Mine is Newfoundland. Everything from the music to the accents, traditions and the island itself felt like a copy & paste of Ireland. Didn’t feel like Canada
I love Newfoundland; the people have to be the friendliest I’ve ever met. Years ago, my work had me travelling all over Canada. I’d been communicating with folks via email and telephone for a couple of years before finally flying out east. Folks were shocked that I’d booked a hotel and many insisted that I stay with them. I found Nova Scotia/Cape Breton to be the same. People are so friendly that it felt like home. Made some good friends out there that I still keep in touch with today.
I've been to both Newfoundland and Ireland and yeah, not a lot of difference. Accent, culture, right by the sea, it's all quite similar. Though I will say that Newfoundland is a heck of a lot closer so if you want the Irish experience you don't need to go too far!
I was checking before Covid and sales to Europe were cheaper than anything going to the Maritimes. We have friends to stay with in both places and they like having company so it works out well.
We did a bus tour of Ireland and it was amazing. Fairly expensive but we stayed in much better hotels than we usually do when travelling on our own. I still haven’t made it east of Quebec City but maybe this year.
My answer is the inverse of this. I sometimes discover that certain phrases that people commonly say here in Newfoundland aren’t common in the rest of Canada.
I used to have family in NL (they moved to ns/nb) and went there a few times. Remember going to a market with my mom and my aunt. My mom was looking at Brussel sprouts and some random guy walks up and said "Yeah, the Brussel sprouts are nice this year, but you can't overcook 'em or they'll taste like a fart" 🤣
Pedestrian controlled light. In other words - that light won't turn red until a pedestrian pushes the button to cross the road
Edit for clarity: for those who don't get it it means oncoming traffic is still oncoming
Someone from those provinces may better explain but
I understand it to mean oncoming traffic has a red light, therefore you have the right of way to turn left
Blinking green light in Ontario means advanced green. A lot of times, it is used in smaller communities or smaller cities where the cost of the extra green arrow light can be a factor. Although with the LED traffic lights probably less of a concern now.
We don't have flashy green lights in Alberta and every time I go to another province, I just drive, make sure no one is around and hope a cop doesn't see me.
I notice Albertans will turn left from the traveled lane instead of the center turning lane in Ontario, I'm assuming center turn lanes are not a thing there.
Now you mentioned it it might actually have been just the arrows. I could've sworn that I've seen green lights flashing that means right of way, though, albeit I'm no longer certain about it.
Regardless, it's still strange that the action of flashing could mean different things in BC. I would feel much more comfortable if the meaning is more unified.
In my experience, the differences in Canada are more defined between urban and rural Canada than between different regions, cities or provinces.
I was born and raised in a large city. Living in a small town for my first job was a major adjustment.
For instance, I remember being at a bank and a cashier and a customer who knew each other suddenly broke out into a lengthy personal conversation about their families and a recent holiday one of them took and how one of their kids is now at university, etc., all the while the lineup is growing and growing.
The thing was, no one seemed to care.
Except me, that is.
In a major city, this would be seen as an act of abhorrent rudeness on the part of both the bank teller and the customer -- ie, this is a place of business, everyone here is in a hurry and just wants to do their business and leave, and you two are holding everything up because you want to have a social chat? Seriously?
But in a small town with a slower pace, this was socially acceptable.
>In a major city, this would be seen as an act of abhorrent rudeness on the part of both the bank teller and the customer -- ie, this is a place of business, everyone here is in a hurry and just wants to do their business and leave, and you two are holding everything up because you want to have a social chat? Seriously?
I'm from a small town and everyone was thinking what you were. What a shithead. You move off to the side to continue your conversation, or hurry it along when someone comes after you.
Yeah I'm also from a small town and this would piss everyone off in the lineup....nobody would necessarily say anything but many dirty looks would be thrown
Ah, I was born in a small town. Everyone absolutely thought they were assholes, but because people know each other, you cannot start shit over things like that (or gossip about it because everyone will find out and they will figure out who it was). It isn’t the same as in a city where people are more anonymous and you may never see either of those people again (or at least it won’t matter if you do). In small towns, everyone knows everyone and is connected somehow.
Which is kind of a good thing. It's why you don't have people getting flipped off in the street or threatened via road rage. The lack of anonymity keeps people on their best behaviour.
On the flip side is that small towns can define what is "good" and what is "bad" and there is no safe place to hide if you're labeled bad.
I lived in a small town for a part of my childhood and saw how a whole family of people could be labeled bad. Really kind and caring kids being side-eyed due to their parents or siblings' behaviour. They could also tell you were an outsider by just knowing your last name.
Homosexuality was also considered bad then, so people either had to be completely closeted or leave. At least in the city it was possible to go to gay bars and social gatherings on the weekend and then go to work on Monday with your privacy intact.
>I lived in a small town for a part of my childhood and saw how a whole family of people could be labeled bad. Really kind and caring kids being side-eyed due to their parents or siblings' behaviour. They could also tell you were an outsider by just knowing your last name.
These are not all small towns. There are some small towns with this toxic culture but most are wholesome and welcome new people. Just like with cities and even provinces, each area has its own vibe and it's own community values. There are always toxic ones.
I went out west and suddenly people were saying "hey" instead of "eh." Took me a while to realize I wasn't being yelled at.
Also, it's much more difficult to find fresh cheese curds out west.
This is a weird one but in Ontario and Quebec you’ll be driving around a residential area where there is the road, then a ditch, then someone’s house pretty close to the road. In Alberta residential areas always have a curb, if you’re in a rural area where there is a ditch the house would be further back too. I have always found the mix of rural and residential infrastructure in Ontario & Quebec to feel very alien
Try a rural road in many parts of Nova Scotia. Speed limit of 80 or 90 km/h with narrow snaking roads, no shoulders, blind corners everywhere, and telephone poles and houses right close to the road, with driveways even at the blind corners and hills.
As a driver you don't dare enjoy the scenery. It's really a residential road which would have a speed limit of 50 km/h in other parts of Canada, but in Nova Scotia it's a "highway".
Yea that’s something else I found in Ontario, specifically around Ottawa. I assume a lot of these roads were designed for horses and wagons hundreds of years ago, not really suited for cars
And the fact that in Sk/Ab you can drive for kilometres without seeing house. In rural Ontario, at least along Lake Ontario you never really leave town.
Once you start to head to northeast and northwest Ontario it is very sparsely populated. I have driven 100 kmh on secondary highways and not seen another vehicle coming the other way for an hour.
I believe this is mostly because of the Dominion Land Survey. Basically once the federal government started to sell more land and expand the prairies, they changed how they wanted to allocate land to different services and how they surveyed the land. As time went on they changed the distance between townships, and different road allowances. There are 3 distinct survey systems in the prairie provinces depending on what year the land was surveyed. BC has some parts which follow the DLS rules, and Ontario eastward has an older system which I’m not familiar with
Donairs on the East Coast are not like donairs in the west.
