Canada's Panamerica Identity

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Disposible income, Acajack. Same reason Canadians skew to Civics and Corollas while Americans tend to Accords and Camrys. Plus, I'm sure, some in Quebec who figure something tiny will make them more "Euro".

Lately, I've been thinking about getting a Fiat 500 so I can make hand gestures and say "Ciao" to folks while I drive to my favourite espresso shop!

I am not really sure that income is the main factor in this. One thing I have noticed about Quebec is that people are more "experiential" than they are "material". A lot of people even with high incomes prefer to have a smaller car and a smaller house but go on trips, go see shows, go to restaurants, bars and cafés and go skiing more often.

Real estate prices tend to be lower in Quebec overall (or at least affordable) but the lower prices don't seem to lead to that many people splurging on huge houses. (Like lower housing prices seems to lead to in many parts of the U.S. for example.)

My neighbourhood is pretty high-income but the driveways aren't a sea of huge SUVs like you see in the affluent neighbourhoods of some other places.

[esquire]

^ I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. Quebec might have lower disposable incomes which influences things a bit, but there is clearly a taste for smaller cars.

By contrast, Manitoba is not a wealthy a place as Alberta, but large vehicles are almost as common here as they are out west. Might not be the highest-end versions, but they're big.... people like big cars and find a way to buy them. You don't see that quite as much in Quebec.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. Quebec might have lower disposable incomes which influences things a bit, but there is clearly a taste for smaller cars.

By contrast, Manitoba is not a wealthy a place as Alberta, but large vehicles are almost as common here as they are out west. Might not be the highest-end versions, but they're big.... people like big cars and find a way to buy them. You don't see that quite as much in Quebec.

Cars also tend to be bigger in parts of the U.S. that have more poverty than Quebec does. It's also probably the case in Atlantic Canada.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

A lot of countries do small cars, but I don't think anybody makes funkier cars than the French (que les dieux soient remerciés!).

The Italians (and Japanese, too; just not the volume sellers) would be serious rivals. Ever seen an original Fiat Multipla? Nissan Cube? etc.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by esquire

Funny you should mention that. Quebec's appetite for small cars is well known, to the point that Canada gets compacts and subcompacts unavailable in the US market because they are known to sell quite well in Quebec.

I'm sure cars in Quebec are on average much larger than in France/UK, but by North American standards, Quebec is the small car champ.

IMO the correlations are way more with large spaces (urbanity vs rurality) and with gas taxes/cost of ownership (things like free and plentiful parking, etc.) than with language...

Places featuring both large spaces/distances and low gas taxes/low ownership costs (say, Oklahoma) will tend to have the largest vehicles and the highest rates of vehicle ownership. At the other end of the spectrum, places like the downtown City of London England which are also culturally Anglo and English-speaking will tend to have the smallest, and many residents will be car-less.

(The wealthy, of course, can have whatever they want, wherever they want. I'd remove them from the sampling. So maybe the heart of the City isn't really the best example, but I suppose you get the point.)

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Cars also tend to be bigger in parts of the U.S. that have more poverty than Quebec does. It's also probably the case in Atlantic Canada.

Small cars are very plentiful in greater Halifax and we tend to have a surprising number of small SUVs for some reason. Nissan Cube, CRV, Rav4 type stuff. And suburus. I guess they think AWD is safer.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Small cars are very plentiful in greater Halifax and we tend to have a surprising number of small SUVs for some reason. Nissan Cube, CRV, Rav4 type stuff. And suburus. I guess they think AWD is safer.

That makes sense. Halifax's urban form tends to be fairly ''tight'' for a North American city. At least on the peninsula.

[Nouvellecosse]

Personally I'd like to see fewer cars altogether but we'd need much better transit first I suppose.

[tremblay]

Originally Posted by lio45

Something else that people do in the US that almost no one does here is that they'll go in the woods to shoot things (inanimated, obviously...) for fun. Using the gun is the end goal of the activity, not catching a prey. It seems to be a big thing in northern NH, usually with younger guys, but maybe that's local, because now that I think of it, I haven't really seen as much of a "gun culture" in other New England states even rurally.

In the neck of woods where I come from (northern Lac-St-Jean to be precise) it was -and it still is- a pretty common thing to do. We'd go in sand pits with bb guns (or later 22s, 410, 12) and shoot on metal cans, bottles. Once you venture in the ZECs to the north, you'll see road signs totally destroyed by gunshots ( la classe quoi!). I would assume this is also the case in regions like Abitibi, Côte-Nord, Gaspésie, Haute-Mauricie. Kind of a -deep- rural subculture; but it's most definitely present in Québec.

[1overcosc]

The place I grew up is an oddball. Despite being a rural exurb almost everyone had compacts for some reason, very few pick up trucks. Perhaps being a mostly Franco-Ontarian community is part of it?

[flar]

Canadians are definitely different from Americans, even in the border towns...

...but...

...there is a very strong American influence in some places. I would say it is a lot less now than it once was. The border is a bigger obstacle these days, and the Canadian and American mentalities have become more exaggerated (paradoxically, because we have also all become more generically culture-less). Take hunting and guns. These were huge where I grew up and kids used to play with guns--for fun--in town (can't do that now). Even into the 90s, the Liberal MP broke with his party over the gun registry. Nobody at my school knew about Degrassi or Telefrancais, or even amazingly, the Tragically Hip (until about 1995). But we knew about KidBits, Mel Farr Superstar and could recite the Detroit Zoo commercial off by heart. Our antennas were all turned toward Detroit, so we knew more about the George Washington than Sir John A, more about Pilgrims than Acadians, and more about college football than the CFL. Major shopping trips were to the huge malls that existed in the states long before in Canada. I endured major trauma because I like the Leafs and Jays (all my friends liked the Wings and Tigers).

