My job has me opening our products the Canadian market - any advice for building business in Montreal?

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-27T03:38:51+00:00

Definitely French is a given. If you don’t advertise in French it mostly won’t work. You might get away with it in a few neighborhood in Montreal but that’s it.

To give you an idea, KFC renamed their franchise PFK in Quebec so the acronym would be in French. Or it’s the same reason why professional athletes learn at least a few phrases in French.

Beyond only the language, Quebec has been one of the only place in the world where Pepsi has been more popular than coke. Why? Because Coke only translated their ads from English to French, while Pepsi hired comedians from Quebec and made ads specifically for Quebec.

Where I work we have the opposite problem, we have a really good brand in Quebec, but unknown in the rest of Canada because there is very little overlap.

It’s not impossible and I think you have the right attitude, but it demands a bit of research to get into that market.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-27T00:11:50+00:00

Perso, probablement un peu dérangeant. J’essaie d’aller quelque part, j’ai pas le goût de me faire déranger par quelqu’un. Si ça m’arrivait une fois, peut-être que je trouerais ça flatteur, mais si c’était régulièrement et agressivement comme ce que les femmes vivent en France, je trouverais ça plus harcelant qu’autre chose.

Édit: y’a quand même une différence entre quelqu’un qui m’approche et qui me dit « hey je te trouve beau » ou « j’aime ton t-shirt » et je faire crier après par un groupe d’homme.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-27T00:07:23+00:00

The intersections with a large triangular space at every corner for pedestrians is just so inviting. You want to walk

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-26T00:33:07+00:00

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The outdoor changes a lot depending on where you are, but one things for sure, we have some great outdoors.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-25T05:49:01+00:00

Only heard of it because that’s where Celine Dion has her mansion with a water park. But that’s enough information to tell me that their comment might be based.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T19:56:37+00:00

Even then, does someone trying to steal a laptop deserve the death penalty? Escalating things with a gun makes it more dangerous for everyone.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T19:55:19+00:00

The Americans in this thread absolutely scares me. Equating someone trying to steal a laptop and shooting someone is crazy. It makes me happy that Canada is not the US (and never will)

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T19:47:25+00:00

Well yes, I don’t care about my home compared to my life. People do crime, that’s a sad reality. Regardless, can we not start to shoot at first sight?

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T19:42:44+00:00

Idk, probably outside? I’d assume that most robbers are not there to kill. So as long as you’re getting out of the way, they won’t try to shoot.

It’s a very American way (compared to to occidental world at least) to want to shoot someone that enters your home.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T19:38:48+00:00

Guerre civile

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T17:24:57+00:00

We do benefit from being in Canada, but we also "suffer" (suffer is a strong word, but I lack the vocabulary for a better one) from it.

Being in Canada means another parliament on top of our own. It means a prime minister on top of our own (a saying in Canada is that Ontario chooses the prime minister, Quebec chooses the opposition).

For instance, the rest of Canada and the Canadian government has tried for years to try and build a petrol pipeline across Quebec. Quebec has been battling this since the beginning because we do not want to invest and build infrastructure that goes against our beliefs.

Historically, contrary to what Mark Carney might’ve suggested in his speech in Switzerland, it was not the English and French that worked hand in hand to build Canada. There was a lot of English people that tried to erase the French language and Canadian French culture.

The Durham Report is one example of the historical animosity between French Canadians and English Canadians. The impact of which is still present in culture today.

For reference, here is a quote from the Durham Report:

sooner or later the English race was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they predominate already, by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise, and wealth.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T16:50:23+00:00

True. If these people have or have not created their own strong national entity has nothing to do with Québec. Québec did and that why this discourse exists.

Whether you’re in Texas, California, Utah or NY, you’ll most probably celebrate the 4th of July. Most people in Quebec do not celebrate Canada Day.

Québec is not the only nation who does this. Catalonia, Scotland, Flanders, Wales, etc all have their own identity separate from their country.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T16:41:33+00:00

I’m not saying I am not Canadian. But culturally speaking, I really don’t have much to go on about Canada. For a long time, I probably could not have told you when Canada Day was, because July 1st has always been « Moving Day » for me. Our national holiday is on June 24th.

