff at the camp ground treated me like royalty the first few days I was there until I rented something an had to show my drivers license. Once they realize I was from the "Belle Province" I was treated like a 2nd class citizen. Since then I have tested the theory, ant it worked in NY,PA,VA. I experimented with French as I am fluent in it and again as long as I was "not" from Quebec, All would be fine, What did the French Speaking Quebecers do to you guys down there to generate so much Hate ???

This is not something I have ever heard a US citizen opine negatively about. I am sure that most Americans disagreed with the attempt of some in Quebec to secede back in the day but I haven't heard anyone comment negatively about Francophone Canadians ever. I've traveled to Montreal many times and Quebec City once. Wonderful experiences every time despite poor to non existent French language ability on my part. I have only fond thoughts about Quebec despite the fact that the Habs are the perennial nemesis of the Bruins.

My only personal experience with a Francophone Quebecois in the US was with a graduate teaching assistant who was supposed to teach me French when I was taking a second year language course in college. I almost flunked the class because I couldn't take my eyes off of her long enough to listen to what she was saying. I was not the only student with this problem either.

 

[dave1949]

It may well be that many US folks don't realize there is a Quebec Province and a Quebec City. Don't make too many assumptions based on US knowledge of geography as we are generally abysmal in that area.

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

:laughing:

 

[buickanddeere]

It may well be that many US folks don't realize there is a Quebec Province and a Quebec City. Don't make too many assumptions based on US knowledge of geography as we are generally abysmal in that area.

On the state run CBC media, Federal Government and any other event such as the Olympics. The French representation makes it appear that 3/4 of Canada is French Quebec and the rest bilingual. Yet the Francophones are a small minority in Canada.

 

[dave1949]

We took a short vacation to Montreal a couple of summers back. Crossed into Quebec, Canada at Woburn-Coburn Gore, Maine. The switch to 99% French-speaking was immediate which surprised me. The street, and many town names are Anglo, but that's about it for English.

Montreal is a nice town to visit and not speaking French there was no problem with the people a tourist usually encounters.

 

[PILOON]

I am an English speaking Quebecer but thoroughly bilingual.
Yes, very frustrating situation. Language police, the OLF (yes for real), fines if signage is not predominately french.
The misinformed actually believe we support the rest of Canada while Quebec actually benefits from transfer payments.
We pay both federal and provincial taxes (as do other provinces) but here we collect our own while other Provences have only one collection and therein is a major cause of false info.
The french press never tells the whole story, only what they want you to hear. I read both so I see where much agitation comes from.
Fortunately the better educated and business folks are wiser and see the facts for what they are. Also with world travel being easy the swing is in the right direction.
When it comes to tourists the French sure know which side the bread is buttered and OUI, they then parler L'Anglais however it is not acceptable to advertise that English is a requirement for any job as the language police will fine you.
Any company with more than 10 employees must work in french (memos, emails etc) and to deal with gov't you need a french compliance certificate.

Back a bunch of years we had the FLQ!. nicknamed the 'fun loving Quebeckers'. That was when Trudeau brought in the War Measures Act. That was scary times.

 

[dmccarty]

Garandman, This works both ways. As an Anglo Quebecer, when traveling into America. I say im from "Montreal" or Canada and not form the Province of Quebec. It makes a world of a difference how well I get treated as a Canadian or Montrealer VS a Quebecois. I notice this about 6 or 7 years ago on vacation in North Carolina. The staff at the camp ground treated me like royalty the first few days I was there until I rented something an had to show my drivers license. Once they realize I was from the "Belle Province" I was treated like a 2nd class citizen. Since then I have tested the theory, ant it worked in NY,PA,VA. I experimented with French as I am fluent in it and again as long as I was "not" from Quebec, All would be fine, What did the French Speaking Quebecers do to you guys down there to generate so much Hate ???

