On the easiness of living in Quebec (essay)
Montreal or Quebec City? Quebec City if you like old school. Montreal if you like bagels and smoked meat.
I have been in Quebec for already 2 weeks. I’ve been living in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, from 2012 to now.
I am originally from Quebec but moved seven years ago to pursue other dreams.
I “retired” a few weeks ago (in the sense that, from now on, I’ll work for me, and not for someone else). I drove back to Quebec to repack my life, leave a bunch of stuff at my parents’ place, and plan a new future.
With that being said, I cannot believe how easy and how good life is in Quebec. People are friendly and chill: not stressed (unlike Ontario) and not overly obsessed with work (unlike Alberta), or depressed (unlike the Yukon) or druggies (unlike BC). They like good food, they like good company, they like good cars (they are the cheapest in Canada!).
The Quebecois lives at a different pace than the rest of Canada. Quebec feels like a big family, it really does.
People are simple: it doesn’t take much to have fun, or to impress. In Ontario, you need a Lambo and a villa in the Bahamas to impress the folks. In BC, you need a Lambo and two villas. But in Quebec, the mere fact of driving an old BMW E46 2004 will get you looks and praises wherever you go.
But it’s more than that: people are content with what they got. That’s the true wealth.
Quebec offers free health care and the cheapest university tuition fees of any provinces. You can get a bachelor degree for less than $12 000CAD (3 years). Rent is cheap. One can rent a house for $600-1200CAD a month, and a room for way less.
The average quebecois want a simple, normal life: having two weeks of holidays during Christmas, two weeks of vacation during the summer, and go hiking/drink by a river during the weekend.
Where in Alberta the average Joe works 88 hours a week, your average Joe works 35 hours a week, and there’s something good into that I suppose.
Classic Quebec’s scenery: houses by a river.
A 350m high hill in southern Quebec. People refer to that as a mountain.
A normal road in Quebec.
Having a beer by the side of a river in Quebec.
But the rest of Canada isn’t bad… it’s still the fucking best:
Why Canada is ridiculously good to live in:
You can get money from the bank without even getting out of your car: there are drive-thrue.
You can get all the food you want 1) delivered to you 2) through a drive-thrue.
People trust you: you can put gas in your car BEFORE paying for it, still in many places.
You can ask for help to anyone (change a tire, or directions.)
Many people never lock their houses or their cars (I left my Jeep’s key on the dash for years…)
Everything is so cheap. Cosco and SuperFood (and Super C in Quebec) sell food for less than the country where it is produced sell it for locally. Everything is cheap and easy to get by.
Amazon. Want something? Amazon-it. Some cities have a One-Day shipping (to your door) options. For $80 a year, you get free shipping. Need AA batteries? Amazon. Need a pen? Amazon. Need a new iPad? Amazon.
Electronics are so cheap. You can use a website like Kijiji (like craiglist in the USA) to find used items. Bargains are made.
Cars are cheap! You want your dream car? You can have it for pennies in Canada. A Mercedes-Benz S550 2010-2012 can be found for as less as $20k CAD – and banks are willing to finance you for 4.9% often, on 48 months. Make the math. For about $500 a month, you get to roll in a S-Class.
Cheap fuel. $1.00 to $1.20CAR for regular. 66% less than Uruguay, for example.
You can forget something valuable in a coffee shop and someone will take it so nobody steals it: they will try to find your contact info and find you on Facebook.
Cheap flight to any destinations worldwide. Fly from YVR, YUL or YVZ and the world is yours.
Food. Restaurants. Cultures. Canada has so many different cultures… You can find excellent food (for cheap) from anywhere in the world, right at home. Lebanese restaurants, Vietnamese restaurants, Ethiopian restaurants and Italian restaurants are my favourite.
Stable currency. The CAD is awesome. It always hovers around $1USD to $1.20-1.30CAD: it is easy to travel with CAD.
Non-greediness of people. People will lend you their truck, their tools, their things, for free.
Cheap houses! You can have a heck of a farm for $200k CAD. You can have a house for as cheap as $30k CAD.
Friendly people. I cannot state that enough. I can make friend anywhere in a city in Canada. People are just willing to engage with you. Toronto, Kitchener, Montreal, Calgary.
East Coast is friendlier (by a wide-margin) but has a lesser economical engine. West Coast is best coast, but one can feel that people are more driven by greed, where the East Coast is relationship driven.
Quebec’s official mammal.
The best beer in Canada is actually made in a small town (Saint-Hyacinthe), in the province of Quebec.