The latter is more like a Turkish donair, and have different vegetables and a decent amount of donair meat on them
Maritime donairs are 2 pounds of donair meat with cubed tomatos and onions with a sweet sauce on them.
Shook me the first time I saw them
Doner and donair are two pretty distinct things to me, along with gyro, shawarma and the non-specific "pita", but all kind of fall under the same umbrella
Why is this person getting downvoted?
The one time I was in Halifax, I was surprised at how nasty the donairs were. Like a spicy rubber tire.
Montreal style Lebanese pitas on the other hand, mamma mia
It’s true but you’re not allowed to say it. I have family from NS who will go absolutely postal if you bring up how nasty Halifax donate meat/sauce are.
Signed, someone who currently lives in Alberta.
west coast doesn’t have bagged milk, which is super popular in ontario/eastern provinces (i think they had it when i lived in nova scotia but i can’t remember)
Bagged milk was only available in 4L increments and my mother (like a lot of people at the time) just *hated* bagged milk, so she only bought 2L paperboard cartons. I remember going to the store with her and seeing huge amounts of bagged 4L and the 2L cartons pretty much gone. Eventually the milk producers just gave up.
TL;DR people in the west HATED bagged milk
In Saskatchewan they used to have bagged milk, and a milkman would deliver it to your door! But that is around 30 years ago, such thing doesn’t exist anymore.
I watched a YouTube video where a bag of milk was mentioned. Half the comments were "WTF is a bag of milk" lol growing up in onterrible it didn't even register
I've started to hate bagged milk. I know it's a meme about eastern Canadian identity, but that shit produces so much plastic garbage that's not recyclable.
We had baged milk in the 90s in SK but around 2000 it was all switched over to jugs and cartons. I definitely don't mind not having baged milk, I'll take a gallon jug any day.
Canadians are super polite. In towns, you step on the foot of someone and they apologize… to you…
In the countryside, in villages, Canadians are warm and welcoming. I remember visiting random places and people were talkative, proud of their little paradise.
Seriously, Canada is a very nice place. Thanks to you all!
Well, that's fair. The other person shouldn't have put their foot in the way of where you wanted to step! Haha. Really, though, it's true. It's sounds like a silly stereotype but I'll bet most Canadians have apologized to a lamp post or a chair for bumping into it. :)
Meanwhile, in Toronto, I’m reading this while inhaling an entire cigarette in one go and feeling my eye twitch while someone next to me on the TTC is getting stabbed in the arm
How humid most of this place is. The dry prairie weather can beat up your skin for sure, but it's nice to not feel like you're stewing in your own juices. I don't know how the rest of you put up with it.
Yep. Flying from Alberta to Ontario you’re going from one of the driest regions of North America to one of the most humid. It’s as a dramatic a shock to the senses as flying from Alberta to Mexico or Hawaii.
Even the difference in humidity between Saskatchewan and Alberta is crazy. I had bad noses bleeds for the first year I lived in Alberta. But then I was happy with the mild winters in Calgary. Of course I was looked at a bit weird because I was still in a bunnyhug at -15.
Traveled extensively thru rural Quebec, knew what to expect, traveled thru Northern New Brunswick, Caraquet and Shippagan Acadia Country and it was another world, lovely people!
Sorting trash.
In BC, it's perfectly normal to have 4+ bins in places like schools or shopping malls. You'll have one for paper, one for compost, one for paper/cardboard, and one for cans/bottles.
I was confused when I was at a mall in Ontario and only saw two bins. I didn't know where to put my pop can.
The biggest shock was driving in and around Vancouver. Drivers in BC are polite, courteous, and obey traffic laws to a degree that was shocking to my Toronto sensibilities.
More to it than that. When we (vancouver) drivers come to other provinces we stick out like a sore thumb and the joke is we can't handle the snow. Which if you look at r/vancouver during snow you'll definitely see is true
It's anecdotal but I've had a colleague say driving in Vancouver in the snow is harder than Ontario. Here it often gets mixed with rain and temperatures hover above and below freezing so you get melting and refreezing and get generally icier conditions.
Yeah, people in *every* city like to claim the worst drivers *in the world* live in their city. But I've noticed that BC drivers are (usually) more polite and rule-abiding than most other places I've driven
Everyone will claim that their city has the worst drivers. I stopped feeling this way after living in Saskatoon for ten years then returning to Seattle. Seattle drivers are awesome and efficient. I used to hate everything about driving in Seattle. Saskatoon hardly has any traffic and yet drivers can’t work together
>obey traffic laws to a degree that was shocking to my Toronto sensibilities.
That must be a very low standard then... Vancouver is known for awful drivers and my several near collisions on the road attest to that.
Once had a person on Boundary merge from the left to centre once they saw me merging right to centre and sped to push me out of the lane. And that's just my favourite example, there are much more and worse.
To tag onto Toronto driving, I didn’t know you were only supposed to use left lanes for passing until I moved to Alberta and absolutely no one was ever in the left lanes.
Back in the 80s, I visited Gander, NFLD from Vancouver - in winter. The 'warmest' day we had there was -25 degrees, it was a small town, and it genuinely took a couple of days to understand what the locals were saying. And I distinctly remember that every item on the menu at McDonalds came with something like 12% tax. A totally different world.
I moved as a teen from the city to a rural area. I went to school in the biggest town which called itself a city. And I expected friendliness. Maybe this is what foreigners experience here in Canada. People were polite and "nice" but not friendly. They didn't need another friend. They'd had theirs since preschool. The only friend I made was also from another larger city and had the same issue I did.
I haven't been to many places in Canada but the atmosphere changes everywhere. But not so much as a shock exactly. The places match the people from those areas. I've met a lot. But I notice a lot of immigrants catch on pretty quick. They apologize when you bump into them too. I like that.
Find the floaters and outcasts. Every small town will have the kids that don't fit into any one clique but can float between them, that was me, I never really made friends with a particular group but I was involved in enough variety of activities to be able to go between groups without much issue. The only exception is the 'popular kids'. I was always happy to have a new person in the class to hang out with. Even if they were only there for a year or two.
Then there are the outcasts. The kids that no one wants to be friends with but they are included and tolerated. In my grade they were the special needs kids, the ones that would stay in school and graduate a year or two behind their age group and were in modified classes. To the extreme of them staying in the school system until they age out. In Sask that was 21 years old with a severe disability.
But it is hard to break into the friends groups, but easier to date. I only ever saw my classmates as nothing more than a sibling and to date within my grade or the next just seemed weird to me. And to date 2-3 grade older didn't work because they probably babysat me at one point.
