Driving in Quebec and Ontario

I learned to drive in Quebec, and at least when I learned to drive in 1963 there were many differences in attitude between Quebec and Ontario in driving. I noticed on moving to Ontario, that learning drivers are taught to drive as though there was a full cup of coffee sitting on the dashboard, trying to keep it from spilling. As I recall, lessons in Quebec would start with "Secure all objects in the passenger compartment so that they don't fly about and cause injury." By contrasting those two points of view, you can extrapolate much of the rest.

Respect for the centre line dashes, or double yellow lines: Once again, the difference is so stark as to be noticeable by someone within a few miles of crossing the border. In Ontario, drivers do not overtake on a double yellow line, no matter what. What happens if the passing move is not completed and the dashed line stops? The Ontario driver will pull back into the right lane immediately before the double yellow line begins, even though the car being passed is forced into the ditch. In Quebec, the dashed lines are a suggestion more than a rule, only really needed if passing in a thick fog where you can't really see the road, but you can make out the painted dashes. In daylight, the painted lines are considered superfluous.

My first accident was at 14 years old, my father was teaching me to drive the car. He considered the learner's permit to be useless bureaucracy as long as he was in the car with me. We got pulled over for driving with no taillights at night (another useless bureaucratic fine point), and I got rattled and forgot to apply the brakes until we had rammed the cop. My father talked our way out of the ticket - mostly because the cop was happy to not have any damage to his car, and not having to report being involved in a accident. Our headlights and grill had impacted his bumper, due to our car being small, and the nose being down for braking. I might add, ramming a cop car without doing any damage to it is a great way to avoid getting a ticket, as the cop would rather forget about all the paperwork if he does not have to explain the damage to the police car. This may be true for Ontario also, but I have not tried it out yet.

In Ontario, you own the road on your side of the centre line. In Quebec, everyone seems to think that ownership of the road depends on who gets there first. Say, for example a big truck parked partly blocking your side of the road. If you are in Quebec, you simply try to get there before the oncoming driver. Since both parties know this, both speed up when the roadway narrows for any reason. In Ontario, the driver on the blocked side will usually wait.

One "rule" my father stressed while teaching me to drive was the rule I will call "Do not help the other driver who is passing you". Actually my father was watering down his made-up rule for me. When he drove, the rule was more like "Do not allow anyone to pass under any circumstances". I remember once he was driving along in a brown International Harvester Travelall, when some impudent driver in a Chevrolet decided to pass us. My father did not take kindly to this, and moved to block the Chevy driver, but was too late as the Chevrolet was almost past us. Almost but not quite, as the next thing I saw was the rear bumper of the Chevrolet bouncing down the road in front of us. It had gotten hooked by the front bumper of the Travelall. As I recall, the Chevy driver apologised for accidentally cutting us off. Too bad they don't sell those Travelalls any more, I think I would buy one just for the front bumper.