What Makes Canada Special?

Send me a message

Ever wonder what genuine kindness feels like when it permeates an entire city? After celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in Montreal, I returned with more than just fond memories—I came back with a profound lesson about how we might all approach life differently.

What struck me most was the noticeable calm and enjoyment of daily life evident in Montreal's residents. Despite facing the same global uncertainties as Americans, they seemed unburdened by the chronic anxiety that characterizes so much of American life today.

The experience has me wondering: What if we all tried living "a little more Canadian" in our approach to community and daily interactions? Could intentionally choosing kindness transform our collective experience?

Listen now to hear the full story, and remember—be safe and be kind.

LINKS TO EPISODES MENTIONED:

www.talesfromsouthflorida.com 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2192481/episodes/16362536-behind-the-scenes-podcasting-with-dave-campbell

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2260646/episodes/17004229-on-the-road-montreal-canada

https://youtu.be/v7BEB9pMSWw?si=ujKB06mSKl-VFn_4

Support the show

Remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE.

Have a question or comment? Leave a Message:
https://www.speakpipe.com/GuideforGettingOlder

You or your idea might be on the next episode!

Join us on Bluesky, the new social media home for Tales From South Florida and Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older: https://bsky.app/profile/podcasterbill.bsky.social

Email us at [e-mail].

Visit our website: Home (monty73162.wixsite.com)

You can also listen to us and find other resources for Baby Boomers at BabyBoomer.org: Ultimate Boomer Community, News, Podcasts & More!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Gettin' Older.
Hello, my friends, welcome.
This is your friend, bill Monty, here to talk to you about
something that I did recentlythat I felt would make a good
episode.
Let me first say how much Iappreciate you taking the time

(00:21):
hitting that play button tolisten to this episode, and if
you're new here, I'm so gladyou've joined us, really welcome
.
Let me just say that again,this is a podcast not about
getting old, but about gettingolder.
So what is the process and whatare the lessons that life
teaches us on this incrediblejourney?

(00:42):
In the last episode, I gave youmy five tips for having a long
marriage or a long relationship.
That came out of my wife and Icelebrating our 40th wedding
anniversary.
Also in that episode, I talkedabout how to celebrate.
We were going to take a trip toMontreal, which we did.

(01:03):
As you can tell we're back now.
We had a fantastic time.
It was a great, great trip, butsomething happened on that trip
that I thought would make for agood episode here.
Hopefully I'm right.
If you're interested in what wedid, the places we stayed, the
places we ate, if you want areview of our trip to Montreal,

(01:27):
head on over to my other podcast, tales from South Florida.
I go into great detail aboutwhere we stayed, where we ate,
the airlines that we took up,the airline that we took back.
I give you a review of mostthings that we did and if you
want even more in depth, thenyou go over to our YouTube
channel, tales from SouthFlorida, and you can see our

(01:49):
video of the places we went andalso hear some of the reviews.
So I hope that you'll hop onover there for Tales from South
Florida to get more informationabout Montreal.
This is not going to be so muchabout the trip but about one
thing that happened on the tripand that was encountering the

(02:10):
wonderful people of Montreal.
So let me just say first off,we were slightly apprehensive
about this trip.
Would our Montreal neighborswelcome American visitors?
Given the political climateright now, with all the talk
about tariffs?
It is hurting our friends tothe north.

(02:30):
Would they welcome us?
Now?
I have friends.
You've heard me talk about thisbefore.
I actually did a podcast episodeabout five or six episodes ago
with a friend of mine, daveCampbell, who is a Canadian
podcaster, and I know from myrelationship with him and other
people from Canada that I knowfrom the podcasting industry how

(02:51):
wonderful and kind they reallyare.
But what I didn't know waswould this translate to an
entire region or city,especially one?
So Dave lives in Ontario.
We were going to Montreal so wewere apprehensive about would
they hold it against us that wewere American?
And also it's a mostly Frenchspeaking region of Canada.

(03:16):
My French is very, very limited.
I didn't know how well we'd beable to do limited.
I didn't know how well we'd beable to do.
Which leads us to what I wantto talk about today.
The people of Montreal wereextremely kind and welcoming,
and I don't mean like everyother one of them.

(03:38):
I don't mean like.
I don't mean when things weregood, they were kind and nice.
I don't mean when things weregood, they were kind and nice.
When I tell you that everyperson that we encountered,
every single one, was sodelightful, was so nice.

(03:58):
One of the things that happenedquite frequently because we had
never been to Montreal before,we were completely unfamiliar
with the area.
Frequently, because we hadnever been to Montreal before,
we were completely unfamiliarwith the area.
So we were occasionallyoccasionally meaning four or
five times a day lost.
So we had our phones out, wehad our GPS on Google Maps

(04:20):
trying to find out where we hadto go.
Even with all of that, we wouldalways end up on a corner
looking like the typicalperplexed tourist.
Most times, someone wouldapproach us and offer to help.
Now, living in South Florida, Ican tell you, if you're
standing on a corner and someonewalks up to you and starts

(04:42):
asking you questions if they canhelp you, you put your hand on
your wallet.
You are a little skeptical ofwhy they're talking to you and
you just kind of nod and say no,no, no, we're fine, and you
walk away.
Not so in Montreal.
The people of Montreal wereincredibly caring about taking