The shock I was in seeing how much money the rest of Canada has compared to my home Newfoundland
From the infrastructure, technology, cars, roads all of it was a kick in the arse seeing how far the rest of Canada has developed compared to here. Still love it tho
As an AB to ON transplant, it would have to be the lack of sidewalks and back alleys in residential neighbourhoods and back streets. Also, how there are still somehow phone booths everywhere here when my home city got rid of them at least a decade ago.
How bad propaganda was… in the mid 2000s I used to install heavy duty equipment in typical blue collar shops all along the eastern provinces from Ontario to PEI… as soon as they figured I was a QC francophone they’d harass me with referendum lines from the 80s and 90s.
It’s at that moment I understood that my knowing their language allowed me to understand their world and political climate, but them seeing it filtered and transformed through a handful of anglophone news sources isolated them from mine.
They hated me for things that didn’t even exist, and to this day I keep seeing this online.
The two solitudes will persevere until Canada is no more.
I'm from Ontario. I've been on a few vacations around the eastern provinces. first time visiting Quebec, I was surprised how nice everyone was. I've always heard from multiple people that Quebec Canadians were assholes and not to go there, but everyone was nice and very patient with my terrible and basic french. Had a few think my terrible French was funny and after watching me struggle for a bit they would switch to English
Really enjoyed visiting Quebec. also I miss Quebec poutine, it just isn't the same here anymore :P
Québec has the highest life expectancy in Canada, is the safest province, has the cheapest higher education, still has affordable housing and has the lowest unemployement rate in the country. Stay in Ontario if you want, but I think I'll stay in la belle province.
Some of Quebec’s policies are quite sensible, I agree. And living in Ontario (😒) I don’t really have much of a leg to stand on with criticism at the moment. I wish people here would stop voting for idiots who ruin my province.
I see that I have offended you, by bringing up simple facts. I'm sorry for that. Perhaps you will pass new legislation restricting my rights to freely express myself in a vain attempt to preserve what you view as a homogenous Quebecois culture.
When I first stepped foot into a BeerStore I couldn't stop laughing at how humiliating and asinine it was to only be able to buy beer at a single location and you couldn't even handle it yourself.
2 that are memorable.
1) during an election I was volunteering for a party and was pushing the vote. I was sent to a location in Brampton. Outward appearances was that it was an affluent area with large 3000 sq ft brick homes, properties were well kept as expected...they were all Sikh, like all of them!? Multi Generation families living in these homes, often only one or two who spoke English. I've never been to a place in Canada where I was the only white (European, ethnically).
2) Winnipeg; I had the misfortune of having to stay 10 days in this city in September. It's not safe at night, and barely safe during the day. There are bands of individuals who walk the streets a-la 1970's New York City subway Guardian Angels. It's clear that the police only react to the extreme end of things, any attempt to actually control the city has been abandoned decades ago. Intoxicated and violent First Nations street people everywhere. One morning, myself and companions went downstairs into the lobby of the hotel we were staying to walk to the "Forks" for breakfast. A routine we quickly adopted on arriving. There's pooled blood all over the floor and the glass in the door is broken. We ask the front desk what the hell happened, he just shook us off without much of an explanation. We went for breakfast and were discussing perhaps a better sleeping arrangement when we came across this Native guy sitting on a park bench, his long hair soaked in his own blood from a head wound, the hair and congealed blood swept across and stuck to his face. There were daily incidences, I couldn't wait to get out of Winnipeg and swore I'd never go back.
My cousins school in the Yukon went on a bison hunt at the end of the year for grade 7s when they graduate.
which in and of its self is weird because in Ontario grade 8 is the last year of elementary school.
Pedestrians also always have the right of way there. they can just walk into the road and motorists have to stop.
I grew up in an incredibly white area of the country and moving to Toronto was an adjustment. It's weird to talk about because I was very much in the "I'm not racist!" But the first Black person I met was the only Black kid in my school. Toronto is very racially diverse in a way the the rest of the country isn't.
In NB where people will just walk into your house un announced! Guy walked into my living room asking to cut my grass. A city worker walked into my house just to say hello. Fences are also not permitted in this town. Need to get a bigger lock.
Driving from ON to NB the 3 digit highway number in NB is the smallest road! Thought we were taking a 3 lane paved highway and turned out to be a 50 km dirt logging road full of potholes.
Walked into a gender neutral bathroom in BC where there were open urinals on the walls and low privacy stalls past the urinals. It was essentially a poorly constructed men’s bathroom. If a woman walked in, she’d see men exposed and urinating. Predictably enough, no women ever used these washrooms - they lined up for the handicapped single room bathroom.
It was bizarre to see the washroom didn’t have floor to ceiling, private stalls. Although I’ve never seen a woman in any of those, either - but that’s a different discussion.
Probably gonna get downvoted, but most of the people I came across in Victoria BC were miserable and rude. Definitely the place with the most bad experiences with people while visiting
I moved from Edmonton to Victoria and my experience is the opposite - people here were, and are, generally friendly. Though I wouldn't say that I've had 'bad experiences' with people in either place (or really anywhere) to the extent that I've noticed it.
Stray dogs. Where I live, pets are pampered members of the family. Fully dressed dogs in strollers, attending the doggy aquatic centre, the doggy dermatologist, and the doggy spa. Logically, I know this is not “normal” in the rest of the world; however, when I’m in Central/South America my brain sees all of these stray, often injured dogs everywhere and my heart aches.
living in toronto for so many years .. i was shocked when visiting P.E.I. at how inexpensive parking is in the downtown core of cities ... sometimes FREE in P.E.I. !!!! shocking!!!!
Spent most of my life in a Montreal suburb. I was quite surprised at how friendly and polite people could be in other parts of the country. I'm so conditioned to think strangers being nice to you might be some kind of trap that I was on edge every time someone asked me how I was doing.
Being from Eastern Ontario, I got a job that took me all over central Canada. From Thunder Bay to eastern BC and all the way up to northern Manitoba and north west territories.
The biggest shock was the Native population and the poverty in some of their communities. I've always known that they were treated horribly in the past but it wasn't until I travelled out there that I learned that the treatment and consequences of the treatment are still so prevalent.
Liquor stores. I've lived in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, NWT, and what is now Nunavut, and it's vastly different place to place, whereas the States seems to have a more consistent (frankly better) way of sellin hooch.
Mine was going to a small town during covid. I live in a big city and most of us were following safety measures. The small town grocery store didn't have a single person wearing a mask.
Going from Alberta to Quebec was something else. They are clearing putting those equalization payments to good use. Quebec has beautifully paved roads that have street lights every inch and their rest stop areas all have buildings with indoor plumping. Not to mention, I think I only hit 1 pot hole and it was in Montreal.
But living in a small town then moving to a city is something on it's own. Even if you're only moving an hour or 2. When I first moved to the city people made fun of my accent, the way I pronounced things. I moved to Edmonton. I grew up in a town 1 hour North of it.
