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Josh Freed: Florida feels like another planet compared with Quebec
montreal gazette ^ | January 22,2022 | Josh Freed

Posted on 01/23/2022 8:05:01 PM PST by Hojczyk

During my visit, I saw some customers shake hands with their waiter, as if to say: “Thanks, I’ll have some germs for dessert,” Josh Freed writes.

I have a confession to make: I recently fled Quebec for a week, a refugee from Legault’s 2.0 curfew-and-confinement rules.

A friend told me about an available condo in Florida, my wife and I made a last-second decision to briefly escape and work remotely. But the second we landed, it felt like we’d arrived on another planet.

While Quebec is in full confinement mode, Florida is Cowboyland, where you barely know COVID is happening, despite much higher new case and hospitalization rates than ours .

It’s lunacy by Canadian standards, but an eye-opening experience. For starters, everyone’s out and about, filling bars, restaurants, movies, gyms, and jam-packed sports arenas.

Stores and supermarkets don’t require masks but some cashiers and customers wear them, though often under their nose or chin — Florida-style. It seems a way of announcing: “Look — I’m masked!” when they’re not.

some, they’re mobbed. Waiters can choose whether to wear masks, and at least half don’t.

In ever-friendly America, some customers even shake hands with their waiters before leaving, to say: “Thanks, I’ll have some germs for dessert.”

It’s easy to spot Canadians at restaurants, as we’re the ones properly masked and nervously sitting on the terrace, even in the rain.

You can see the difference in the media, too. In Quebec, COVID totally dominates the news, because there’s almost nothing else happening.

In Florida, it’s the reverse.

I checked the prestigious Miami Herald recently on a day Florida had risen to more than 70,000 new daily cases — almost twice as many per capita as Quebec, much like their hospitalizations.

(Excerpt) Read more at montrealgazette.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Government; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: bidenbibs; canada; desantis; florida; joshfreed; quebec; rondesantis
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1 posted on 01/23/2022 8:05:01 PM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk

So, not wearing a useless mask now makes you a “cowboy”? I wish I’d known it was so easy when I was younger!


2 posted on 01/23/2022 8:08:09 PM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: Hojczyk

VIVA FLORIDA!


3 posted on 01/23/2022 8:09:14 PM PST by O6ret
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To: Hojczyk

Sounds like Josh Freed accidentally put on his wife’s panties, and doesn’t realize they’re in a twist...


4 posted on 01/23/2022 8:10:00 PM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: Hojczyk

More

But the first mention of COVID anywhere in the paper was exactly 18 stories down, with the headline: “Amid Omicron surge, hospitals are stretched thin. What can Florida lawmakers do?”

Ignore it, as always, I guess. Meanwhile, the 19th story was: “Florida COVID update: 71,742 new cases as hospital patients increase.”

Among the many stories played far higher up were: “Miami Marlins name managers for minor-league affiliates” and “Microbial contamination in laxative can cause a ‘life-threatening’ infection.”

But that still beats NBC TV’s Florida website that day, which ran this story way ahead of COVID: “Police officer kills dog in Miami-Dade after barking complaint.”

It’s hard to make this stuff up. Meanwhile, in La Presse the same day, the top six stories were about Covid

surreal, as if everyone’s wearing blinders and trying not to notice a disease that’s killed more than 63,000 Floridians. That’s about twice as many deaths as in all of Canada, in a state with two-thirds our country’s population.

It’s health madness, but there’s a psychological upside, since COVID doesn’t dominate all life like here. We Montrealers live in a tense, depressing pandemic bubble — all-COVID, all the time — which is why many people avoid following the news.

In Florida, entire conversations happen without the C-word mentioned, unless you bring it up — which, of course, I did. I asked a group of seven 60-somethings I met at a restaurant terrace how they felt about Florida’s non-existent pandemic rules.

handles things. In the words of one woman “Our philosophy here is: I look after myself and you look after yourself. If you want to wear a mask indoors, you should. If you don’t want to go to a restaurant, you shouldn’t.”

When I asked about our collective responsibility to protect others she shrugged and said: “That’s just not how we think here.”

I mentioned Quebec’s recent curfew, but they all just laughed, dismissing it as “Canadian communism.” Many others obviously agree as more people moved to Florida during the pandemic than any other state .

Thousands of Quebecers have also looked into moving there since the pandemic.

