This past weekend was a holiday weekend. For most people in Canada, July 1st, known as "Canada Day", marks the anniversary of the foundation of our country but here in the province of Quebec, it is also known to many people as "moving day". For some reason which I was never able to figure out, there is an official moving day in this province. Leases, which are signed for a firm duration of twelve months every year, run from July 1st to June 30th and upon expiration, many people decide to change places, creating the weirdest game of "musical houses".

This year again, approximately 200 000 people took part in the madness, out of a population of some 7 million people. Starting very early in the morning and in many cases the day before, moving trucks start a wild chase all across the province, which I have to say requires quite a lot of coordination. With a very low vacancy rate, there is very little margin for error and it doesn't take much to screw things up pretty badly. But I guess people are used to it and at the end of the game, there were only about 180 "losers", people who were left standing without a house or an apartment. Those are of course people with low revenue who were not able to find affordable lodging, which is a problem here like everywhere else.

What is the problem with these people? Is it that they enjoy getting screwed by the moving companies, which charge a fortune due to the high demand and the fact that it's a holiday? Is it the fact that they are locked into fixed leases no matter how long they've lived in one place that makes them want to move so much? Or is it just another ploy to take attention away from a holiday which many people would rather forget? Of course those are the same people who complained that holding the Montreal Grand Prix on the same day as St-Jean Baptiste was a lack of respect towards the holiday! Hahahahahahaha!

I don't get it. I just went for the fireworks...