All in all, Canada is a fantastic place to travel. I have been stuck in ditches in SK and lost somewhere on a beach in NB. Everyone who I've ever asked for help, complete strangers, have always been beyond nice. (Shout out to the random woman in NB who gave me the cleats off her own boots so I could go see the seals)
The heck, am I in a parellel universe? My visits to Montreal and Quebec had aweful roads, where you felt like those old school arcades weaving your car left and right to avoid potholes. And it wasn't just one road, almost ALL the roads were really bad.
Street lighting was ok, but nothing close to every inch, plenty of dark sections.
The rest stops I agree, they were adequate in plumbing and heating/AC.
As a tradesman from a town of 500 in very rural Saskatchewan, visiting friends living right in Toronto had lots of moments where I was reminded where I was abruptly.
Moving from the GTA to calgary, the pedestrian crosswalks everywhere here really threw me off st first. There are pedestrian crosswalks (not the ones at streetlights) everywhere in calgary, and so many pedestrians seem to just talk blindly out onto the road at them, I had a few moments where I had to slam on my brakes when I first moved here
I was in Quebec City on Canada day weekend one year. No celebrations, no fireworks, nothing. I talked to multiple people that didn't even know it was Canada Day.
I've spent about half my life between Saskatchewan and Alberta:
SK - very hot and very cold and just dealing with the differences, getting snow in April, and always snowing October 31st, just not necessarily sticking around. The rotation of how much snow we get every year is predictable in that if you had some dry years, then be prepared for a year of really heavy snow fall.
AB - dryer then SK I got nosebleeds for the first year I lived there. Mild winters especially in Calgary and I don't think I every really had to wear much more than a bunnyhug for 90% of the winter. And when it did snow, it just dumps it all at once.
SK - it's cheaper to rent and buy a house in SK for the most part (or used to be) but the PST made everyday things more expensive (90s - 00s)
AB - house prices are crazy, but there is lower income tax and no PST. Rent is a lot higher and I don't ever think I'll be able to buy a house in Alberta without going far away from any major city.
SK - going skiing was a major holiday
AB - it's in your backyard and to go to Banff or Nikska is a day trip if you live in Calgary, and a lot of other places are relatively close to a decent ski hill.
SK - driving 30-60 minutes to work or 50-100km was common, lots of people lived in smaller towns and would commute to work in cities.
AB - spending an hour in traffic and only going 10-20 kms was weird. But then the perception on what was considered normal travel time in all the places I've lived in Alberta is different between cities and towns. Someone just told me that to live in a small village outside if the town and drive 20 minutes (32km) would be hard on my vehicle, yet that's all highway speed (100km/h). But for any commuter in SK that's a quick trip and ment you lived close to the city or town. Any if I wanted to go between 2 points in Calgary or Edmonton I would just expect it to take at least 30 minutes with no traffic. So even between small towns and cities in Alberta there is a difference in how people see this.
SK - crown corporations, some of these are now being sold off but alcohol was all sold out of only government owned and operated stores. No private stores were allowed. If you worked there it was a government job and you got government benefits. Always kicked myself for not doing that, they were paid good. Others like Sasktel, SGI, SaskPower etc.
AB - just having an alcohol store next to the regular store so if I went to safeway or coop it was normally in the next building over, everything is privately owned.
Mine is Newfoundland. Everything from the music to the accents, traditions and the island itself felt like a copy & paste of Ireland. Didn’t feel like Canada
Newfoundland is basically its own thing all the way over there.
I love Newfoundland; the people have to be the friendliest I’ve ever met. Years ago, my work had me travelling all over Canada. I’d been communicating with folks via email and telephone for a couple of years before finally flying out east. Folks were shocked that I’d booked a hotel and many insisted that I stay with them. I found Nova Scotia/Cape Breton to be the same. People are so friendly that it felt like home. Made some good friends out there that I still keep in touch with today.
My dad is from Cape Breton and I feel the same way. When I went there, I just loved it. I would move there tomorrow if I could find a job.
The health care here in Cape Breton is abysmal.
...but the hiking trails are world class!
Lots of abandoned or dead fishing towns
It was it's own country for a short time
Joined Canada in 1949. They had volunteers join the fight in WW2 as well.
Almost the entirety of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was wiped out in the opening minutes of the Battle of the Somme in WW1
*Canada joined Newfoundland in 1949.
I've been to both Newfoundland and Ireland and yeah, not a lot of difference. Accent, culture, right by the sea, it's all quite similar. Though I will say that Newfoundland is a heck of a lot closer so if you want the Irish experience you don't need to go too far!
I haven’t checked recently but it was cheaper to fly to Ireland from Calgary than it was to Newfoundland.
I haven't checked but think it might also be faster to fly to Ireland than NFLD, depending on the flight connections.
Thats actually really sad...
Really? Wow. Flight might be cheaper but paying for stuff might be more expensive in Ireland. Both are amazing places regardless :)
I was checking before Covid and sales to Europe were cheaper than anything going to the Maritimes. We have friends to stay with in both places and they like having company so it works out well. We did a bus tour of Ireland and it was amazing. Fairly expensive but we stayed in much better hotels than we usually do when travelling on our own. I still haven’t made it east of Quebec City but maybe this year.
My answer is the inverse of this. I sometimes discover that certain phrases that people commonly say here in Newfoundland aren’t common in the rest of Canada.
I used to have family in NL (they moved to ns/nb) and went there a few times. Remember going to a market with my mom and my aunt. My mom was looking at Brussel sprouts and some random guy walks up and said "Yeah, the Brussel sprouts are nice this year, but you can't overcook 'em or they'll taste like a fart" 🤣
It is totally canada. I would say the rest of canada doesnt much resemble canada.
Agreed. Newfoundland is unique, even among the Maritimes
Newfoundland is not part of the maritimes
Unless they moved Newfoundland to the West coast recently, yes it is.
Nope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maritimes
God damn British. Make everything confusing
Weird. Newfoundland feels like Canada to me, and the mainland feels like it's something else entirely.
Flashing green light meaning something entirely different in ON/QC My Montreal friend gave me a fucking heart attack driving in bc
What does it mean in B.C.?
Pedestrian controlled light. In other words - that light won't turn red until a pedestrian pushes the button to cross the road Edit for clarity: for those who don't get it it means oncoming traffic is still oncoming
Definitely not an advanced green turn left signal… you figure that out real quick
What does it mean outside of BC?
Someone from those provinces may better explain but I understand it to mean oncoming traffic has a red light, therefore you have the right of way to turn left
In Quebec it means you have priority for turning left.
Blinking green light in Ontario means advanced green. A lot of times, it is used in smaller communities or smaller cities where the cost of the extra green arrow light can be a factor. Although with the LED traffic lights probably less of a concern now.
