Quote:
Originally Posted by Loco101
I do agree that Shawville and some of the surrounding area is as close as you will get to what feels like Ontario within Quebec.
Hawkesbury certainly does feel much like Quebec for it being in Ontario. It's about 85% francophone I think and you hear most people speaking French and even some of the houses, buildings and streets look more like what you'd see in a Southern Quebec town. And of course it's right on the border with Quebec. But even then, I felt that English is the dominant business language there just because it's Ontario and maybe also because the town serves many nearby towns that are anglophone dominated. There are quite a few businesses there that have only English on outside signs.
Hearst used to have the nickname "le petit Québec" but I haven't heard that in awhile. Hearst is over 90% francophone and located very far from Quebec. It's about a 4 hour drive to get to the Quebec border! The town certainly does have a Quebec feeling to it and maybe comparable to a Northern Quebec town such as La Sarre. It also has a strong Northern Ontario feeling to it of course. There's a lot of bilingual commercial signs but a number that are English-only. I guess it really depends on who owns the business. All government and institutional buildings have bilingual signage. I did notice that independent restaurant menus in Hearst are very much like what you'd see on menus in Quebec. I have a number of friends from there am told that most people still watch Quebec TV channels unlike most francophones in Timmins.
|
Francophones in northern Ontario IMO tend to be less assertive and more timid than those in Prescott-Russell in the southeast. Hearst is the most assertively francophone town of decent size I've been to in NE Ontario. (And I've been to most of them.) The only one that was comparable was Sturgeon Falls between Sudbury and North Bay. Most of the signs were in English only (as many of them surprisingly were in Hearst too) but people were yakking away loudly and uninhibitedly in French in restaurants and corner stores in both towns, and even occasionally addressing strangers in French. You don't see this much in Timmins, Sudbury or even Kapuskasing.
Hawkesbury is even more uninhibitedly francophone than Hearst or Sturgeon. Of course, that's not surprising given where it's located. Casselman, though quite a bit smaller, is also like this. Embrun and Rockland are fairly large towns but less and less like this with every passing day.