Cultural Differences

Crann na Beatha

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retalivity

The lack of "pubs" and craic.
How everyone has tattoos.
Everyone trying to show who they are and where they have come from: 2nd & 3rd generation immigrants enforcing where they are from (i.e. not Canada) and the rest having that weird sense of North American nationalism (although not as bad as the US)

lukester

Based on spending time in Vancouver and other parts of BC.

Positives:
Very friendly and pretty laid back.
Great food pretty much everywhere, especially Asian influenced. Cheap and abundant sushi. Lots of other types of cuisine.
Open to other nationalities, refreshingly free of racism or homophobia.
Great facilities for kids.
Clean parks and beaches, free of scumbags, litter, general ASBO behaviour.
Excellent sporting facilities, and people generally take an interest in fitness and health.
Quite outward looking and European in sensibility, compared to the US at least.
Beautiful scenery and proper wilderness, with bears, cougars and stuff.

Negatives:
A bit naive and lacking in irony at times. They don't really get friendly 'slagging' although I've heard this framed as a positive.
Uptight about rules and regulations. God forbid you jaywalk or stop in a no stopping zone.
Aggressive and generally poor driving.
Quite faddish and a bit self-conscious/try-hard. See lack of irony above.
Even in a city like Vancouver, with tons of bicycle friendly measures, cycling is much hairier than in Dublin.
They love their trucks and big SUVs.

Mrs McSweeney

Just wondering if anyone has anything to add to this, but based on more rural/Prairie areas?

We will most likely be moving to Lloydminster, on the Saskatchewan?Alberta border. The city is small by our standards, from what I can see.
I'm curious as to whether it's quite provincial in it's general outlook & customs, or is it fairly urban?

bstar

Have been in Lloydminster twice and to be honest I wouldn't live there if you paid me. It seems to be the general consensus by talking to people here in Edmonton and also people in Saskatoon.

Its a small city 5 minutes would drive you from 1 end to the other. I havent been in the neighbourhoods though so they could be better. You are 2 and a half hours from Edmonton with nothing in between. I think the neighbourhoods have some modern facilities as they are trying to encourage people to live there. We do know someone who moved there and they moved back to Ireland after 4 weeks as they hated it.

Wainwright which isn't to far from there would be commutable is a much nicer area to live in. but its on the alberta side so you couldnt live there while sinp is going through.

Xiney

It depends a lot where you end up - it's a pretty big country and even Canadians have trouble adjusting to other parts of it.

There are fewer scumbags, that more or less applies to everywhere. Plenty of douchebags though! So while they won't stab you, you might want to punch them in the face

rusheen

Canadians are friendly and generally welcoming of immigrants . Irish arent .

ciaran67

The people are very friendly and very dull.

Some are widely travelled and get what you're on about. Lots haven't and you can see that look in their eye of, what language are you talking.

Was down in Seattle at the weekend and its got so much more bustle running through it. Vancouver can be so plastic.

V8_man

rusheen wrote: »

Canadians are friendly and generally welcoming of immigrants . Irish arent .

That depends - they are very tolerant and welcoming if you are respectful of their country, which is entirely fair. They can get pretty irritated by the behaviour of some immigrant groups though, but I've never felt anything other than completely welcome. Probably because, unlike in Australia, the Irish still have a reasonably good reputation here - which most of us are determined to uphold.

After three years I think I have a fairly good idea of the place, it is much more socially diverse than Ireland is, which means that no matter who you are or what you like to do, you will fit in somewhere. There are cosmopolitan urban parts as well as places where there is rodeo and country music, and everything in between. A lot of Canadians try to be more 'European' than their southern neighbours and it's tempting to think of them as more 'like us', but it's far more like North America than like anywhere in Europe. It's also very easy to assimilate.

rusheen

V8_man wrote: »

That depends - they are very tolerant and welcoming if you are respectful of their country, which is entirely fair. They can get pretty irritated by the behaviour of some immigrant groups though, but I've never felt anything other than completely welcome. Probably because, unlike in Australia, the Irish still have a reasonably good reputation here - which most of us are determined to uphold.

After three years I think I have a fairly good idea of the place, it is much more socially diverse than Ireland is, which means that no matter who you are or what you like to do, you will fit in somewhere. There are cosmopolitan urban parts as well as places where there is rodeo and country music, and everything in between. A lot of Canadians try to be more 'European' than their southern neighbours and it's tempting to think of them as more 'like us', but it's far more like North America than like anywhere in Europe. It's also very easy to assimilate.

Basically Canadians generally like Irish people and dislike certain immigrants groups who dont like to fully intergrate into there adopted country . Which is entirely understandable .
Your correct Irish arent too popular in Australia and its getting worse all the time . Aussies in general have absolutely interest in there ethnic origin . I mean I have literally met aussies with surnames like connolly o neill and they had no idea of there origin .
One thing Ive seen from personal experience in Oz is aussie are really biased towards certain nationalities and tar every one with the same brush .
When the economy in australia slowed down I seen alot of jobs advertisements reading "Aussies only apply " in 2008

Ya dont get that in Canada

seanynova

lukester wrote: »

Based on spending time in Vancouver and other parts of BC.

Positives:
Very friendly and pretty laid back.
Great food pretty much everywhere, especially Asian influenced. Cheap and abundant sushi. Lots of other types of cuisine.
Open to other nationalities, refreshingly free of racism or homophobia.
Great facilities for kids.
Clean parks and beaches, free of scumbags, litter, general ASBO behaviour.
Excellent sporting facilities, and people generally take an interest in fitness and health.
Quite outward looking and European in sensibility, compared to the US at least.
Beautiful scenery and proper wilderness, with bears, cougars and stuff.

Negatives:
A bit naive and lacking in irony at times. They don't really get friendly 'slagging' although I've heard this framed as a positive.
Uptight about rules and regulations. God forbid you jaywalk or stop in a no stopping zone.
Aggressive and generally poor driving.
Quite faddish and a bit self-conscious/try-hard. See lack of irony above.
Even in a city like Vancouver, with tons of bicycle friendly measures, cycling is much hairier than in Dublin.
They love their trucks and big SUVs.

+1....that is pretty accurate....i laughed when i read some of the points, nice one!

vicquebec

lukester wrote: »

Based on spending time in Vancouver and other parts of BC.

Positives:
Very friendly and pretty laid back.
Great food pretty much everywhere, especially Asian influenced. Cheap and abundant sushi. Lots of other types of cuisine.
Open to other nationalities, refreshingly free of racism or homophobia.
Great facilities for kids.
Clean parks and beaches, free of scumbags, litter, general ASBO behaviour.
Excellent sporting facilities, and people generally take an interest in fitness and health.
Quite outward looking and European in sensibility, compared to the US at least.
Beautiful scenery and proper wilderness, with bears, cougars and stuff.

Negatives:
A bit naive and lacking in irony at times. They don't really get friendly 'slagging' although I've heard this framed as a positive.
Uptight about rules and regulations. God forbid you jaywalk or stop in a no stopping zone.
Aggressive and generally poor driving.
Quite faddish and a bit self-conscious/try-hard. See lack of irony above.
Even in a city like Vancouver, with tons of bicycle friendly measures, cycling is much hairier than in Dublin.
They love their trucks and big SUVs.

I live in Quebec now, Moved from Ireland 2011... not evrything you right about the negatives are true Im afraid.. "A bit naive and lacking in irony at times" that's nonsense! When did Irish people become the ultimate examples of 'funness' a bit self-righteous there..

retalivity

ive found quebec to be very very different to ontario....much more continental european feel to it.