I am in the process of selecting my next travel destination in Canada. A 2-week trip. Possibly, too, something near-the-US border, but I get mixed signals of American openness to Canadians since 9/11, thanks to our politicials nonrepresentative speeches.
Does Canada, a supposedly tolerant mix of people of various origins, have provincial profiles (character), very much like States in the US?
My logic is: If you are going to be 2 weeks in the same spot, might as well know in advance the psychological makeup of its citizens.
Living in Quebec, I could tell you that the Latin roots definitely have an impact in social dealings here, specially if you are dealing with unilingual (mostly French-speaking) people. The average Quebecer sure has a cultural ID tag.
Now what could be the other provinces cultural ID tags? What can one expect in each province?
Feel free to throw in generalizations and/or stereotypes, historic influences, data, statistics. The more data, the better.
Quebec has a dislike for anything not Quebec. They even look down on Acadians. (Acadians = type of french persons where I live). So they (most) hate pure English. Quebec it’s own little country.
I can’t tell you about all of Canada, but in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia you will get mostly a couple of friendly cheap shots. Most of them will be about your tolerance to our beer. But to be on the safe side, avoid talking politics. We tend to not like George W.
Don’t walk around with an American flag on your shirt, people will not think you’re an American, just a hick.
Oh, an other thing. We call it “pop”, but if you call it soda, we understand.
Jay, that’s not true. An Asian or Black will stick out like a sore thumb in many parts of the Prairies and the East Coast. Even in a fairly “large” city like Halifax, a Black person or Asian is very rare. Trust me, I lived there for awhile with one of these minorities and they were like a museum exhibition. Toronto, on the other hand, is indeed one of the most diverse cities in the world. If you are South Asian/East Indian, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, Russian, Korean…on and on, you will feel right at home.
Sweeping Generalizations:
East coast: incredibly friendly and helpful people
Quebec: everone wears a party hat
Ontario: friedly yet reserved in rural areas, uptight in T.O
West-to the rockies: good people of integrity.
Vancouver: Percieve themselves as very friendly and accepting, but in reality, not so much.
Go here if your looking for a breakdown of the differet racial groups that make up each province, just make sure to pick a province from the drop down menu. http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo28a.htm
I second what Jaystyles said, Canada is a good place all around, I have never been anywhere that if you are at least the tiniest bit outgoing you can’t find good people and a good time.