It’s a tale of two worlds. Like most Canadians, I still think collective safety trumps some individual rights. But I’d prefer something between the cowboy individualism of Florida and the heavy-handed paternalistic rules of Quebec during this fifth wave.


5 posted on 01/23/2022 8:10:09 PM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Hojczyk
Florida is Cowboyland, where you barely know COVID is happening, despite much higher new case and hospitalization rates than ours .

This Big Pharma message has been brought to you by Josh's sponsor, Little Lord Fauchleroy, aka The Pied Piper of Vaxxtown.

6 posted on 01/23/2022 8:12:37 PM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: Hojczyk
Like most Canadians, I still think collective safety trumps some individual rights.

We would support that, too, if we thought masks had anything to do with it.

7 posted on 01/23/2022 8:13:58 PM PST by econjack (I'm not bossy. I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: Hojczyk

I live in Florida....you know how you tell some is northern....

If they go in the water with their mask on...

The people with masks on has doubled in Wal Mart....the snowbirds have arrived....


8 posted on 01/23/2022 8:14:35 PM PST by Hojczyk
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To: kiryandil
This Big Pharma message has been brought to you by Josh's sponsor, Little Lord Fauchleroy, aka The Pied Piper of Vaxxtown.

I'm stealing that!

9 posted on 01/23/2022 8:17:57 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Hojczyk

Go your ass back to Quebec if you don’t like Florida, then.


10 posted on 01/23/2022 8:19:27 PM PST by sport
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To: Hojczyk

Go back to Canada. You’ll feel more comfortable there. Floridians will probably feel more comfortable too.


11 posted on 01/23/2022 8:19:39 PM PST by lakecumberlandvet (Appeasement never works.)
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To: Steve_Seattle

Strangely, the points this guy is making seem to go right over his own head. But I suppose he couldn’t get his story published without the bias they require/ so that’s what he did.


12 posted on 01/23/2022 8:20:23 PM PST by supremedoctrine
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To: Hojczyk

It is and it doesn’t have a thing to do with Covid.

I’ve been to both places and they could not be more different in just about every way.


13 posted on 01/23/2022 8:21:05 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith….)
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To: Hojczyk

Why even leave Lockdown Land if you’re just going to be a total Poindexter in Freedom-loving Florida???


14 posted on 01/23/2022 8:21:36 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: sport

This pos starts his article by talking about escaping confinement, and is surprised when his destination, which he chose for this exact reason, isn’t confined.

Send him back to his Winter Wonderland, and ban his entry back here.


15 posted on 01/23/2022 8:21:57 PM PST by SPDSHDW (You get what you let occur with no resistance. Everything Joepedo n' felons do is on your head.)
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To: Hojczyk
It’s lunacy by Canadian standards, but an eye-opening experience. For starters, everyone’s out and about, filling bars, restaurants, movies, gyms, and jam-packed sports arenas. Stores and supermarkets don’t require masks but some cashiers and customers wear them, though often under their nose or chin — Florida-style. It seems a way of announcing: “Look — I’m masked!” when they’re not. some, they’re mobbed. Waiters can choose whether to wear masks, and at least half don’t. In ever-friendly America, some customers even shake hands with their waiters before leaving, to say: “Thanks, I’ll have some germs for dessert.”

And guess what?

People are not dropping like flies like you seem to expect.

16 posted on 01/23/2022 8:22:41 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith….)
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To: Hojczyk

I have many relatives in Canada and have been there dozens of times. I love their outdoors, but I hate their cities.

I’m sorry to say, its a progressive, statist hell, run by karens, homosexuals, for the sake of their immigrant replacement population.

And its getting worse.


17 posted on 01/23/2022 8:25:21 PM PST by PGR88
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To: Hojczyk

I’ve noticed an increase in the N95 masks recently.

It’s very useful for identifying who to avoid being around because they are terrified of the virus.


18 posted on 01/23/2022 8:25:21 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith….)
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To: All

Lulz. This guy should skip Florida and go to a REAL cowboy state, like Idaho. It’s cold so he should feel right at home. And he’ll see a place where less than 5% are bothering with the biden bibs.


19 posted on 01/23/2022 8:26:36 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (Cultural separation and cultural divorce. )
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To: nutmeg

.


20 posted on 01/23/2022 8:26:49 PM PST by nutmeg
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