LETTER FROM CANADA
They left after the holidays, in early January, towards the sun. Each year, nearly a million Quebec retirees flee the harsh winter to escape to the South, Mexico, Cuba and even Florida, which is their preference. Some 2,500 kilometers of transhumance to the "Sunshine State" for these "snowbirds", as they are called here, just to taste for a few months the warmth of American beaches and the joys of outdoor barbecue evenings.
They stop in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood or Hallandale Beach, north of Miami. In luxurious villas with sea views for the more affluent, in small mobile-home type houses for the most part.
They are in American territory, but do not need to know how to speak English. There, they find themselves "knitted tight" as they would be in Quebec, to play pétanque in the afternoon, bingo in the evening. French-language newspapers from La Belle Province are distributed there, a few typically Quebecois stores such as the St-Hubert rotisserie have opened branches there. They are so numerous to have their habits there, despite the weakness of the Canadian dollar which has plummeted their purchasing power for a few years, that this part of Florida is nicknamed "little Quebec" or "Floribec".
Birds of doom
Usually, retirees pack their bags around Easter, ready to go back to the North once all traces of snow have disappeared, happy to be closer to their children and grandchildren for the summer season here. They are allowed to stay 180 days a year with the American neighbor without paying tax or losing their Quebec benefits, such as their health insurance.
But this year, in early March, an intruder came to disrupt their peaceful seasonal vacation. And overnight, these migratory birds became birds of doom. "Come in," first begged their families at the first sign of the arrival of the coronavirus on Quebec territory. " The earliest would be best ", François Legault, the Premier of Quebec, pressed them in mid-March.
The last hesitant were finally convinced by a blunt argument: faced with the explosion of the epidemic in the United States, many insurance companies have informed their customers that they would end their protection if they advised to stay put beyond the end of March.
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