If you are from Russia, China, the U.S., Brazil or Argentina, you may skip the article. You’re big too. But if like me, you grew up in a relatively small country, I’m sure you will agree—Canada is huge.
At school, I learned that the three largest countries in the world were Russia (and at the time, the USSR was larger than current-day Russia!), Canada and China. As a kid, it was hard to comprehend how big these territories actually were. But as a new Canadian, the country immediately struck me as humongous.
I had only heard of two cities when I landed in Canada—Montreal and Toronto. I ended up in Ottawa, conveniently located about halfway between the two. On the map, these cities looked really close to each other… until I realized that from Ottawa, driving to Toronto took five hours, and to Montreal two hours. Clearly, I wasn’t going to visit Churchill anytime soon—I couldn’t even imagine how long it would take to get there.
Driving across France from north to south takes about ten hours. And it’s not like the French actually do it. Too far, too long of a trip. But Canadians seem to enjoy driving from the East Coast to the West Coast and from the West Coast to the East Coast just for the sake of it, even though it takes days. Different perspectives, I guess.
That said, Canadians’ daily commute to work is also pretty impressive. A lot of folks choose to live in the far suburbs because it’s quieter and cheaper, and it’s not rare for people to drive 20, 30 or 40 kilometres to work. I even know people who live in Montreal and commute to Ottawa!
At first, living in a country that has different time zones felt strange too. Canada has six:
Newfoundland Time, Atlantic Time, Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time and Pacific Time. France has one (Central European Time) and as the name says, it shares it with a bunch of countries such as Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany… and even Poland. Having different time zones has its perks. For instance, it comes in handy if you want to watch a rerun of a show on TV. But it can be a pain if you work in a call centre based on the East Coat that also deals with Vancouver because it means staying at work well past 5 p.m. to reach the West Coast.
Speaking about media… France has very little regional programming—no need to, it’s well known that Paris is the centre of the civilized world. So if you buy a national newspaper, such as Libération, most news will be about the capital even if you live kilometres away. And don’t even get me started about weather forecasting! In Canada, we have The Weather Network, a serious and accurate channel with in-depth analysis for each city, town and township across the country, including places where no one actually lives. In France, weather forecasting is wrapped up in five minutes or less with these kinds of comments: “the North, kind of rainy; the South, kind of sunny, Paris 15°C with a low of 14°C.” You don’t live in the North, the South or in Paris? Too bad. Open the window and check for yourself.
The French like to pick on regional differences within the country (those in the South have an accent and exaggerate everything, those in the North are moody and boring etc.) But the truth is, after living in Canada, I find France has a remarkably homogenous population. The same can’t be said for Canada. There is a real cultural difference between provinces. Whenever I read a Quebec newspaper, I’m completely lost. Who are these politicians? How come I’ve never heard of that movie? And we are a neighbouring province! Some would argue that it’s a perfect example of the “Quebec exception” and that the French-speaking province is just misunderstood. But I feel the same cultural difference with the other provinces as well. I don’t know what makes Saskatchewan rock, and I don’t know the name of the local stars in P.E.I.
Each province has its own government, set of rules, laws, service providers and makers and doers. It can be quite confusing at first when you grew up in a country with a very centralized government, like France. For instance, in Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta, the legal drinking age is 18 while in the rest of the country, it’s 19 (which doesn’t really matter in Ottawa, where teens cross the bridge to get drunk in Quebec).
Overall, I find living in a big country is pretty interesting. Sure, it has downsides: for instance, travelling can be expensive (flying to Vancouver is typically more expensive than flying to Europe!). But you can easily find a province or a city that fits you, and the cultural mix is refreshing. I sometimes hear stories about immigrants who didn’t like Quebec, Ontario or whatever province they settled in, and who headed back home. I always feel sorry for them because moving to another province might have been what they needed. That’s the perk of living in a huge country! There is enough room for all of us.
So, how do you feel about living in a big country?
