I have a feeling this may turn into a bit of a rant but you know what I am going to try to do everything in my power to NOT let it get that way and actually have a structured stance on the reasons why I do not like Quebec.

1st, I don’t like it because it is french speaking. JUST KIDDING. I will say though in the nicest way possible. I get that Quebec is French Speaking. That is true. And I respect that they are trying to preserve that in a country that is predominantly English. However, It is extremely frustrating when we first moved here and I would go to a grocery store and a person would speak to me in French when I would respond in English. I would like to think that the person who normally is young. I would choose a young cashier more often than not since they for sure would have known English from being in school. Would speak in French to me. Don’t you think that if I knew French I would be trying to speak it. As someone who just moved here I also find that people are not as friendly as they would be in Nova Scotia.

In order to get anything done I had to jump through hoops. For something as simple as a medical card for example. I have always lived in Canada my entire life. I just used to live in Nova Scotia. I have never, seriously NEVER lived in another country. The only time I even left was for 3 weeks to babysit my neice and nephew in England. Other than that I was always here. For me to get a medical card I had to get the proper forms. This included that I lived in the province. I get it. I had to get a piece of mail with my address. My boyfriend even went as far as getting our housing people to provide a letter stating that I was on the lease for the home we were renting too. Which in the end wasn’t even good enough proof that I was permanently living here. After doing this a few times with a run around of different papers I then got a temporary card. This was only good for so long and after so many months I was sent another letter asking me if I could send mail for the previous 6 months PROVING yet again that I lived in the address that I had said I did. Luckily i had mail from school since I was paid to go (More on that coming up) so all I had to do was take my pay stubs from the time frame that they wanted and got to send those in. Which is pretty hard to do, partly because it was 2019 at the time in a world that encourages paperless living. I don’t really receive any mail now that I am not in school either.

Anyone who knows me also knows that I was in french school for a year and a half. In order to get on this course I basically had to convince someone I wanted to take this. Which was a feat in itself. I want to remind you before I begin, If you are a person coming from a different country you simply can fill out all of this paperwork online and start the process super easy. For me, A Canadian, it was a completely different story and in telling said story to a friend of mine she had said that her experience was not this difficult at all! I had to get paperwork. Fill it out. Bring it back. Sit with someone and explain to them why I wanted French courses where I was told that I could do “warehouse work” with English. Then I was told that I had to wait to meet with a counselor or something. I met with them. Then I had to go back to be told if I was accepted. All of this to do a course in French while being convinced along the way that I didn’t need it to work in Quebec which is a lie. You for sure need to know both languages or they won’t even really look at you.

And lastly, The difficulty it was in the hospital having my Son and nurses either do not know English or they did not want to speak it. My boyfriend had to translate nearly everything. Not to mention the hospital that we ended up being was a hospital that was in a town that was known for being bilingual. It wasn’t a small town but was known for being both languages. As frustrating as it was was having some nurses not respond when we asked questions was insane. And even in instances where my boyfriend would specifically ask for an English speaking nurse we were told at times that “the particular nurse was on lunch so we would have to wait an hour for that person”. Which is absolutely insane. We have this new baby and have questions and we aren’t allowed to answer? Really? Needless to say the other challenge was also trying to find my Son a family doctor. A friend of mine even had to find one on the Island of Montreal since there is no available ones around. The clinic that we went to for pre-natal appointments doesn’t really do anything to check up after the birth on the mother or helping in finding a family doctor for the baby. it really is once that baby comes out you are kind of on your own. Needless to say I will be able to go back to my Family doctor in Nova Scotia and things we assume will be far easier than they were here.

As you can see these are pretty big things for someone not to enjoy Quebec. I’m sure that there are things that we have enjoyed. Like Krispy Kreme or things along that way of food. However with issues like this along the way, even though my boyfriend is from Quebec, we both are anxiously awaiting the call or message telling us we will be moving back home. To a simpler place!

-StaySeeJ08