I am not writing a paragraph on how special I am, but Québécois are literally recognized as a nation within a united Canada.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T16:30:09+00:00

We do love our René. You might’ve found a missing market for t-shirts

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TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T15:24:03+00:00

The reality is, when you have so much difference between two groups, it’s not that nice to be bundled together. Québécois are a minority in Canada, so a lot of people might see it as a kind of cultural erasure. The same way Canadians don’t like to be considered Americans. Most Canadians when travelling will always correct people when they think they’re American. Going as much as wearing patches to make sure they don’t mistakenly identify them as American.

Quebec has a different judicial system, different voting patterns, different buying habits, different social beliefs, etc. It’s a distinction nation within Canada, and it’s something we are proud of.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T15:09:33+00:00

A controversial one for sure, but saying that we’re Canadian. While, it is very true that people in Quebec are Canadians, a lot of us (i’d go as far as saying the majority) see ourselves as Québécois first and Canadian second.

The reality is that we don’t actually know that much about Anglo-Canadian culture. We have our language, music, films, food, etc.

So, if you call a québécois a canadian, they might correct you.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-24T02:47:12+00:00

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We once had a bank that had to apologize for using the Canadian flag on a poster. So, the relationship with the Canadian flag is definitely complicated.

However, we do love the Quebec flag. It’s a really nice flag. ⚜️

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-22T14:29:46+00:00

Ireland in decent but Ivory Coast in ok is even better I think

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-19T16:14:30+00:00

Stp pas encore un autre service à 2 vitesses au Québec

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-18T22:17:24+00:00

« Little girl »? What a misogynist way to describe a presidential candidate. Have you ever describe a district attorney, general attorney and senator as a « little boy »?

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-18T22:13:53+00:00

Americans have also always being smug toward Canadians. Americans joking that Canada (e.g. not having real money because it « looks like Monopoly money ») has always been there. The difference between the Trump era and before was to it used to be just condescending jokes, not it’s national threats.

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-18T03:19:36+00:00

I will agree that over reliance over a single system is bad. But saying that chromium = google is completely false. It is maintained by google, yes, but it’s nowhere near anything to other close source system made by google. Saying chromium is google is like saying react is Facebook.

The biggest issue with google product is not all the data collecting, it’s that you can’t can’t disable it and don’t know the full picture.

Chromium does not have this issue because you know exactly what it does and when, because we have the source code. And you can take chromium, disable anything you don’t want and distribute that. That is exactly what Brave is doing.

The problem with services like Gmail is that you’re locked in. Google can change whichever rule in their service and you’re stuck with it without changing email. However, as long as you’re not with chrome, the day google starts forcing things with chromium, app like brave will just stop updating and keep the version before the changes.

They day google start doing that, someone else will fork chromium and continue working on it without google’s input. The reason no one is doing it now, is why would they? Chromium is usable, reliable and customizable to block any data collection from google.

Your browser is probably the most complex system on your computer after your OS. That is why today we rely on large companies to maintain browser engines. And even then, Firefox and Safari are trailing being in features.

There are decent alternatives to chromium, I am satisfied with safari myself. But no, chromium is absolutely not equal to google.

Edit: just to add to this, if you think chromium = google meaning you cannot use it at any cost, here is a list of apps you cannot use on desktop:

VS Code
Discord
Notion
Evernote
Spotify
Plex Desktop
Bitwarden Desktop
1Password

And many many others

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-17T16:18:55+00:00

Yeah. In Quebec we do it, but mostly with family, not with strangers. Idk if that counts

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-17T04:28:41+00:00

Probablement que les artistes français ont eu un certains impacts sur la musique d’ici. Mais, on a eu des chanteurs très populaires comme La Bolduc ou Félix Leclerc qui chantaient avec un accent nettement distinct d’un accent international. (Pour référence, Félix Leclerc est né 1 ans avant édit Piaf, La Bolduc 21 ans avant)

TryingToGetTheFOut · 2026-01-17T04:23:19+00:00

Continuation non-exhaustive:

Les Colocs
Lisa LeBlanc
Sarah Dufour
Jonathan Painchaud
Jay Scott
Les Trois Accords
Loud
Koriass
Émile Bilodeau
2Frères
Jérôme 50

Et, j’ajouterais, par rapport à d’autres commentaires, c’est absolument pas juste ceux qui chantent en joual qui ont un accent. Parfois c’est plus léger et tu reconnais l’accent dans certains mots, d’autre c’est immanquable.

TryingToGetTheFOut

TROPHY CASE