In French class, we watched a movie called “La Grande Séduction”. It is about a very small and under populated French town where the people are all unemployed and unhappy. The movie made me realize that their culture in the movie, Quebec, is so different from Alberta culture. I think anybody would agree that Alberta is definitely a better place to live. In the next few paragraphs I will explain how.

In Quebec, the people were all unemployed and poor. They got welfare cheques every two weeks, which isn’t very much money at all. Fishing was an industry for a while but eventually it shut down and everybody became unemployed. Fishing was still used for food and recreation. Dignity is a big factor to describe this culture. They lost a great amount of dignity and self-respect when they lost all their jobs. They lived their lives feeling sorry for themselves and being unhappy. The town was very small and didn’t have very many people in it. There was only one small diner and one small corner store. They had no doctors so everyone was sick and didn’t really have any cure. People wore old, beat up clothing and didn’t represent their appearances very well. Proper education did not seem to me a very common thing.

Alberta is probably the best place for work. There are many employed people and it isn’t hard to find a job. Everyone is independent and that gives them a lot of dignity. There are many doctors who make it easy to find treatment and cures for being sick. Alberta also has the latest technology. Money is very common and some people spend it without worries. There are many stores, restaurants, and fast food joints everywhere. A lot of people wear expensive brand name clothing; people usually care a lot about their appearances. Sometimes, especially in teenagers, people are ranked in popularity by their appearances. Basically everybody has the chance to be educated. Alberta is very rich with oil and natural resources which provides many people with jobs.

As you can tell, Alberta and Quebec culture are completely different in every way. One way to sum it up is Albertans are more independent and have more dignity. Alberta has many different religions while in the movie, the Quebec people only had a catholic church. Quebec had no cell phone service and in Alberta almost everyone has a cell phone. Like I said before, Alberta has the latest technology (e.g. Computers, phones, televisions). In Québec, they had really old computers and very few TVs that were old. The list of differences between the two places could go on forever, but there are also a few similarities between the two. One similarity is social drinking. Watching hockey is also a popular recreational activity for both, along with sports and telling jokes.

I think it’s fair to say that Alberta is a much better place to live. It comes with better money, dignity, self-respect, independence and many other things. It’s a lot easier to live in Alberta and also probably more fun since there’s more to do.