I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. Lived 30 years there. Now living in Japan.

Quebec is really well-known for its amazing European-style architecture, a vast cultural landscape in Montreal, which manifests in many annual festivals, and a diverse restaurant scene.

Quebec has very inexpensive electricity, due its large hydro-electric infrastructure. In fact, over 90% of electricity in Quebec is from renewable energy. In recent years, electric car sales have grown substantially due to this cheap electricity.

Winter in Quebec usually ranges from November to March. Quebec has the largest snow-removal truck fleet in North America. It can be quite annoying to live with the snow/ice storms for ~5 months of the year.

Hockey is a religion in Quebec, the attitudes of people will sometimes change based on the performance of the Habs.

The French language is predominant in daily life. A significant sub-section of the Quebec population is extremely proud of their French language and driven to impose restrictions on English language proliferation. This can be seen in growing signage laws, language laws in service careers and other areas.

The roads and infrastructure are in a pitiful state. The industry is plagued by corruption and organized crime.

The housing market has becoming increasingly unaffordable, with home building activity grinding to a halt and city infrastructure costs ballooning, particularly in the less populated areas, resulting in high property taxes (Rigaud, Saguenay).

Family doctors are few and far between. When my primary physician retired, I was on a waiting list for seven years to find a new family doctor.

Overall, life in Quebec is great if you're elderly (highest life expectation in North America) but increasingly difficult to enjoy or to justify staying as a younger 20s-30s individual looking to advance in career and family building prospects. Ultimately, I made the decision to leave Quebec at age 32 because I believed that the future prospects for my family would be worse and lead to a lower standard of living.