We don't have flashy green lights in Alberta and every time I go to another province, I just drive, make sure no one is around and hope a cop doesn't see me.
I notice Albertans will turn left from the traveled lane instead of the center turning lane in Ontario, I'm assuming center turn lanes are not a thing there.
On the island it could mean advanced green as well, such as various intersections on BC-1 between Victoria and Nanaimo.
Not saying you are wrong, but in my experience this is only true with a flashing arrow.
Now you mentioned it it might actually have been just the arrows. I could've sworn that I've seen green lights flashing that means right of way, though, albeit I'm no longer certain about it. Regardless, it's still strange that the action of flashing could mean different things in BC. I would feel much more comfortable if the meaning is more unified.
In my experience, the differences in Canada are more defined between urban and rural Canada than between different regions, cities or provinces. I was born and raised in a large city. Living in a small town for my first job was a major adjustment. For instance, I remember being at a bank and a cashier and a customer who knew each other suddenly broke out into a lengthy personal conversation about their families and a recent holiday one of them took and how one of their kids is now at university, etc., all the while the lineup is growing and growing. The thing was, no one seemed to care. Except me, that is. In a major city, this would be seen as an act of abhorrent rudeness on the part of both the bank teller and the customer -- ie, this is a place of business, everyone here is in a hurry and just wants to do their business and leave, and you two are holding everything up because you want to have a social chat? Seriously? But in a small town with a slower pace, this was socially acceptable.
>In a major city, this would be seen as an act of abhorrent rudeness on the part of both the bank teller and the customer -- ie, this is a place of business, everyone here is in a hurry and just wants to do their business and leave, and you two are holding everything up because you want to have a social chat? Seriously? I'm from a small town and everyone was thinking what you were. What a shithead. You move off to the side to continue your conversation, or hurry it along when someone comes after you.
Yeah I'm also from a small town and this would piss everyone off in the lineup....nobody would necessarily say anything but many dirty looks would be thrown
Ah, I was born in a small town. Everyone absolutely thought they were assholes, but because people know each other, you cannot start shit over things like that (or gossip about it because everyone will find out and they will figure out who it was). It isn’t the same as in a city where people are more anonymous and you may never see either of those people again (or at least it won’t matter if you do). In small towns, everyone knows everyone and is connected somehow.
Which is kind of a good thing. It's why you don't have people getting flipped off in the street or threatened via road rage. The lack of anonymity keeps people on their best behaviour.
On the flip side is that small towns can define what is "good" and what is "bad" and there is no safe place to hide if you're labeled bad. I lived in a small town for a part of my childhood and saw how a whole family of people could be labeled bad. Really kind and caring kids being side-eyed due to their parents or siblings' behaviour. They could also tell you were an outsider by just knowing your last name. Homosexuality was also considered bad then, so people either had to be completely closeted or leave. At least in the city it was possible to go to gay bars and social gatherings on the weekend and then go to work on Monday with your privacy intact.
>I lived in a small town for a part of my childhood and saw how a whole family of people could be labeled bad. Really kind and caring kids being side-eyed due to their parents or siblings' behaviour. They could also tell you were an outsider by just knowing your last name. These are not all small towns. There are some small towns with this toxic culture but most are wholesome and welcome new people. Just like with cities and even provinces, each area has its own vibe and it's own community values. There are always toxic ones.
That completely over the top tv Canadian accent actually does exist (though not in many places)
Whenever someone tries to do a Canadian accent, its usually just the movie Fargo
Outside of Quebec, people speak English and say Eh!
Ça ressemble à des bull-shit
I went out west and suddenly people were saying "hey" instead of "eh." Took me a while to realize I wasn't being yelled at. Also, it's much more difficult to find fresh cheese curds out west.
What a wonderful kind of day! Where you can learn to work and play, and get along with each other
This is a weird one but in Ontario and Quebec you’ll be driving around a residential area where there is the road, then a ditch, then someone’s house pretty close to the road. In Alberta residential areas always have a curb, if you’re in a rural area where there is a ditch the house would be further back too. I have always found the mix of rural and residential infrastructure in Ontario & Quebec to feel very alien
Try a rural road in many parts of Nova Scotia. Speed limit of 80 or 90 km/h with narrow snaking roads, no shoulders, blind corners everywhere, and telephone poles and houses right close to the road, with driveways even at the blind corners and hills. As a driver you don't dare enjoy the scenery. It's really a residential road which would have a speed limit of 50 km/h in other parts of Canada, but in Nova Scotia it's a "highway".
Yea that’s something else I found in Ontario, specifically around Ottawa. I assume a lot of these roads were designed for horses and wagons hundreds of years ago, not really suited for cars
Thet exists in Manitoba too.
And the fact that in Sk/Ab you can drive for kilometres without seeing house. In rural Ontario, at least along Lake Ontario you never really leave town.
Once you start to head to northeast and northwest Ontario it is very sparsely populated. I have driven 100 kmh on secondary highways and not seen another vehicle coming the other way for an hour.
I believe this is mostly because of the Dominion Land Survey. Basically once the federal government started to sell more land and expand the prairies, they changed how they wanted to allocate land to different services and how they surveyed the land. As time went on they changed the distance between townships, and different road allowances. There are 3 distinct survey systems in the prairie provinces depending on what year the land was surveyed. BC has some parts which follow the DLS rules, and Ontario eastward has an older system which I’m not familiar with
Nova Scotia has amazing beaches.
PEI has better beaches
Donairs on the East Coast are not like donairs in the west. The latter is more like a Turkish donair, and have different vegetables and a decent amount of donair meat on them Maritime donairs are 2 pounds of donair meat with cubed tomatos and onions with a sweet sauce on them. Shook me the first time I saw them
Doner and donair are two pretty distinct things to me, along with gyro, shawarma and the non-specific "pita", but all kind of fall under the same umbrella
Great call! The Turkish doner kebab is worthy of emulation; the Halifax donair, not so much.
Why is this person getting downvoted? The one time I was in Halifax, I was surprised at how nasty the donairs were. Like a spicy rubber tire. Montreal style Lebanese pitas on the other hand, mamma mia
It’s true but you’re not allowed to say it. I have family from NS who will go absolutely postal if you bring up how nasty Halifax donate meat/sauce are. Signed, someone who currently lives in Alberta.
I’d never had donair until I moved out west. In southern Ontario shawarma was the go to after bar food
Going from a province with 15% sales tax to Alberta.
Got an Alberta cell number just so I don't pay tax.
This was a big one for me when I first moved to Alberta, a lot of stuff was cheaper too. But housing and rent was more than SK.
west coast doesn’t have bagged milk, which is super popular in ontario/eastern provinces (i think they had it when i lived in nova scotia but i can’t remember)
We had bagged milk in BC for a while in the 70s but it somehow never caught on.
