Exploring QUEBEC CANADA with Trevor Kjorlien

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Let's explore Quebec with @PlateauAstro! In today's podcast we'll cover the geography of Canada's largest province, but also its unique history with its French origins. And finally, as usual, we'll talk all about what YOU should do when you inevitably go visit!

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Find Trevor around the internet:

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Find Geoff around the internet:

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#podcast

[chayalaf]

I'm a québécois from Gatineau, and I appreciate the effort put into this video but like said in other comments, there's too much information missing for me to considered it a good summary. I really like that you brought Trevor along because a lot of Montrealers are expats and they bring a different point if view than a french québécois person but I think, especially for this video, you should have brought a third person that is a french Canadian youtuber. If you ever decide to do another video on Quebec, bring back Trevor but with a french Canadian person so they can share the two perspectives. Quebec history and tge Canada history are so intertwined that you cant really separate them, and I say that as a born french Canadian.

Historically, I would have liked you to cover the fact that Montreal was Canada's capital city for a bunch of the Canadian history and that Ottawa is a fairly recent capital and the fact that it sit so close to the Quebec border has its importance Historically.

Tourism wise - if you want to have to full Quebec experience, I would suggest a road trip that starts in Sherbrooke, goes to Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec then end in the Charlevoix region. Definitely during summer. Having said that, if you visit during the winter, Quebec city and Charlevoix are a must. Québec has a huge festival called Le festival de Québec with a winter parade and lots of interesting winter activity. Charlevoix has a unique geography amongst the province of Québec that has amazing natural features.

During the winter, there's also amazing forests skatering one of the most famous is the Domaine Enchanteur or the Domaine de la forêt perdue which is 15 km long in nature not too far from Montreal.

More on geography, the largest portion of the Quebec population centers sits at the bottom of an old fresh water sea, the Champlain sea. Which makes the Saint-Laurent bassin one of the most fertile land in eastern Canada and a huge part of the reason why so many of its population lives there (aside if course the climate and the economic importance of the Saint-Laurent river)

There's of course so many other facts we could talk about but I think that a french speaking Canadian would have been able to bring to this discussion.

Again, good effort but I was left a bit disappointed.

[yodorob]

I'm a proud Montrealer, born and raised there and still living there to this day at the age of 42. I have a few things to point out from my experience or musings:

1. In my part of Montreal that is mainly English-speaking, and it is an Anglo bubble for the most part, the stop signs used to say ARRÊT STOP but now they only say STOP just like in North America outside Quebec (in contrast to most other areas of Quebec in which there's only ARRÊT). It does have to be pointed out that that area is officially bilingual, just like New Brunswick, Ottawa, and the Canadian federal government and unlike Quebec as a whole. On another point, in various indigenous communities like among the Cree of the James Bay area, the stop signs are in the appropriate indigenous language as well as in English and/or French.

2. Alaska is actually a little larger than Quebec, Alaska being 665, 384 sq. miles (1, 723, 337 sq. km.) as opposed to Quebec being 595, 391 sq. miles (1, 542, 056 sq. km.).

3. The highest point in Quebec outside the Torngat Mountains along the northern Quebec-Labrador boundary is Mont Jacques-Cartier in the western part of the Gaspé Peninsula, which is basically the northernmost part of southern Quebec. It stands at 1, 268 m (4, 160 ft) high.

4. Just as Quebec (along with the Acadian communities in places like New Brunswick) is a French "island" in the great English "sea" of Canada or really North America in general, so too Finland (along with Estonia) is a Finno-Ugric (non-Indo-European) "island" in the Scandinavian and Russian (both of these being Indo-European) "sea" that is northern and northeastern Europe.

5. Even the Anglo areas of Quebec, such as my general section within Montreal, feel very different from Canada outside Quebec, and that's certainly even more true of the French areas of Quebec. I'm not just talking about the influence of French; I'm talking even in terms of vernacular housing architecture and things like that.

6. It's even better yet, weather-wise, to visit Quebec in the late spring or early fall - cooler weather than in the dog days of summer but nowhere near as cold as in the dead of winter.

[cstephen]

I remember my dad telling me, when he was a teacher discussing the English/French language issue (back in the 50's), he thought that *all* schools should implement full immersion, English are taught in French and visa versa until grade 6. That that age, language is easy to learn and you would have a fully fluent, bilingual population and then kids could decide whether to continue immersion or switch back to their native language for the upper-level courses. They thought he was crazy to promote true bilingualism.

