# You're a Canadian. Which Canadian city should your foreign friends visit first? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540 "2011-12-17T15:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540/81 "2011-12-22T17:52:38Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > I think he means that to him, “francophone culture” means to smoke (especially indoors), drink alcohol everywhere and drive like a maniac. I’m not quite sure what to say about this, so I’ll just ignore it. That was not meant to be a complete list. And the last one is really “Montreal culture”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540/82 "2011-12-22T18:50:09Z")
Alright then. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540/83 "2011-12-22T19:40:02Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > As a non-Francophone, how difficult would it be for me to do the tourist thing in Quebec City? I found Anglophones to be ubiquitous in Montreal, but I’m told they are less so in QC. Are you considering coming to Quebec city? If so, drop me a message before you do. Tourists seem to particularly enjoy the Carnaval which is in late January and early February. [http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/en](http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/en) If you stick to the tourist parts of QC, you should be fine speakly (almost) only English. The shopkeepers, waiters and tourist attractions employees expect to see a lot of anglophones. You would do well to learn how to greet people, explain that you don’t speak French very well and ask if they could they speak English with you. Launching straight into English might be badly received by some. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540/84 "2011-12-22T20:16:41Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > Calgary seemed more typically “Albertan” to me. But that was five years ago, and I’ll have to go back at some point. Yeah, Calgary might be closer to what Canadians think “Albertan” means. But since the boom and all the migration to Calgary, you might find that it’s the city that best represents a wide variety of Canadian cultures. It’s got aspects of traditional Alberta, and it’s situated directly at the meeting place between the prairies and the Rockies, which gives it a lot in common with the other western provinces, but it’s very much a cosmopolitan city, and it has lots of influence from Toronto and Montreal, and lots of Maritimers and Newfoundlanders to add to the mix. It’s a very youthful city, and in fact might be right now the quintessential ‘Canadian’ city; the best place to go, if you could only go to one city, to get a good idea of what Canada is like. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540/85 "2011-12-23T21:46:40Z")
> [@Baffle](#): > > Yeah, Calgary might be closer to what Canadians think “Albertan” means. > > But since the boom and all the migration to Calgary, you might find that it’s the city that best represents a wide variety of Canadian cultures. It’s got aspects of traditional Alberta, and it’s situated directly at the meeting place between the prairies and the Rockies, which gives it a lot in common with the other western provinces, but it’s very much a cosmopolitan city, and it has lots of influence from Toronto and Montreal, and lots of Maritimers and Newfoundlanders to add to the mix. > > It’s a very youthful city, and in fact might be right now the quintessential ‘Canadian’ city; the best place to go, if you could only go to one city, to get a good idea of what Canada is like. I can’t really argue with any of that. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-canadian-which-canadian-city-should-your-foreign-friends-visit-first/606540.md?page=4)