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I get mad at the TV every morning because they don’t tell us anything about the weather in Paris, they just say it’s 0° in Lille, 17° in Ajaccio and 5° in some town! Err, guys you forgot the frigging capital! I guess they do it so that the Province does not complain that it’s always about Paris.
But I feel cheated because it might be snowing in the suburbs while it’s raining in Paris and you won’t know about it because it’s in one big blob on the map!
So here it is, a Canadian rant about the weather forecast in France. How can you live without a weather channel!
I’m kind of addicted to weather forecasting now too, as a Canadian. I even have the weather on my BlackBerry–first app I installed!
In France, the funny thing is, even if I don’t do a lot of kilometres, I always feel the big changes in the atmosphere, the landscapes, even the climate, the culture… So I admit I don’t see much differences between travelling in big countries like Canada or small ones such mine, apart for the thousand miles more!
I see what you mean! France (and Europe in general) does pack a huge variety of landscapes. But I feel the same in Canada, i.e. even Ontario is quite different from one place to another.
Yes it’s true! I’ve barely been anywhere else than Québec, but when you drive to the US frontier, you can see lots of different landscapes… I love that. Damn, how much I love Canada! By the way, breaking news, I decided we’re going to do our working holiday visa in Ottawa, in a couple of years. Aller hop, c’est décidé !
Oh vraiment? Une petite ottawaienne de plus? Cool! 🙂
I am surprised by what you said about French newspapers. Here in Italy the newspaper I read (Repubblica, I think you can find it in Canada as well) has the last pages focused on the capital of the region you live in. I live near Milan, so it’s about that city, but if you would be in Piedmont you would read news about Turin, and so on. I thought it was the same in the entire Europe 🙂
Maybe it’s just me but I find Le Monde and Libération (the two papers I read the most in France) very Paris-centric!
Maybe because we have a culture of quite powerful regional papers ? Like Le Progrès, Ouest France, La dépêche du midi…
Could be that! I forgot these regional newspapers actually! In Nantes, we had Ouest France and Presse Océan, that’s true.
During 2010, I worked on a ranch in Canada, and we’d often get a handful of European students coming through on a gap year to visit/volunteer while traveling.
I always gave a little smile when they mentioned their plans to cross all of Canada in a week’s time. It’s just not possible size wise unless you rush… not to mention all the different experiences across the different provinces.
Russia is another example of a fantastic array of cultures, languages, religions, politics…etc. that often do not cross regional borders. The Russia that we hear about in the news is so insanely different and removed from much of the country side, especially the far east and Siberia.
That’s funny, and I think I heard it before from Europeans! It’s hard for us to grasp how big Canada is. As for Russia… there is a world between Moscow and Vladivostok, that’s for sure!
Love it – such a vast, beautiful country.
It would take a lifetime (or two, or three… ) to see it all!
And it would take more nice weather too!
India is interestingly big too. We even have different languages for each state sometimes, its like a whole new world a few hours in every direction!
I can imagine! The only thing I know about India is food and it’s quite different depending on the regions apparently. Like China, I guess.
I read somewhere that they’re getting rid of the sixth time zone (St. John’s), but now I can’t find it mentioned anywhere… was it just my imagination??
It’s mind-boggling to people in other countries when I tell them we have six time zones. It wreaks havoc during elections, too, because polling stations are still open in the west when they begin counting early results in the east.
There are lots of political and logistical challenges presented for trying to unify a country this big, with its regional differences, uneven distribution of population across vast distances, natural resources unique to each province, etc. The North, the West, Prairies, East, Atlantic provinces — each has their own culture, industry, stores, and not to mention weather! It’s no wonder the national identity is often a topic of debate.
Canada’s a very young country (Newfoundland only became part of the country in 1949), so we’re still growing into the space.
You are right! I do find Canadians slightly obsessed with defining themselves as a nation but I guess it’s a challenge when you have such a big territory.
And the first time I was in Canada, I was puzzled as to how you guys organized elections, because of the time zones!
There’ nothing could I wish for when I visit the beautiful place of Canada… This coming vacation I prefer to spent my moment at the 2nd time in that lovely places…