[raymondmartin]

My wife and I went to Quebec last in
2008 for the 400th anniversary of
Samuel de Champlain there in 1608.
We stayed in Quebec City, the Loews
Concorde by the Plains of Abraham
with a revolving restaurant and the
Hotel Queen Elizabeth in Montreal
near Dorchester Square on Blvd de
Levesque, and I speak some French
which helped, though most speak
English too in Montreal City than
in Quebec City.
Being born in London, UK, in WWII,
1944, my Father served in Canada
in the war, 1940 to 1943, at Farnham,
Sherbrooke, Quebec City, and Halifax,
for Dominion Engineering.
My Uncle was there too, being from
Germany they were enemy aliens,
in UK, sent to work in Canada.
My Mother, being Swiss was not sent
away.
We came to NYC in 1949 on the Queen
Mary, now located in Long Beach, CA.
Been to Canada many times.
1967 Expo in Montreal, Expo 86 in
Vancouver, by car from NY state.
My wife and I went to the Atlantic
Provinces, New Brunswick, PEU,
and Nova Scotia in 2004 to.
A Votre Sante. Aurevoir.😊

[altarique]

Quebec is a beautiful province of Canada .. I lived there for a year in 1994and learnt little bit of French .. love Quebec from. BUFFALO New York

[spencerturcotte]

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Trevor a couple times since I have been living in Montreal and he is genuinely so wholesome. What he does, he does because he loves it and truly cares about educations others that want to learn more! I think Trevor is a great ambassador of Montreal!!! Merci Geoff and Trevor!

[Alex_Plante]

In Canada we do not use the terms "East Coast" and "West Coast". By far the two largest provinces are Ontario and Quebec, and the southern parts of those provinces are the historic central core of the country, so those two provinces are referred to as "Central Canada". The 4 small provinces to the east are referred to as "Atlantic Canada", and the 4 provinces to the west as "Western Canada".

[LeQuebecaPied-tske]

Always love when anglophones pronounce it Kay-Bec (properly) instead of Qweh-Bec (anglicized). Love the content 🖤

[rogernoel]

I’m a subscriber from Montréal and huge fan of the channel. I recognize the valiant effort put in to prepare this piece on Québec. Your outline was spot on. I was a bit disappointed nonetheless with some of the explanations given. For example, why is Québec predominantly French? The survival of the French language is tied to the Catholic Church and the class structure. Historically, French was the language of pesants, the working class and petty bourgeoisie. It became the language of emancipation of a people in early 1960s with the Quiet revolution: the Church of striped of its powers, secularism set in and a Québec welfare state was formed, giving rise to a Québécois entrepreneurial class (known as “Quebec inc”). It wasn’t until the early 1970s that French became Quebec’s official language

[streetcreature]

I've visited both Montreal and Quebec City. I preferred Old Quebec City because it is walkable on foot and is compact. Beautiful architecture and a wealth of unique shops and restaurants. Montreal is much heavier in traffic and can be a bit overwhelming because of the density of people and the large size of the city. My inspiration for visiting Quebec City was a friend who was a travel agent. When I asked her what was the most beautiful place that she's visited in North America... and she said Quebec City. So I visited in 2015, and it was amazing.

[shelleyhender]

I really enjoyed this episode! It’s interesting to hear from a Canadian, as the fine details and nuances are often missed, and the typical clichés are regurgitated. Not all of us live around the border, nor are we a frozen tundra state…just ask the Inuit and others living in northern Quebec, Labrador, Yukon, Nunavut, and the N.W.T.
It’s true French is the official language in Quebec, but many of my family living in New Brunswick remind visitors that both English and French are official languages in the province.
I hope ALL Canadians take the opportunity to visit all the beautiful provinces in our glorious country. Sure, it is expansive, but that means we are blessed with multiple diverse cultures, languages, food. One cannot forget the exquisite landscapes, three bountiful oceans teaming with life, and our land supports wildlife that are diverse and plentiful…all of which makes being Canadian a special privilege…as so many emigrants and tourists remind us.

Thank you again, for this unique episode. I am certain you will find willing participants from all the other provinces and territories to join you in future episodes. It would be fascinating to hear perspectives from locals of other countries, as there is nothing like hearing from individuals who live in said place of origin.

Everyone have an wonderful summer!

Cheers!🇨🇦

[Martin-kcxj]

Haha, another confirmation that Montreal is indeed the soul searching capital of the world. Every year, thousands upon thousands of people in their early 20s feel a need to get out, to have new experiences and find themselves... and they all move to Montreal. Beautiful, culturally diverse and festive, chaotic and fairly affordable for what it is, with a gigantic student population. You can kind of be whatever you want to be here... you can step outside your boundaries and not feel alienated. Regardless of what you do, someone is doing something crazier around you.