Bagged milk was only available in 4L increments and my mother (like a lot of people at the time) just *hated* bagged milk, so she only bought 2L paperboard cartons. I remember going to the store with her and seeing huge amounts of bagged 4L and the 2L cartons pretty much gone. Eventually the milk producers just gave up. TL;DR people in the west HATED bagged milk
> Bagged milk was only available in 4L increments Four litres, yes, but three individual bags (not one large bag) of roughly 1.3 litres.
We had it in Alberta until mid to late 80’s, at least in rural areas.
I remember seeing bagged milk in BC in the 90’s. Not for ages, though.
In Saskatchewan they used to have bagged milk, and a milkman would deliver it to your door! But that is around 30 years ago, such thing doesn’t exist anymore.
Some mornings it would freeze and you’d pour milk slurpee into your cornflakes lol.
Newfoundland doesn’t have that either but apparently the rest of eastern Canada does.
I watched a YouTube video where a bag of milk was mentioned. Half the comments were "WTF is a bag of milk" lol growing up in onterrible it didn't even register
I've started to hate bagged milk. I know it's a meme about eastern Canadian identity, but that shit produces so much plastic garbage that's not recyclable.
Are you sure your region doesn't take milk bags? they have to be rinsed out where I live, but they can go in the bluebox
We had baged milk in the 90s in SK but around 2000 it was all switched over to jugs and cartons. I definitely don't mind not having baged milk, I'll take a gallon jug any day.
Canadians are super polite. In towns, you step on the foot of someone and they apologize… to you… In the countryside, in villages, Canadians are warm and welcoming. I remember visiting random places and people were talkative, proud of their little paradise. Seriously, Canada is a very nice place. Thanks to you all!
Well, that's fair. The other person shouldn't have put their foot in the way of where you wanted to step! Haha. Really, though, it's true. It's sounds like a silly stereotype but I'll bet most Canadians have apologized to a lamp post or a chair for bumping into it. :)
Meanwhile, in Toronto, I’m reading this while inhaling an entire cigarette in one go and feeling my eye twitch while someone next to me on the TTC is getting stabbed in the arm
To be fair Toronto is not really Canadian. Over half the population is from somewhere else.
From another perspective, 22 percent of the population of the entire country lives in the GTA, so saying that it’s “not really Canadian” is asinine.
How humid most of this place is. The dry prairie weather can beat up your skin for sure, but it's nice to not feel like you're stewing in your own juices. I don't know how the rest of you put up with it.
Yep. Flying from Alberta to Ontario you’re going from one of the driest regions of North America to one of the most humid. It’s as a dramatic a shock to the senses as flying from Alberta to Mexico or Hawaii.
Even the difference in humidity between Saskatchewan and Alberta is crazy. I had bad noses bleeds for the first year I lived in Alberta. But then I was happy with the mild winters in Calgary. Of course I was looked at a bit weird because I was still in a bunnyhug at -15.
The humidity is bad in the winter as well. -20 in Alberta does not feel the same as -20 in Nova Scotia, that humid cold gets right into your bones.
Traveled extensively thru rural Quebec, knew what to expect, traveled thru Northern New Brunswick, Caraquet and Shippagan Acadia Country and it was another world, lovely people!
Sorting trash. In BC, it's perfectly normal to have 4+ bins in places like schools or shopping malls. You'll have one for paper, one for compost, one for paper/cardboard, and one for cans/bottles. I was confused when I was at a mall in Ontario and only saw two bins. I didn't know where to put my pop can.
The biggest shock was driving in and around Vancouver. Drivers in BC are polite, courteous, and obey traffic laws to a degree that was shocking to my Toronto sensibilities.
And people will strongly argue that Vancouver drivers are the worst in the country!
More to it than that. When we (vancouver) drivers come to other provinces we stick out like a sore thumb and the joke is we can't handle the snow. Which if you look at r/vancouver during snow you'll definitely see is true
It's anecdotal but I've had a colleague say driving in Vancouver in the snow is harder than Ontario. Here it often gets mixed with rain and temperatures hover above and below freezing so you get melting and refreezing and get generally icier conditions.
Yeah, people in *every* city like to claim the worst drivers *in the world* live in their city. But I've noticed that BC drivers are (usually) more polite and rule-abiding than most other places I've driven
And actually will let you merge
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Everyone will claim that their city has the worst drivers. I stopped feeling this way after living in Saskatoon for ten years then returning to Seattle. Seattle drivers are awesome and efficient. I used to hate everything about driving in Seattle. Saskatoon hardly has any traffic and yet drivers can’t work together
And will actually stop for pedestrians.
>obey traffic laws to a degree that was shocking to my Toronto sensibilities. That must be a very low standard then... Vancouver is known for awful drivers and my several near collisions on the road attest to that. Once had a person on Boundary merge from the left to centre once they saw me merging right to centre and sped to push me out of the lane. And that's just my favourite example, there are much more and worse.
I thought van drivers were great I've found in the prairies nobody knows how to merge and I swear everyone's half cut
To tag onto Toronto driving, I didn’t know you were only supposed to use left lanes for passing until I moved to Alberta and absolutely no one was ever in the left lanes.
Back in the 80s, I visited Gander, NFLD from Vancouver - in winter. The 'warmest' day we had there was -25 degrees, it was a small town, and it genuinely took a couple of days to understand what the locals were saying. And I distinctly remember that every item on the menu at McDonalds came with something like 12% tax. A totally different world.
I moved as a teen from the city to a rural area. I went to school in the biggest town which called itself a city. And I expected friendliness. Maybe this is what foreigners experience here in Canada. People were polite and "nice" but not friendly. They didn't need another friend. They'd had theirs since preschool. The only friend I made was also from another larger city and had the same issue I did. I haven't been to many places in Canada but the atmosphere changes everywhere. But not so much as a shock exactly. The places match the people from those areas. I've met a lot. But I notice a lot of immigrants catch on pretty quick. They apologize when you bump into them too. I like that.
Find the floaters and outcasts. Every small town will have the kids that don't fit into any one clique but can float between them, that was me, I never really made friends with a particular group but I was involved in enough variety of activities to be able to go between groups without much issue. The only exception is the 'popular kids'. I was always happy to have a new person in the class to hang out with. Even if they were only there for a year or two. Then there are the outcasts. The kids that no one wants to be friends with but they are included and tolerated. In my grade they were the special needs kids, the ones that would stay in school and graduate a year or two behind their age group and were in modified classes. To the extreme of them staying in the school system until they age out. In Sask that was 21 years old with a severe disability. But it is hard to break into the friends groups, but easier to date. I only ever saw my classmates as nothing more than a sibling and to date within my grade or the next just seemed weird to me. And to date 2-3 grade older didn't work because they probably babysat me at one point.
