>Yes, Quebec has LAWS against usage of English in >public places, and it's a very sore point >amongst unilingual anglophone Quebecers. >However, I wouldn't be so quick to finger >premier Lucien Bouchard as the most odious >culprit in this matter. Bouchard didn't develop >a reputation in Quebec for being as cannily >charismatic a politician that he is, if he >didn't know when to keep his lip zipped on hot-
>button issues. I might note his wife is an >American from California, and he's sent his own >children to private English schools. I'd guess >the the ardent French-language supporter you're >probably thinking of the former Cultural Affairs >minister, Louise Beaudoin (see >http://www.aq.qc.ca/English/pr45.htm )... as >well as the four (count 'em, 4) anonymous OLF >tipsters who work overtime making everyone >miserable. These 4 are civilians, and *they're* >the ones keeping the Office de la langue >française busy, chasing hapless store merchants >who've put up signs where English is >too "prominent" compared to French. So the >radicals who are the cause of the store >prosecutions are not government officials -- but >they ARE the insecure types who rallied for the >stupid laws in the first place.

Sorry. My mistake. I'm just another unimformed twit trying to SOUND informed. :-)

> > Quebec is almost like a foreign country to the rest of Canada; they speak a different language (yes, we are taught French up to high school, but most adults have forgotten it), they have different signs, they have different movies - it IS a foreign country.
>
> Ha ha. The formal French that *Quebecers* are taught in school isn't the French spoken in the streets, either. It's a totally different slang dialect called "Joual". Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had the dapper ability to speak formal French at high-society affairs... and the colloquial slang for relaxing with friends in the local bar.
>
>
> > Us Ontarians are very snooty, we like to say that WE are the real, Union Jack-waving Canada. We're liberal Anglicans (a Queen-worshipping British religion that became Episcopalianism in the US) and hate the Americans.
>
> Helloooooo? I'm an Anglican, not that that name really means anything. Describing us a "Queen-worshipping British religion that hates Americans" certainly would be news in my parish. I never realized I've been baptized into idolatry, anyway. Heh.

Sorry. My Anti-British nature (I AM an American - read later on) got in the way of sensible thinking. Besides, the Rector at our local church is more conservative than most.
>
> You know, I once wrote that I didn't >think "Canadian Rednecks" actually existed; I >suggested it was humour. But your (biting) >commentary may be just enough to suggest >otherwise.

Apologies, apologies, apologies. I didn't mean to offend anyone.

>
>
> > That's another bone of contention. Canadians are raised to think that Americans are violent scum. As the only American in my school, I am constantly hit with insults such as "Americans suck" and "Americans are dumb".
>
> Non sequitur. What's up here. I thought you >said -- right at the beginning -- that you were >a Canadian, not American...

Allow me to clarify. I am an American by birth, and a patriotic one, but have lived in Canada for the past ten years. I actually have dual citizenship - practically I'm Canadian, but my heart lies in the States. That explains my grossly exaggerated opinions.

>
>
> > In fact, the only real occurrence of patriotism in Canada came about from an ad for Molson's Beer a few months ago, wherein "Joe Canadian" ranted about Canada ("I sit on chesterfields, not sofas! I have serviettes, not napkins! It's ZEE, not ZED! And about, not aboot!") Most Canadians (Ontarians, at least - I have a friend from Alberta who tells me that compared to Albertans, Ontarians are jerks)are racists, but against people who are essentially the same. We discriminate, as a group, against the Americans in ways that an American wouldn't notice. We also discriminate against the French, in the same way. We are "closet racists", bigots that hide it. In some ways, that's worse.
>
> The more I talk to people who live in places where the population is uniformly homogenous (i.e., practically 100% Caucasian), the more I'm surprised by the amount on intolerance and closet bigotry they display. Where I live, I can easily think of friends, neighbours, acquaintances, and co-workers who were born in 11 different countries... and whom I interact with on a regular basis. In Montreal, who's to discrimate against, when *everyone's* different? (Oh yeah, against those people who can only speak English, heh.)
>
>
> Gah. How can you say that going to Denny's was a TREAT? A recent issue of Consumer Reports for the U.S. gave it poor grades for food, and I agree. And just what's objectionable with the very clear pictograms for Walk/Don't Walk signals, which even young children can understand?

Nothing's wrong with them. In fact, they're better. I, however, watched Sesame Street incessantly as a kid, and it was neat to finally see a Walk/Don't Walk for real.

As for Denny's - well, I'm probably just insane.

>
>
> > Oh, that reminds me: You say you stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts? Are you MAD? There are only two donut shops that Canadians visit: Tim Horton's and Tim Horton's. Possibly the most Canadian thing around, Tim Horton's is this GIANT national donut-shop chain (they're also becoming famous for their coffee). If a town doesn't have a Tim Horton's, it's nothing. And there is NO competition. I'm surprised you could even find a Dunkin' Donuts - of course, you were in Quebec. That changes everything. But if that was Ontario, even if you could find a Dunkin' Donuts, you would be beaten to death by a screaming lynch mob (you wouldn't be shot - we have gun-control here in Canada), and your car would be sold for parts.
> >
>
> In Quebec the big donut/coffeeshop franchise chains are: A.L. Van Houtte, Second Cup, Tim Horton's, and Dunkin' Donuts. Starbucks is also moving into the field. The stuff that A.L. Van Houtte has to offer just blows Tim Horton's away, totally.
>
>
> > Oh, and bad drivers like that? He had probably driven on the 401 (a giant highway that goes through most of Ontario) near Toronto. Serious gridlock. He would do ANYTHING to get into an open space - on the 401, there are no open spaces. Or, maybe he was just doing that because you had American plates. I wouldn't be surprised.
>
> Gridlock, right. But that's nothing. Try driving the death-defying 417 from Ottawa to Montreal sometime in less than ideal conditions. The last time we drove that way, there was a light snowstorm. After a while, I gave up counting how many cars had landed in the ditch on both sides (more than 17). It's not the highway surface or the way its banked that's the problem; it's the high winds along that route.

True. Of course, you may have heard about that horrible accident up, uh, somewhere on the 401? Six people killed? Three kilometers of wreckage? Cars and tractor-trailers piled on top of each other? Ouch.