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'G 36 THE RURAL VOICE / OCTOBEP 1982
ONE MAN'S OPINION
Traveling in Quebec
When we left on our trip to La Belle Province, I was a little
apprehensive. After all, most people who have been there have
some scary tale to tell.
Those Quebec drivers are all crazy. They pass on curves and
hills as if it is a straight stretch of road, 1
was warned.
I had nightmares in which suddenly a
big car came roaring over a hill, aiming
his gleaming radiator right at me, with me
petrified because to my right was a deep
steep mountainside and to my left a big
truck. 1 never found out how it turned out
because I always woke up before I got hit.
The reality was that most Quebec
highways are narrower than the Ontario
ones, and have also narrower shoulders.
To be on the safe side, most centre lines
are solid, denoting no passing. A slow vehicle ahead can soon
cause a long file of cars to form. So on a straight piece of road, a
motorist in a hurry can often safely pass, even if the line is a solid
one.
The first day back in Ontario 1 had more cars passing me on the
solid line than in the whole eighteen days in Quebec.
"Those French all speak perfect English but they won't speak
it to you. They just turn around and walk away from you", was
the next preparation.
Maybe it happened to them. Who am I to doubt their word?
But we had no trouble at all. My French is, at best, rather
primitive and on several occasions my French was answered
helpfully in English.
One fellow camper complained he was unable to converse with
the local people. After listening to him for half an hour, I wished
I could use the same tactics, but by then it was too late. What was
remarkable was that last year he and his wife had visited Mexico
and his wife had taken a three-month course in Spanish before
they left. I asked him politely why she hadn't done the same in
preparation for the trip to French Canada, at which he left me in
peace.
1 must admit that at first I was not impressed by the hospitality
of the people there, but then I realized that the same can be said
of every tourist area in any country. Does anyone of us go up to a
camper, regardless of the licence plate, and say sweetly "Hello
there, welcome to our county. Is there anything I can do for
you?" Of course not, but we seem to expect something of the sort
away from home. It appears to me we have heard too many tales
like the passing on hills and refusal to speak English. Many can't
speak English you know, and they are not about to go to school
to learn it to please English speaking tourists.
Much of the distrust of the other Canadians is obviously based
on prejudice and ignorance of the real facts. This applies to
French as well as to English Canadians. This can only be
overcome through goodwill from both sides of the language
barrier.
The farm support program of the Quebec government is the
best in the country, but with the poor stony ground farming there
is built on, and higher taxes like the gasoline tax, they need it
more than we do. We should applaud the Quebec government for
recognizing the needs of the farmer much better than has been
traditional in Ontario, and we should demand from our own
provincial government the same treatment the Quebec farmer
receives from his, instead of the other way around.