While living in South Florida, my experience with people from Quebec was all negative. They were just rude and obnoxious people. They were right up there with people from NY, NJ and MA. :shocked: I think most of these people were from or near NY City or Boston. It was funny that people from New York state would mention they were from Upstate to distance themselves from the city. :laughing::laughing::laughing: It was bad enough that someone created a bumper sticker that asked people from Quebec to take two people from NY with them when they returned home. :shocked:

This year we did some flying and were in Seattle, New York, LA, Chicago and Washington DC. The rudest people were in LA and Seattle which was a surprise. No problems at all in Chicago and Washington. JFK was positively positive! :shocked::confused3::shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: We talked to several different airport employees at JFK and they were all polite and friendly. :thumbsup: My dad was in NY City years ago and asked a New Yorker why so many New Yorkers in South Florida were a holes yet they were friendly in NYC? The New Yorker said they send all of the a holes to Florida! :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: Maybe Quebec does the same thing?

My area of NC has plenty of transplants from NY but they don't have the attitude that New Yorkers had in South Florida. :confused3:

NY, PA and VA might have issues with people from Quebec because they were the same rude ones that would drive down to Florida. Part of the anti Quebec angst is because of their driving.

Later,
Dan

 

[kiotiken]

Part of the anti Quebec angst is because of their driving.

We regularly drive between Ottawa and Toronto and travel hwy 401 (roughly 500 KM). I admittedly have a very heavy foot so we decided to do an experiment on one of our trips. I set the cruise control at 130 KM/H and counted the number of cars that past us with Quebec plates and the number who passed us with other plates (there are a large number of Americans on that hwy as well, so any no Quebec plate). I no longer remember the exact numbers, but it was something like 20 cars with Quebec plates passed, two with Ontario plates and no American plates. Hardly a scientific study, but the result was exactly as we expected. By the way, I blow through speed traps on that hwy all the time, they don't flinch at 130 KM/H and I suspect I have my Quebec friends to thank for that! Blew through one at 140 once. Cherries went on... and he stopped the guy coming up behind me, probably at about 142! Lesson learned.

 

[dmccarty]

We regularly drive between Ottawa and Toronto and travel hwy 401 (roughly 500 KM). I admittedly have a very heavy foot so we decided to do an experiment on one of our trips. I set the cruise control at 130 KM/H and counted the number of cars that past us with Quebec plates and the number who passed us with other plates (there are a large number of Americans on that hwy as well, so any no Quebec plate). I no longer remember the exact numbers, but it was something like 20 cars with Quebec plates passed, two with Ontario plates and no American plates. Hardly a scientific study, but the result was exactly as we expected. By the way, I blow through speed traps on that hwy all the time, they don't flinch at 130 KM/H and I suspect I have my Quebec friends to thank for that! Blew through one at 140 once. Cherries went on... and he stopped the guy coming up behind me, probably at about 142! Lesson learned.

Its funny you mentioned speeding. I had typed up a sentence or two about I95 and speeding cars from Quebec but I deleted it. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I still see the speeding cars from Quebec on I95 and they aint just driving 5-10 mph over either. Most of the bad US speeders are from NY and MA as they go to and from Florida.

I guess the rudest thing I have seen on I95 in recent years was in SC. A minivan with two women up front and a man in the middle seats flipped flopped from north bound to south bound. They were lucky they did not get stuck. There was no traffic but me in the fast lane trying to avoid the bad bumpy slow lane. If you drive I95 in SC you know what I am talking about. The van pulled out right in front of me and I had to slam on the brakes to keep from killing the A Holes. I can call them A Holes because the man in the middle seat MOONED me! :shocked::shocked::shocked: If they had waited 5 seconds they could have pulled out of the median and there would have been no cars at all but they had to pull out right in front of me and then stay in my lane. They got off at the next exit which was a minute or so down the road.

The A Holes had a SC plate too.

Later,
Dan

 

[tcartwri]

On the state run CBC media, Federal Government and any other event such as the Olympics. The French representation makes it appear that 3/4 of Canada is French Quebec and the rest bilingual. Yet the Francophones are a small minority in Canada.

Umm, no they are not... Maybe unilingual Francophones are, but at least half the population can trace it's roots back to Quebec and a good portion of those are still bilingual. I don't really have a problem with the bilingual mandate of the Feds.