chickenfeet

So I got asked "What are the main cultural differences between Ontarion and Quebec?" The context was what should one be aware of in terms of deciding, as an immigrant, which province to go to. This is what I answered:

The obvious difference is language. Quebec is primarily French speaking and immigrants are required to send their kids to French language schools. You might have difficulty finding work there without French. Although Quebec is in general secular there is some hostility to people who clearly identify with a non Christian religion. (I’m being as unemotional about this as I know how…). The other differences are more subtle. The major cities in Ontario are very multicultural and accepting of immigrants from pretty much anywhere. This may not always be the case in smaller towns.

That’s the serious answer. Here are some more differences (with a touch of tongue in cheek)

Girl watching in Quebec is way more fun. Women there care much more about their appearance and have more sense of style.

There’s more nudity on TV in Quebec.

Quebecers leave the TV on all the freaking time.

If you don’t speak French in Quebec you will be ignored. If you do, the person you are speaking to will reply in English.

Foreign language movies are dubbed into French on Quebec. In Ontario you get subtitles.

The major cities in both provinces have crap hockey and baseball teams but Toronto has pretty good soccer and basketball teams.

Nightlife in Montreal starts and finishes really late, even on a school night.

Despite getting way more snow, Montreal has way better bike infrastructure than Toronto.

There’s a thriving Quebecois film industry in Quebec. There’s a thriving American film industry in Ontario.

No drug dealer has ever become Premier of Quebec.

Quebec’s electronic patient record system works but its health care system doesn’t. The opposite is true in Ontario.

There's a pretty big development going up just down the street. Basically the whole block bounded by Sherbourne, Front and Princess Streets and the Esplanade is a construction site. So far at the north end of the site they have excavated down about 10m. There's been a distinct smell of tar for weeks. I can see why. The soil around here, once one gets below the usually thin topsoli is a clay/sand mixture of a light grey colour. What's coming up on this site is almost black. Even down to 10m. This used to be an industrial area. I know that there was a gas works and a foundry. I suspect they are on the gas works site but I can't find a sufficiently detailed pre redevelopment map online. I guess it would need to be from somewhere between 1935 and 1970. In any event it's pretty nasty.