Are Quebeckers and Americans the same people?

Question

I'm an Anglo Montrealler, and as my family and colleagues claim that "Quebecois" are Canadian, of French origin, and unique......I say we and Americans (East Coasters anyway) are the exact same people. Many American tourists, French expats and other Canadians beg to differ but I discount them.

Canada is a British country founded by the English. Quebec was historically a British/Irish/Jewish stronghold. Montreal is a global melting pot like New York City (very similar demographics and politics), nobody speaks French here. In fact, speaking French here could result in you getting punched in the face.

People in Quebec don't even eat snails, baguettes, croissants, poutine (it's actually made in Ontario and based on chips w/gravy in the UK) or drink wines....we eat normal food like cheeseburgers, nachos, subs, pizza, fried chicken, hot dogs, pop, beer, etc.

I do love hockey, but I don't even support the Habs, I support a variety of American NHL teams like the Flyers, Bruins, Islanders, Sabres, Devils, penguins, etc. I own a jersey from each of those teams.

So in short: ROC is British in culture, Quebec is America somehow taking a French language course.

Any thoughts?.....

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Quebeckers are Quebeckers Period. French origin and damn proud of it.  They keep their language and heritage alive in Quebec.
Not American in any sense. Canadien.Because of the large concentration of French Speaking Canadians they got the Canadian Government to force BiLingualism on the Federal Government Employees and French is the Official Second Language of Canada.  So all boxes have to have ingredients written in both languages on the packaging.  I learned some French in school and never use it because I am in the British part of the Country.  So Quebec is French/English and pretty well everywhere else it is English/French so 9 provinces and 3 territories are basically English first language and basically just Quebec is French is first language.  I don't go to Quebec, nor plan to do so in the near future.  A good portion of the population is in Quebec and the central government is in Quebec.
It is not even "true French"  Quebec french is Quebec.  Most of the rest of Canada learn Paris French. Close but no cigar.
.  It is a strange Union, but it works.  There are too many people that are neither French or English, but their mother tongue is something else...German, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, hardly any Spanish.  Spanish stayed in the far south of the U.S.
 It is a weird arrangement but Canadians have hung together despite this language and cultural differences.

? · Answer

quebec troll... idiot

capitalgentleman · Answer

I am not convinced you have ever even been in Montreal.  You certainly seem to know virtually nothing about it.

Anonymous · Answer

A thought:  Canada was founded by the French and ceded to Britain after the Seven Years War (1763).  Today's Canada is splintered in three parts.  British Columbia has almost no relationship with central Canada which has almost no relationship with anything on the other side of the Canadian Shield.  The country is barely linked by infrastructure and almost all Canadians live near the US border.   Alberta is the only province with a net income and Alberta is extremely connected to the United States.  The Canadian Supreme Court has already ruled that secession is legal.  When Alberta goes, the rest of Canada will wither.

ANDRE L · Answer

Nothing other than this:

Are Quebeckers and Americans the same people?

5 Answers