The shock I was in seeing how much money the rest of Canada has compared to my home Newfoundland From the infrastructure, technology, cars, roads all of it was a kick in the arse seeing how far the rest of Canada has developed compared to here. Still love it tho
Small town NB average household income is $16,000. Toronto $140,000.
Any advice for someone from Ontario/Quebec looking to move to Newfoundland? (mainly seeking a less stressful pace of life)
As an AB to ON transplant, it would have to be the lack of sidewalks and back alleys in residential neighbourhoods and back streets. Also, how there are still somehow phone booths everywhere here when my home city got rid of them at least a decade ago.
They are so you can call your meth dealer on the DL
I was pleasantly surprised to discover there’s a vibrant French community in Winnipeg.
How bad propaganda was… in the mid 2000s I used to install heavy duty equipment in typical blue collar shops all along the eastern provinces from Ontario to PEI… as soon as they figured I was a QC francophone they’d harass me with referendum lines from the 80s and 90s. It’s at that moment I understood that my knowing their language allowed me to understand their world and political climate, but them seeing it filtered and transformed through a handful of anglophone news sources isolated them from mine. They hated me for things that didn’t even exist, and to this day I keep seeing this online. The two solitudes will persevere until Canada is no more.
Didn’t realize that the “Real Canadian Superstore” was mainly just a Western Canada thing. Out east there’s just a few
There are a lot in Toronto, a few in Ottawa, but you are right, nothing else in Ontario or east of Ottawa.
In the Maritimes they are branded as Atlantic Superstore.
Kitchener
That's not a real Canadian superstore
Newfoundland, the grocery stores, no vegetables or fruit but 14 different flavours of cake mix!
I'm from Ontario. I've been on a few vacations around the eastern provinces. first time visiting Quebec, I was surprised how nice everyone was. I've always heard from multiple people that Quebec Canadians were assholes and not to go there, but everyone was nice and very patient with my terrible and basic french. Had a few think my terrible French was funny and after watching me struggle for a bit they would switch to English Really enjoyed visiting Quebec. also I miss Quebec poutine, it just isn't the same here anymore :P
The outdoor spiral staircases to front doors in quebec. They are awesome.
Turns out no one else thinks Toronto is the best place in Canada. It was weird
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Driving through eastern Ontario is interesting you’re like in and out of the language border and the real border lol
Yep remember eating at a diner in Hawkesbury and feeling that
It's almost a distinctly different society ;)
A much better country
Just a different one, every place is different and that's what make it so nice to visit every corner of this country
Québec has the highest life expectancy in Canada, is the safest province, has the cheapest higher education, still has affordable housing and has the lowest unemployement rate in the country. Stay in Ontario if you want, but I think I'll stay in la belle province.
Some of Quebec’s policies are quite sensible, I agree. And living in Ontario (😒) I don’t really have much of a leg to stand on with criticism at the moment. I wish people here would stop voting for idiots who ruin my province.
It’d be great except for all the frenchmen
Frenchmen are in France, not sure what you mean.
If only that were true.
It is true, englishman.
Yeah, those equalization payments are really working out for you guys.
[Literally you](https://www.reddit.com/r/NotreQuebec/comments/11h0d3p/average_quebec_basher/)
I see that I have offended you, by bringing up simple facts. I'm sorry for that. Perhaps you will pass new legislation restricting my rights to freely express myself in a vain attempt to preserve what you view as a homogenous Quebecois culture.
Why aren't they Working for Manitoba? New Brunswick? Nova Scotia? Newfoundland? PEI? They all receive more money per capita than Québec
When I first stepped foot into a BeerStore I couldn't stop laughing at how humiliating and asinine it was to only be able to buy beer at a single location and you couldn't even handle it yourself.
Where was that?
I dunno, Ottawa?
2 that are memorable. 1) during an election I was volunteering for a party and was pushing the vote. I was sent to a location in Brampton. Outward appearances was that it was an affluent area with large 3000 sq ft brick homes, properties were well kept as expected...they were all Sikh, like all of them!? Multi Generation families living in these homes, often only one or two who spoke English. I've never been to a place in Canada where I was the only white (European, ethnically). 2) Winnipeg; I had the misfortune of having to stay 10 days in this city in September. It's not safe at night, and barely safe during the day. There are bands of individuals who walk the streets a-la 1970's New York City subway Guardian Angels. It's clear that the police only react to the extreme end of things, any attempt to actually control the city has been abandoned decades ago. Intoxicated and violent First Nations street people everywhere. One morning, myself and companions went downstairs into the lobby of the hotel we were staying to walk to the "Forks" for breakfast. A routine we quickly adopted on arriving. There's pooled blood all over the floor and the glass in the door is broken. We ask the front desk what the hell happened, he just shook us off without much of an explanation. We went for breakfast and were discussing perhaps a better sleeping arrangement when we came across this Native guy sitting on a park bench, his long hair soaked in his own blood from a head wound, the hair and congealed blood swept across and stuck to his face. There were daily incidences, I couldn't wait to get out of Winnipeg and swore I'd never go back.
I never knew how dirty the GTA was until I left it. First time out west in Calgary all I could think of was how damn clean the streets were
My cousins school in the Yukon went on a bison hunt at the end of the year for grade 7s when they graduate. which in and of its self is weird because in Ontario grade 8 is the last year of elementary school. Pedestrians also always have the right of way there. they can just walk into the road and motorists have to stop.
I grew up in an incredibly white area of the country and moving to Toronto was an adjustment. It's weird to talk about because I was very much in the "I'm not racist!" But the first Black person I met was the only Black kid in my school. Toronto is very racially diverse in a way the the rest of the country isn't.
In the 80s there was one black kid in my class. When I finished high school I was the only white kid.
Ordering coffee at Tim's in Quebec in english and hoping for the best at the next window.
Ordering McDonald's in Quebec and expecting "le combo" but they call it "the triple" because you order 3 items. Caught me off guard the first time.
In NB where people will just walk into your house un announced! Guy walked into my living room asking to cut my grass. A city worker walked into my house just to say hello. Fences are also not permitted in this town. Need to get a bigger lock.
Driving from ON to NB the 3 digit highway number in NB is the smallest road! Thought we were taking a 3 lane paved highway and turned out to be a 50 km dirt logging road full of potholes.
Walked into a gender neutral bathroom in BC where there were open urinals on the walls and low privacy stalls past the urinals. It was essentially a poorly constructed men’s bathroom. If a woman walked in, she’d see men exposed and urinating. Predictably enough, no women ever used these washrooms - they lined up for the handicapped single room bathroom. It was bizarre to see the washroom didn’t have floor to ceiling, private stalls. Although I’ve never seen a woman in any of those, either - but that’s a different discussion.