But (again)...
There was always a clear difference, and you can always feel it when you go over the border. There is a very much more noticeable underclass in the states. There is more desperation. And we have different accents despite living just a few hundred yards apart.

But then again, despite being away from this area for twenty years, I still prefer Fahrenheit.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by flar

Canadians are definitely different from Americans, even in the border towns...

...but...

...there is a very strong American influence in some places. I would say it is a lot less now than it once was. The border is a bigger obstacle these days, and the Canadian and American mentalities have become more exaggerated (paradoxically, because we have also all become more generically culture-less). Take hunting and guns. These were huge where I grew up and kids used to play with guns--for fun--in town (can't do that now). Even into the 90s, the Liberal MP broke with his party over the gun registry. Nobody at my school knew about Degrassi or Telefrancais, or even amazingly, the Tragically Hip (until about 1995). But we knew about KidBits, Mel Farr Superstar and could recite the Detroit Zoo commercial off by heart. Our antennas were all turned toward Detroit, so we knew more about the George Washington than Sir John A, more about Pilgrims than Acadians, and more about college football than the CFL. Major shopping trips were to the huge malls that existed in the states long before in Canada. I endured major trauma because I like the Leafs and Jays (all my friends liked the Wings and Tigers).

But (again)...
There was always a clear difference, and you can always feel it when you go over the border. There is a very much more noticeable underclass in the states. There is more desperation. And we have different accents despite living just a few hundred yards apart.

But then again, despite being away from this area for twenty years, I still prefer Fahrenheit.

That's a really good point, TV made us american, and the internet made everyone some japanese-euro hybrid.

[lio45]

Another example of how culturally close Anglo North America (on a global scale...) is that comes to mind this season is Christmas. My gf is Anglo, and there's a bit of a cultural shock there (i.e. I recently learned of the existence of things like eggnog and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation").

While if she swapped me for a born-and-raised WASP Cleverontonian, her Christmas expectations and experiences would likely totally match his, or at least a lot more.




Well, with the obvious difference that the Cleveland guy will likely, if left to his own devices, offer a gun / ammo as Christmas present, of course. [/sarcasm]

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

Another example of how culturally close Anglo North America is that comes to mind this season is Christmas. My gf is Anglo, and there's a bit of a cultural shock there (i.e. I recently learned of the existence of things like eggnog and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation").

While if she swapped me for a born-and-raised WASP Cleverontonian, her Christmas expectations and experiences would likely totally match his.




Well, with the obvious difference that the Cleveland guy will likely, if left to his own devices, offer a gun / ammo as Christmas present, of course. [/sarcasm]

An anglo from Lévis? Ça existe?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by tremblay

Once you venture in the ZECs to the north, you'll see road signs totally destroyed by gunshots ( la classe quoi!). I would assume this is also the case in regions like Abitibi, Côte-Nord, Gaspésie, Haute-Mauricie. Kind of a -deep- rural subculture; but it's most definitely present in Québec.

My mom's from Gaspésie (southern coast, but I'm very familiar with the whole peninsula. Half my family's over there) and I must say I never, ever saw "roadsigns totally destroyed by gunshots" anywhere there. North of Lac St-Jean though is even "deeper" than even the most remote places in the Gaspé, IMO.

Interesting remark... Again reinforces the fact that culturally the two countries are so close that other "cultural divides" (like urban/rural) are actually greater. In most cases, it's the opposite. i.e. if you put a rural German/urban German/rural Mexican/urban Mexican in a room, the most culturally close pairing is guaranteed to not be the two urbanites together and the two hillbillies together. Try instead the pairing where they can talk to each other to begin with... not even starting to get into the stuff they grew up with, the food they're used to, cultural expectations, etc.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

An anglo from Lévis? Ça existe?

Lol, it was my exact reaction at first, when we met... "Okay, clearly you're not originally from there, so what brought you there, and where're you from?"

I used to jokingly think she was the only Anglo in Lévis but when the candidates' signs started to pop up for the election a couple months ago (to replace CAQ's Christian Dubé) I noticed that there was at least another one, and she was a municipal councillor, no less!!

A not-that-well-known fact (that I've been familiar with since a long time) is that Quebec City peaked at a significant Anglo element (English-Irish-Scottish) and then it went back down over the decades as the city slowly continued to lose national importance in the expanding-westward country.

It's just logical that it spilled to Lévis. Among other examples, George T. Davie had his operations there. (The original site's still there, there's a little museum too in one of the buildings.)

/off-topic

[GreaterMontréal]

festival du cochon graissé ? festival rodéo mécanic ?

La Presse


http://rodeomecanic.com/

wait ....

Festival de la vache qui chie,

no shit



Rodéo du camion

http://elrodeo.com/

[esquire]

^ That last one looks dangerous

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by lio45

Lol, it was my exact reaction at first, when we met... "Okay, clearly you're not originally from there, so what brought you there, and where're you from?"

I used to jokingly think she was the only Anglo in Lévis but when the candidates' signs started to pop up for the election a couple months ago (to replace CAQ's Christian Dubé) I noticed that there was at least another one, and she was a municipal councillor, no less!!

A not-that-well-known fact (that I've been familiar with since a long time) is that Quebec City peaked at a significant Anglo element (English-Irish-Scottish) and then it went back down over the decades as the city slowly continued to lose national importance in the expanding-westward country.

It's just logical that it spilled to Lévis. Among other examples, George T. Davie had his operations there. (The original site's still there, there's a little museum too in one of the buildings.)

/off-topic

Quebec City had a substantial Anglo population until the Depression, did it not? I remember being told once that Sillery was originally an Anglo enclave.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That last one looks dangerous

lots of video on youtube. crazy, I have to go there at least once.