My family and I just traveled for a few days from Quebec City to Montreal, and we really had a good time. We were masked even outside, we ate outside, we're vaxxed, we haven't traveled since even before the pandemic, and it was just such a nice break from living in the USA. Quebec City we thought very beautiful and well worth a visit, but we were honestly blown away by Montreal and thought it might even be a nice place to live, at least in the warmer months. We loved the energy there, the seeming work-to-live mentality, the walkability of the city and the many different things to do. We spent some time walking around near Concordia University and saw flyers for communist groups active in the area and that was a really welcome change for me because I am completely surrounded by liberals and fascists where I live.

I read a bit about the politics and history of the area but just wanted to get some perspectives from people here who know more about it than I do. I've actually known a lot of English-speaking Canadians in my life but no Quebecois, and the English-speaking Canadians seem to not like Quebec, like they just don't want to talk about it at all? I'm guessing that's because of the independence movement and the pressure to speak French, but I'm wondering what else is going on? It did kind of seem like the Quebecois mostly keep to themselves? Like there's two groups in the city—the Quebecois, and everyone else, and it seemed like they didn't really mix very much. What is the general situation with French-speaking people in Canada? Were they kind of an under-class in the past, are they doing better now, are things still fucked up, or what? And what's the deal with the Quebec flag? I had actually never seen it before, and it looked so reactionary to me, like a French monarchist flag basically, but it also seems like the Overton window is further to the left in Canada and that even the conservatives are more leftwing than the Democrats in the USA.

We also traveled through northern Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, and the contrast there with the situation on the Canadian side of the border was striking. Rural northern America is, as you might expect, not doing well. Trump signs and flags everywhere (although we saw one Biden flag on a flagpole lol) and a lot of decaying houses. We passed through a small, decaying town in northern VT called Lunenburg where news about a boil water order was posted to a gas station door, although I just googled this and there is no news online about it at all outside of a facebook post. There were also a bunch of cards left in the gas station for what was clearly a fascist organization called something like the Vermont Traditionalist Society (not the exact name and I can't find them on google), and on the card was some contact info and a picture of three dudes in camos holding AR-15s.

Basically, things on the American side of the border were generally run down and quiet. On the Canadian side, we didn't see a single decaying house. Everyone kind of seemed to be doing okay, at least compared to the situation in the USA. People generally seemed healthier and more relaxed, even in the countryside. I know Canada is an evil settler-colonial state and an imperialist country that has been doing genocide for centuries and which now makes its money by exploiting Africa and other countries, but...like...there's universal health care and nearly universal daycare. It's not a communist paradise but those two factors alone seemingly make it so much better than the USA. I know Canada is far from perfect (and that there must be poverty in places we didn't see) but for most Americans having just those two things alone would be a huge fucking deal.

I'm just posting this for opinions and more information. We were there for about a week. I obviously don't know much this place so please feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made.