(05:04):
care of us and they most all ofthem realized we were tourists.
So I'm talking about serversand restaurants, I'm talking
about the staff at the hotel,but mostly I'm talking about
those people who stopped whatthey were doing on a street to
help us.
We were in one place called theunderground city.
Now, we had heard a lot aboutthe underground city and it's 20

(05:26):
miles of offices and shops andmalls and everything underneath
the city of Montreal, and it'sthere for when the winters are
really bad so people can go downthere and do their business,
etc.
We wanted to experience it.
We were having a lot ofdifficulty.
It wasn't laid out the way wehad been told it was going to be
laid out and at one point agentleman came up and even

(05:50):
brought the mall securityofficer with him to help us.
I was just blown away.
The point of this is, if you'vebeen listening to me since
episode one, you have heard mealways close the show with the
words be safe and be kind.
Because I feel that in mylittle corner of the world, down

(06:15):
here in South Florida orthroughout Florida or places
I've traveled and that would beplaces like Boston and New York
and Chicago, all of those kindsof places you don't get a lot of
warm, fuzzy interactions withpeople.
Most of the time you're on thedefensive.
It just seems to me that wecould take a few moments to sit

(06:37):
back and think about how apeople that feel the way they
must feel, with certain anxietyor even resentment to us in
America right now, how they canput all of that aside and just
be charming, reach out a helpinghand and be kind so that we
could be safe.

(06:57):
There really wasn't a time inMontreal, even walking at night
in certain areas where we didn'tfeel safe.
You always had that feelingthat the people around you are
looking out for you and it's notlike the streets are crowded.
This is not like a New York orTimes Square where there's so
many people around.
We oftentimes were on adarkened street by ourselves and

(07:21):
yet I always felt that help wasjust a little ways away and
that it would really be as muchhelp as we needed and it would
be offered in the spirit ofkindness.
That's what I wanted to talkabout today.
I did an episode in the firstyears about being kind.
You can go back and listen tothat.

(07:43):
It's literally called beingKind and I went in depth about
it.
So I'm not going to repeat alot of what I talked about there
.
But especially right now, myfriends, in these times that
we're going through, times ofuncertainty economic uncertainty
, political uncertainty,employment uncertainty for a lot

(08:07):
of people if you are, like me,someone on social security, the
anxiety level is so amped upright now because of rumors and
stories.
And is this happening?
Is this not happening?
Will it go?
There's so much going on.
The people of Canada remindedme that there is a way to put

(08:29):
that aside, because the otherthing I noticed about them these
are the most relaxed people Ihave ever been around.
I've been in spas where peopleweren't this relaxed and it just
allowed them.
They just seemed to be enjoyingthe day and their life so much.
I was so envious that I had toleave this feeling of community

(08:52):
that I felt there.
I think that's something that wecan strive for, that we should
probably try and get to in ourlives.
So, whether you're in a bigcity or a small town, or it's
just your neighborhood, or maybeit's just your family, families
right now are even feelingeverything that we're going

(09:13):
through, the stress, etc.
Try to be a little moreCanadian.
You'll be better off for it andright now our Canadian
neighbors could use our help.
So if you are planning avacation, I urge you.
We are now going into thesummer months and spring months
of Canada.
It's going to be gorgeous upthere.

(09:33):
So I ask you to consider a tripto Canada for your vacation
this year.
I can tell you this your dollargoes a long way there.
When we were eating or going onan attraction or something and
the charge was $23 or $24Canadian, it actually ended up
being about $16 or $17 American.

(09:55):
The price for our hotel wassomething like $851 Canadian,
but it was $545, tax includedUnited States dollars.
So you can even save some money.
So hop on a plane, hop onPorter Airlines I go again to

(10:17):
Tales from South Florida to findout why I like it so much
Porter Airlines and go visit ourfriends in Canada and give them
a big thank you from Bill Monte, because they really impressed
me with their kindness and withthe way they live their lives

(10:37):
and that they approach life.
At this point, my friends, Iwant to remind you please, if
you have been listening for awhile or this is your first
episode, please hit that followor subscribe button.
It doesn't cost you anything,it will just alert you when
there's a new episode that'sbeing dropped and it does help

(10:59):
us to build the show.
So I thank you so much fordoing that.
If you are inclined, you canalso comment, like and share the
podcast.
That also helps grow thepodcast and I do.
Again I thank you for that.
You can leave me a comment byjust going down into the show
notes.

(11:19):
You can actually leave me a 90second voice message.
Just click, you know, leave amessage for the host, and again,
it doesn't cost you anything.
You're just going to have togive me your name and maybe the
email address.
I think that's all it asks for,but nothing else beyond that.
Don't worry, I'm not going tohit you with a bunch of spam.
I'm going to put the links tothe Tales from South Florida
episodes video and audio in theshow notes too, so please go

(11:40):
down and look at those.
And that's about it, my friends, for this episode.
We're back in the old USA.
We love it here, we love ithome, but it was nice to go and
spend some time with our friendsin the North.
Until we talk again, I remindyou please, for your sake and
for my sake, because I wouldmiss you if you weren't here.

(12:03):
I would really miss you, and Ihope that when I'm not here,
you're missing me.
Please remember to be safe andbe kind.
If it's warm outside but you'refeeling cold, you're not sure
what to do.
Without a friendly shoulder,you're not alone, so start

(12:28):
feeling bolder.
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guidefor Getting Older.