Does it happen because of size? I don't think I've ever encountered that in the U.S., other than in towns that are essentially gas stations. We have a lot of chains, but also local businesses everywhere (though independent non-specialist grocers are rare), as well as smaller regional chains like Woodman's, Taco Time, etc.
Good question, I'm not sure. For my city in particular, due to the way districts are distributed, we have both very rural and very urban areas, and our land area technically is larger than that of Ottawa, but much more spread out and becomes a logistical nightmare when it comes to services as it means our resources are spread very thin over a large land area. We had a large snowstorm in Mid-March that immobilized the city, and it took more than a week for us to get the streets properly plowed and cleared, and even then the city decided to wait on the snowbanks to melt in some places rather than plowing the sidewalks.
But going back to the question, it also means it's harder to support local businesses because everything is so spread out. Last I checked, my city had more Tim Hortons per capita than either Toronto or Ottawa, which are both more clustered cities. Isn't that crazy?
We have a local woodfired pizzeria that opened about two years ago. It's good, but rather expensive at $30 for a large. Not too long ago, I heard from a friend that they were closing up shop. They are keeping their other location (their second location) open in the south end of the city. But that means no local option for me, as I don't live in the south-end, and between the part of the city where I live and the south-end, they feel like they might as well be different cities as the vibe is completely different.
For some decades after Confederation, very few anglophones in Canada referred to themselves as “Canadian” (they identified as British). Francophones were “Canadien”, going back to the late 18th century. When anglophones started to refer to themselves as Canadian, they began to refer to francophones as French-Canadians, which was not all that well received, though many acquiesced and started to call themselves Canadien Français. By the 1960s, Acadien, Québécois, Franco-Ontarien, and Franco-Manitobain emerged as preferred alternatives (note that Acadien was already well established considerably earlier).
And don't forget the Habitants, the early French settlers of New France which the Habs are named after.
Going into a bit of a different topic here, but does anyone else get irritated at the constant translation during official functions? As a bilingual person in a bilingual Country, I'd just like to hear things said as it's being spoken, without interruption. I feel it's a bit demeaning to have one language translated over the other, and I feel it also undermines our bilingualism. Case in point, I was watching a live Q&A earlier today of the Artemis Astronauts, which was hosted by the Canadian Space Agency in Longueuil, Quebec. Naturally a lot of French was spoken, but instead of the French being heard there was a live unseen translator quickly speaking over those speaking French. The guy's voice is rather grating as well. There were three cadets from the air force base there all asking questions in French towards the end, but none of them could actually have themselves be heard because of the translation. As both a an English and French speaker, I find this upsetting. There are also a series of pre-recorded videos towards the end, and one of them is in French, again translated, the poor kid not even getting the chance being heard in his own voice. One could say, why not use the French version of the Youtube channel. Well, as a Bilingual speaker, I should not have to choose one over the other. Nevermind the fact that when the English is spoken via the French version of the channel, it would also be translated. *sigh* Despite this, it was a great presentation.
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