Catching Up...

Where I'm from, this outfit is an example of regionalism...

First of all apologies mine for neglecting this blog so long, I’m attending to family responsibilities in my native state of Virginia. So I’ll be filling in the blanks with a few observations that I’ve been making in the interim…

A bizarre facet of Montreal that pervades quite a few slices of life here is just how Quebec’s wavelength modulates differently from the rest of Canada. No earthshattering revelation this, but knowing the fact and experiencing it firsthand are always two different things. In the southern United States where I come from, regional differences are prized as evidence that there’s a bit more civility there than the rest of the country.

In Canada differences from province to province are stark compared with the states, and Montreal is perhaps the most exaggerated example. Take July 1 -- in Montreal July 1 is best known as Moving Day. It even causes a run on moving services. Before I moved here, it was one of the first things someone told me about this town, that everyone moves on the same day in Montreal. The roots of this informal tradition exist in the seasons, the school year and even date back to French colonial times. Everybody seems to be moving. Need a couch? Hit the sidewalk. Walking through the city in glorious weather that also feels transitional, there’s another thought that hits you: wait a minute… isn’t this supposed to be Canada Day?

Happy Canada Day, Montreal...

As I turned on the tube I could see that it was Canada’s birthday celebration. And strangely enough, it was being celebrated by welcoming the royals, who had arrived on their official visit. Growing up in a country that severed its ties to Britain long ago, it struck me as odd that a nation would celebrate its nationhood by welcoming a monarch from another place. It’s one of the nuances of living in a Commonwealth country, having a European monarch on North American money, having a “throne” in a New World legislature, and being autonomous without the need fight a revolution.

I couldn’t help but notice looking at the street-level in Montreal, Canada Day wasn’t so apparent in the country’s second-largest city. After wishing a shopkeeper a happy Canada Day, he laughed and replied “you’re the first person to tell me that all day.” Quebec celebrates its own birthday one week earlier, on St. John the Baptist Day, which sort of served as an opening salvo announcing the Montreal Jazz Festival…