I visited Canada for the first time in 2012 to attend a wedding in Ottawa. Everything in Ontario is in English & French. The Anglophones I talked to HATE the Quebecoises & resent having to learn French just to take a government job.
The “Je me souviens” motto on Quebec license plates really frosts Ontarians since it refers to a battle lost to the British over 250 years ago. Consolez-vous!! (Get over it!)
They talked of Quebeckers getting in their face if they were even HEARD speaking English across the river.
I really did like Canada, it was remarkably clean. Montreal looked like they scrubbed the sidewalks every day.
And like I said, I come from NYC, a filthy city if there ever was one. I was really astounded at how clean it all was, and at the time I was there everyone was still smoking.
But I remember standing in some building, it had a rail station in it, so there were a lot of people coming and going. And I observed how they would walk far out of their way to actually throw garbage in the garbage can.
I’m sorry to go on and on about this, but check out the facebook page “dirty old new york city in the 1970s” to see what I’d been living with!
It was a great trip we took, driving through New England and in Quebec for a few days.
The further north you got the richer the dairy product for your coffee. And my dad and I had clam chowder twice a day for 2 weeks.
All different kinds, it was great.
But I have to say, the best clam chowder I’ve ever had was at Cedar’s Restaurant at the Foxwoods Casino. It was truly perfect and I need to go back there and have it again.
Sorry, going on and on.....
“Je me souviens/Que né sous le lys/Je croîs sous la rose.”
In English it is “I remember/That born under the lily/I grow under the rose”.
The lily and the rose were referring to the floral emblems of the kingdoms of France and England, so it means that while Quebecers were born French, they prospered as citizens of the British empire.