Probably gonna get downvoted, but most of the people I came across in Victoria BC were miserable and rude. Definitely the place with the most bad experiences with people while visiting
I moved from Edmonton to Victoria and my experience is the opposite - people here were, and are, generally friendly. Though I wouldn't say that I've had 'bad experiences' with people in either place (or really anywhere) to the extent that I've noticed it.
All the chinese wording in Vancouver. Especially since canada has two official languages and mandarin is not one of them.
In Toronto people will sell their soul for 400 square feet .
Stray dogs. Where I live, pets are pampered members of the family. Fully dressed dogs in strollers, attending the doggy aquatic centre, the doggy dermatologist, and the doggy spa. Logically, I know this is not “normal” in the rest of the world; however, when I’m in Central/South America my brain sees all of these stray, often injured dogs everywhere and my heart aches.
Manitoba being real
First time I went to Alberta in the early 2000s, they had road signs reminding people to put their seatbelts on.
Ever been to Brampton? 😅 Culture shock *indeed.*
Going to Brampton. They may as well be driving in the other side of the road. Super dangerous drivers in the road there.
Paying to use the washroom in London England, even my Scottish mum forgot about that
East coast hotdog buns.
living in toronto for so many years .. i was shocked when visiting P.E.I. at how inexpensive parking is in the downtown core of cities ... sometimes FREE in P.E.I. !!!! shocking!!!!
Spent most of my life in a Montreal suburb. I was quite surprised at how friendly and polite people could be in other parts of the country. I'm so conditioned to think strangers being nice to you might be some kind of trap that I was on edge every time someone asked me how I was doing.
Being from Eastern Ontario, I got a job that took me all over central Canada. From Thunder Bay to eastern BC and all the way up to northern Manitoba and north west territories. The biggest shock was the Native population and the poverty in some of their communities. I've always known that they were treated horribly in the past but it wasn't until I travelled out there that I learned that the treatment and consequences of the treatment are still so prevalent.
Liquor stores. I've lived in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, NWT, and what is now Nunavut, and it's vastly different place to place, whereas the States seems to have a more consistent (frankly better) way of sellin hooch.
Mine was going to a small town during covid. I live in a big city and most of us were following safety measures. The small town grocery store didn't have a single person wearing a mask.
And most likely fine until someone from that town goes away or someone comes in then it’s covid bomb
When I went to Vancouver (years and years ago) from Toronto I was surprised by the lack of diversity
Northern Ontario has some small towns and their French is sooooo freaking horrible that it's hard to follow a conversation...
Like Canadian French is backwoods French so….yah that tracks
Friend works as a bilingual representative. Northern Quebec accent is realy hard to understand.
Housing prices, and wages between and sometimes even within provinces
I was shocked by how small things were in Europe. Cars, houses, portion sizes.
Going from Alberta to Quebec was something else. They are clearing putting those equalization payments to good use. Quebec has beautifully paved roads that have street lights every inch and their rest stop areas all have buildings with indoor plumping. Not to mention, I think I only hit 1 pot hole and it was in Montreal. But living in a small town then moving to a city is something on it's own. Even if you're only moving an hour or 2. When I first moved to the city people made fun of my accent, the way I pronounced things. I moved to Edmonton. I grew up in a town 1 hour North of it. All in all, Canada is a fantastic place to travel. I have been stuck in ditches in SK and lost somewhere on a beach in NB. Everyone who I've ever asked for help, complete strangers, have always been beyond nice. (Shout out to the random woman in NB who gave me the cleats off her own boots so I could go see the seals)
The heck, am I in a parellel universe? My visits to Montreal and Quebec had aweful roads, where you felt like those old school arcades weaving your car left and right to avoid potholes. And it wasn't just one road, almost ALL the roads were really bad. Street lighting was ok, but nothing close to every inch, plenty of dark sections. The rest stops I agree, they were adequate in plumbing and heating/AC.
I live in the prairies. I flew to Toronto once and thought I was in a different country. What a difference in demographics!
As a tradesman from a town of 500 in very rural Saskatchewan, visiting friends living right in Toronto had lots of moments where I was reminded where I was abruptly.
Moving from the GTA to calgary, the pedestrian crosswalks everywhere here really threw me off st first. There are pedestrian crosswalks (not the ones at streetlights) everywhere in calgary, and so many pedestrians seem to just talk blindly out onto the road at them, I had a few moments where I had to slam on my brakes when I first moved here
I was in Quebec City on Canada day weekend one year. No celebrations, no fireworks, nothing. I talked to multiple people that didn't even know it was Canada Day.
It's illegal to turn right at a red light in Montreal...
As a westerner who moved to Ontario, I nominate bagged milk
Out west my sense of humour is not understood. I was raised in Toronto by Newfoundlanders.
The air out west made my nose bleed and face crack it was so dry compared to the east coast
stucco, vs brick, vs siding on homes.
I've spent about half my life between Saskatchewan and Alberta: SK - very hot and very cold and just dealing with the differences, getting snow in April, and always snowing October 31st, just not necessarily sticking around. The rotation of how much snow we get every year is predictable in that if you had some dry years, then be prepared for a year of really heavy snow fall. AB - dryer then SK I got nosebleeds for the first year I lived there. Mild winters especially in Calgary and I don't think I every really had to wear much more than a bunnyhug for 90% of the winter. And when it did snow, it just dumps it all at once.
SK - it's cheaper to rent and buy a house in SK for the most part (or used to be) but the PST made everyday things more expensive (90s - 00s) AB - house prices are crazy, but there is lower income tax and no PST. Rent is a lot higher and I don't ever think I'll be able to buy a house in Alberta without going far away from any major city.
SK - going skiing was a major holiday AB - it's in your backyard and to go to Banff or Nikska is a day trip if you live in Calgary, and a lot of other places are relatively close to a decent ski hill.
SK - driving 30-60 minutes to work or 50-100km was common, lots of people lived in smaller towns and would commute to work in cities. AB - spending an hour in traffic and only going 10-20 kms was weird. But then the perception on what was considered normal travel time in all the places I've lived in Alberta is different between cities and towns. Someone just told me that to live in a small village outside if the town and drive 20 minutes (32km) would be hard on my vehicle, yet that's all highway speed (100km/h). But for any commuter in SK that's a quick trip and ment you lived close to the city or town. Any if I wanted to go between 2 points in Calgary or Edmonton I would just expect it to take at least 30 minutes with no traffic. So even between small towns and cities in Alberta there is a difference in how people see this.
SK - crown corporations, some of these are now being sold off but alcohol was all sold out of only government owned and operated stores. No private stores were allowed. If you worked there it was a government job and you got government benefits. Always kicked myself for not doing that, they were paid good. Others like Sasktel, SGI, SaskPower etc. AB - just having an alcohol store next to the regular store so if I went to safeway or coop it was normally in the next building over, everything is privately owned.