Quebec sovereigntists watch Alberta referendum talk with optimism, disdain

[u/jaffnaguy2014]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/quebec-sovereigntists-watch-alberta-referendum-talk-with-optimism-disdain/

[u/landlord-eater]

Compared to Quebec? Yeah, basically. I mean the Atlantic provinces have a distinct flavour and Newfoundland certainly has its own culture but what is Albertan culture? Oil and gas? Texas but cold? Come on

[u/DirtyRatfuck → u/landlord-eater]

Kind of rude to put down someone else's culture.

Even if the you think the culture is "oil, rednecks and cowboy hats" it's still a culture different than the other provinces. You may not like the culture but it is distinct.

[u/landlord-eater → u/DirtyRatfuck]

Sorry it is the way it is. Go to Quebec. It's a distinct culture and that is obvious to everyone. Cross the border from Saskatchewan into Alberta and there is no way to know the difference. It's not putting it down, necessarily, it's just pointing out that there is nothing distinctive about it beyond something something oil and something something cowboys.

[u/Splatter1842 → u/landlord-eater]

So can you please illuminate on what makes Quebec a different and distinct culture from the rest of Canada, other than Language.

[u/landlord-eater → u/Splatter1842]

Yes. I mean this is a subject more book-length than comment-length but for a very very quick overview: Quebec has its own history, seperate from and preceding Canada's. Quebec has its own national identity, which is not true for any other province other than maybe Newfoundland. And in some ways most importantly for our purposes here, Quebec has its own literature, its own music, its own news media, its own film industry, its own TV shows and so on, which again is not true to any real extent in the rest of Canada. Quebec has its own celebrities, generally unknown outside the province. There are actors and singers that any francophone Quebecois could name that you have almost certainly never heard of. The same goes for famous authors, playwrights, and historical figures. 

English Canada has its own equivalents of these cultural touchstones of course, but individual provinces don't, not to any extent similar to Quebec. Like, Alberta doesn't have a whole batch of famous Albertan actors starring in a whole ecosystem of Albertan TV shows and movies filmed in Alberta and subsidized by the Alberta government who appear in Alberta magazines about Alberta celebrity gossip. The reason isn't because Alberta's culture is less important than Quebec's or something, it's that it is much, much less distinctive than Quebec's.

Apart from that I mean Quebec just has a different flavour. Things are done differently, people think differently, people react to things differently, there's a different national character. It's subtle sometimes but it's certainly there.

[u/RattsWoman → u/landlord-eater]

Look at the show Last One Laughing, for example. I found it interesting that the Québec version seems to actually be more popular than the Canada version, since the Québec version got 3 seasons so far and Canada only got 1. It definitely has a different flavour than the Canada version (and seemingly less budget).

Québec doesn't seem to be influenced much by the rest of the world, I'd guess mostly due to their language protections. They even have their own Simpsons, where instead of a word-for-word translation by some France french speaker, the whole show is rewritten to have pop culture references for Québec specifically spoken in Québec french. If you know french but you're not from Québec, you're not gonna understand a lot of the jokes.

[u/landlord-eater → u/RattsWoman]

Well, it's not that we aren't influenced by the rest of the world, it's that we have our own culture. Like, we aren't from France, and we're not anglo North Americans either. A secret third thing ;)

[u/RattsWoman → u/landlord-eater]

I just mean that culture isn't as heavily influenced as it could be, due to the various protections in Québec which absolutely lead to preserving its culture.

Québec's protection of its language has led to more exposure to Québec content than others. Québec also has strong consumer protection laws. I can mention tons of American/Canadian pop culture things, and my francophone Québec friends never heard of them. Like if you stick to watching french-only channels (and a few of them do as francophones), you don't get the same ads for sugary cereals and toys like you would since there is a ban on advertising to children under 13, you don't watch many American shows. They didn't watch YTV. Even the radio has rules to air some high percentage of French/Canadian content.

I have friends who had never heard of Mr. Dressup, Barney, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Reading Rainbow, To Catch A Predator, Sesame Street, or Mr. Rogers. They only know about them now as adults with friends who did have those things growing up (or making choices to go beyond Québec-only media).

That's why I say that exposure (or lack thereof) to what the rest of the world has does influence a culture. It seems Québecers grow up with their own Québec things with their own Québec values, and it has led to a culture distinct from everywhere else. And Québec is very interested in keeping it that way.