[stephanebriand]

I had just turned 18 years of age (legal voting age in Canada) when the referendum went down in 1995. Living in Gatineau we didn't want to separate since Ottawa was so close to us and many of its residents actually worked in Ottawa but being a French speaking Quebecois I understood where they were coming from and yes we most definitely think of ourselves as a unique culture within Canada. I would even argue that we believe we have more in common with the French (from France) than English speaking Canadians.

[LouismarieBelanger]

Sorry in 1995 the difference was 0.32% at the referendum. In the fifties, in Quebec city (99% french speaking at that time) I knew a man working at the Anglo-Canadian pulp and paper Company that applied on a foreman job . He was the most experienced man in his department and respected by fellow workers. He was denied the job because he wasn't speaking english. That's one reason why we are defending french and we have a law making french the language at work. Nobody can ask you to work in english.

[LouismarieBelanger]

In Québec city, in the lower part we ha buildings that were build in the 17th century. In Winter we have the "Carnaval de Québec" since 1954. I would suggest that fall season is gorgeous tree leaves are changing color it's incredible.

[Oxmustube]

I have the most insane road trip to suggest; drive from Kagaska to Waskaganish.

It'll take 21h30 hours non stop and you'll be able to dip your toe in the Atlantic at the start (gulf) and in the arctic (Hudson's Bay) at arrival.

[michelricher]

I visited Old Quebec a few times and the old port in Montreal. It’s very different, I personally prefer old Quebec but that’s just me. I’m going this weekend to old quebec to the renaissance fair, I use to go a lot as a kid and still always love going

[Rosiecats]

Northern Québec is known for hydro electric dams and mining. Mostly around James Bay.

[philpaine]

Apart from the Canadarm and all the Canadian astronauts, few people know that the bottom portion of the Lunar Lander (the part that actually touched the surface of the Moon) was designed and built in Canada ---- by Héroux-Devtek of Longueuil, Quebec.
I am a French Canadian, born in Ontario, in the biligual northern part of the province, and educated in French-language Ontario schools. I am a historian specializing in democratic institutions, and in Metis and First Nations Canadian history.
The discussion of the Rebellion of 1837 here is somewhat misinformed. The rebellion was not about religion or about language. It was about democracy. The rebellion occurred simultaneously in predominantly French-speaking Lower Canada (Quebec) and in predominantly English-speaking Upper Canada (Ontario), and the two movements were linked and co-ordinated. Lower Canada was controlled by a corrupt elite called the Chateau Clique and Upper Canada was controlled by an identical elite called the Family Compact. There were elected offices and representative institutions, but these were effectively hogtied by these elites. The leaders of the rebellion (William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada and Louis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada) were both concerned primarily with breaking the power of those elites and establishing genuinely democratic institutions. In both cases, this involved full civil rights for all citizens, and effectively independent self-government from Britain. For example, the rebels demanded full equality for First Nations and the end of legal discrimination against Jews, as well as suffrage without property qualifications. English-speakers fought alongside French-speakers in the rebellion. The rebels were defeated ---- the British had only to send some crack professional troops to defeat rebel forces that were mostly untrained farmers armed with squirrel rifles. Papineau and Mackenzie fled to the U.S, (and eventually returned to assume elected offices). But in the immediate aftermath of the failed rebellion, two reform leaders emerged (Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine in Lower Canada and Robert Baldwin in Upper Canada) who joined together [literally living in the same house with their families] to create an intellectual basis for democracy that ultimately resulted in the creation of Canada as a self-governing Confederation in 1867. The future these two men envisioned was of a nation with two languages and a secular government without aristocratic privilege. Lafontaine wrote of a future where immigrants could come from around the world to form a tolerant, free and democratic Canadian society. Both colonies were already multi-ethnic. It was NOT an "ethnic nationalist" rebellion in either colony.

[jmcyncousineau]

I am lucky to be in the Ottawa area. So a couple hours from Montreal. I go there 2 or 3 times per year for whatever reason.

Quebec city is very nice and a must to visit in NA. For sure the Citadel portion of Quebec you can visit 2 or 3 days, but there is so much other stuff to do in the area - Ile D'Orléans, Chutes Montmorency... there is enough in the area to spend a week there. For sure if you are a skier, Winter is the best time to visit Quebec. There are several very good downhill skiing options, some beautiful cottages to rent, snow shoeing, dog sledding...

For sure Montreal is the most international city in Quebec which is much more vibrant.

Great cast! Can't wait until you make one on Ontario!