Port Profiles | Portipedia

If there is one phrase that characterizes Quebec, it is ‘et pourquoi pas?’ The phrase, which translates to ‘and why not?’ seems to be on the tip of every Quebecer’s tongue. It is a ready response of permissiveness and tolerance, a defender of an important concept — the joie de vivre or ‘joy of living’ — that is alive and thriving in Quebec. Continue Reading »

A bartender at Quebec City’s fashionable L’EChaude restaurant expresses mock indignation when a visitor asks how Quebec’s capital compares with the province’s largest city, Montreal. ‘They are not truly French,’ the bartender says, conveniently overlooking the fact that as a Canadian, neither is he. ‘In Montreal, people speak French 50, maybe 55, percent of the time.’ He steps back from the bar and folds his arms to proclaim, ‘Here, we speak French 95 percent of the time.’

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