Canadian Niceties

[Foreigner]

BBC - Travel - The nicest people in the world?

Nice article about nice folks in Canada. So nice. Feel a trip to The Great White North is overdue.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

Are u talking Canada and Quebec??

Quebecors think they are nice, and they are, but they are not Canadian...

Cheers
BF

 

[RooFlyer]

As a regular traveller to Canada for over 20 years, I can easily support the proposition that Canadians# are 'nice'. Very polite and hospitable. Very good manners.

Sometimes too good. If you look as though you might want to cross a road (but really just thinking about it, or waiting for a break in traffic), often you will find the cars stopping.

They are also very deferential to authority. If you are waiting for the green indicator to walk across the road at traffic lights, its minus 30, blowing a gale and NO traffic on the road, most Canadians will wait, in the freezing cold. Me, I just walk across the road! I've been chastised (politely) a couple of times for this!

# I do not include Quebecers in this. I lived in Quebec for a year, in the north, and it was frankly the most miserable, isolated year of my life. I know there are Quebec residents on this list, my apologies for this generalisation, but boy, the stories I could tell!

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I lived (FIFO) in Montreal for close to 5 yrs.

Its easily one of my top five cities in North America to visit, party, live, but RF, I do see your side. Its very unique in the fact that if u don't know the locals very well, its looks very closed to the outside world. Its also a place to avoid in Jan/Feb/Mar/April, the lead up to Christmas is brilliant, the Montreal office Christmas parties are legendary, but then winter depression sits in after the New Year. Spring/Summer is fantastic, its all about the terraces, golf/swim/fish/hike/explore the outdoors, etc.

Being a true global traveller, I didn't learn 10 words of French, except the swear words. But I did meet tons of locals that are fluent in multiple languages.

I'm a very big fan of Canada, all of it.

Cheers
BF

 

[RooFlyer]

Taber-wit! Brisbane Flyer I should have added that my time in north of Quebec was in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of "Meech Lake" . Anglos were not especially welcome in the highly nationalistic north at the best of times, but at that time it was very fraught. I found that they can't tell accents - so an Aussie trying to speak crummy Quebequois was treated the same way as an enemy Anglo Canadian, rather than as a visitor.

I was also there during one of the major amendments (tightening) to Quebec Bill 101 - the language law. That was weird.

Quebecers definitely know how to party better than anyone else in Canada. I liked Carnaval a lot

 

[clazman]

French Canadians are arrogant, but Canadians are extremely polite, helpful and quiet