My impression of Canada was it was too French in nature, and to some extent it still remains that way. You ask any non-Quebec resident about the people living in that area and the verdict is the same, they are an arrogant group. However, as I was too find out, not all Canadians are like that and the further West, the less the influence of the French gets. To the point a few years ago, many of the provinces objected strongly to adopting the language in schools. Many of the Western areas are populated by East European peoples, my late friend Faye' had relatives in Austria as her maiden name was Schloss.
As you can see from the picture I took at our house in Lac La Biche' we had the pleasure of the countryside on our doorstep. We were visited by squirrels, blue jays, chickadees and even a bear cub.
I had never felt so at peace as those last months of Faye's life in 2009, to be able to sit and watch and listen to the birds was so calming. If she hadn't passed away that year, I was contemplating emigrating and had a job interview awaiting had I gone.
The irony of the situation is Alberta is the only Canadian province with no sea boundary and I love the coast. The nearest we had to a sea was Lac La Biche' which features as the backdrop to some of my stories; most notably "Dockland Murders" and "Nerja."
A short account of my time with Faye is told in my book "Canadian Memories," the book features some of the pictures I took at the 2009 Pow-Wow
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