May 2, The tales of two cities.
Visiting two of the largest cities in Canada provided an interesting contrast. While Montreal clung tightly to its French-Canadian heritage, Toronto has long become a hodge-podge of skin hues and international languages. Since 1969, the province of Quebec passed a series of laws--Bills 63, 22, and 101--culminating in the Charter of the French Language, which mandated French as its official language. Even English, the other official language, was hard to come by during my time in Montreal. In Toronto, or rather Markham a northern suburb where I spent much of the first two days, I felt that I had been teleported back to Hong Kong, Taiwan or (for worse or better) Fremont, CA. Entire shopping centres were blanketed in Chinese signs. It seemed that every face I saw had brown eyes and black hair. I suppose the common theme here was that you did not need English to survive in either city, but that was not the point here. From what I have gathered, that since the passage of the Quebec act, many immigrants such Chinese have chosen to either move or settle in provinces other than Quebec, such as Ontario and British Columbia. Both cities have their own charm, depending on whether you prefer your foie gras with duck comfit or Peking duck. On a more serious note however, I do know it is more difficult for the French-speaking universities in Quebec to recruit international students and researchers. While broken English is the international language of science, the French empire has not seen its best days in 150 years. Of course, Montreal is still striving in its own right. Canada would not be the same without Quebec. Quebec City is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, and how many cities on the continent could claim that?
posted by hedgehog @ 2:48 PM
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