French Canadians Wintering in Florida Take the Heat

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. —  As the winter migration from Quebec to Florida nears its peak, French Canadians are the target du jour here.

The Canadians, so the local laments go, speak too much French, tip too little and drive too slowly. They are, in short, too big for their britches--especially shorts.

Shopkeepers, restaurateurs and chambers of commerce love them, however.

“If we don’t have the season and the Canadians, we don’t survive,” said Mike Patel, whose newsstand stocks Canadian and French magazines.

“You are seeing more hotels with French-speaking employees; hotels are getting French cable television stations so they can watch their favorite soap operas,” said Canadian-born Carolyn Michaels of the Greater Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.

“We try to be very sensitive, because they are very important,” she said of the Canadian tourists.

Nonetheless, the influx of French Canadians each year sparks controversy that is especially heated in cities south of Ft. Lauderdale on the Atlantic Coast: Dania, Hollywood and Hallandale.

The invaders roll across the Florida line in convoys of cars with blue-and-white license plates.

In Hollywood this year, they established a beachhead and took up strategic positions along the Broadwalk, in the Diplomat Mall food court and at the Hollywood Shuffleboard Club.

They came, they saw, they bought condos.

French Canadian tourists and winter residents in all of Florida could number nearly 800,000 this year, and contribute $750 million to the state’s economy, Florida and Quebec tourism officials estimate.

But tell that to the locals.

Tourist-bashing has always been popular among Florida “natives” who complain that “snowbirds” clog traffic and create long lines at restaurants. A favorite bumper sticker reads: “If you (heart) New York, keep driving north on I-95.”

Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm began the year urging tolerance of French Canadian visitors, while also noting that they were “slipping pale, 230-pound bodies into swimwear designed for 19-year-old anorexic Brazilians.”

Disdain for visitors from the Great White North found its symbol, however, in a photograph of a man’s great white belly spilling well south of his bikini-style trunks. The Ft. Lauderdale weekly XS put the photo on the cover of its Jan. 8 issue over the words: “They’re back!”

The tabloid’s racks dot the Broadwalk (not boardwalk, because it’s asphalt) and other byways that French Canadians frequent.

In Quebec, they were not amused.

Newspapers, television and radio stations and the Canadian Press news agency reported the unfriendly criticism. At a Jan. 14 news conference, Quebec’s tourism minister declared: “I’ve seen many U. S. tourists with big bellies in Quebec, including on (Quebec’s) beaches.”

The battle of the bulges is bringing out some serious issues as well about the impact of the French Canadians.

In Hallandale, about half of current condominium sales are to Canadians, said Cynthia Hibbits of the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Mayor Sonny Rosenberg said: “There are some trailer parks that are almost all French Canadian.”

While private enterprise in Hallandale prospers from the Canadians, who Rosenberg said have “melted in very well,” the town lost millions of dollars’ in federal funds because the population dropped by 8,000, to 30,997, between 1980 and 1990.

The wintering French Canadians, who are not counted as residents, are displacing U. S. citizens, he said.

The Canadians say they can take the criticism as a minority view.

“We feel comfortable,” said Ronald MacDonald, on vacation from Joliet, Quebec, with his wife. “We came here for the warmth, and because there are a lot of other Canadians.”

As for the man with the photogenic belly, he will boycott Hollywood Beach, his wife told Jean Laurac, editor of Le Soleil de la Floride (The Florida Sun), published in Hollywood.

They will find someplace else in Florida to visit, she said.