Quebec

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A balmy July evening in Quebec City (capital of the country of Quebec).

Quebec is a country located just north of Canada. (It's generally assumed to be the northernmost country in North America, since it's just too stinkin' cold to put a country any farther up than Quebec.)

In some ways Quebec is similar to its neighbor to the south, but it has some unique features of its own.

First and most important, Quebecers do not drink Molson. They have their own (unique) beverages, supposedly based on French "beer". Perhaps the best known local brew is called "The End of the World" (Fin du Monde), which probably tells you all you need to know about it.

Another thing you may notice if you visit Quebec is that the people there in general speak neither English nor Spanish. They speak something else. [1]

Finally, and almost as important as the beer, Quebec is colder than Canada.[2]

There are a few other minor differences worth mentioning. In the image to the right (or above, if you're reading this on something with a dinky screen) we can see one of the quaint vehicles which remain in common use in Quebec. This is for purely practical reasons: Automobiles tend to get stuck in the snow drifts, and are just more trouble than they're worth. So, anyone who can afford it prefers to use horses.

Speaking of automobiles, there are a few accessories which are commonly used by people unfortunate enough to be stuck driving a car (rather than riding a horse). Of course everyone there has a block heater, or you wouldn't be able to start it at all for four months out of the year. But in addition, most people who drive use tire heaters. You plug in your tire heater half an hour before you leave the house, and it warms up the rubber in the tires, which makes for a much more comfortable ride. It also prevents "tire shatter", which is what can happen when a still-cold tire hits a pothole. (In fact, potholes, the bane of Ontario and other areas in Canada, are not generally too bad in Quebec. They're caused by "frost heave", when water seeps into the road bed and then freezes. For this to happen, the water must be thawed to start with. In Quebec, the weather almost never warms up enough for that to happen.)

If you do find yourself driving in Quebec, you should be aware that diesel fuel is less commonly available, due to the lack of popularity of diesel vehicles in Quebec. The problem is the added expense and inconvenience of using a tank heater. On cool nights in Quebec, particularly in the winter, diesel fuel in a car parked in the open will typically freeze solid, and you'll need to run your tank heater for at least a half hour before you can drive away.

And one last point of curiosity is that in Montreal (a city in Quebec), the subway trains have tires rather than ordinary steel wheels[3]



  1. Whatever it is, I didn't understand a word of it when I was there.
  2. You probably didn't think that was possible, did you?
  3. If you're hoping for an explanation in the footnote, well too bad -- I have no idea why they do that. They sound just as noisy as any other subways.