We prefer older people who go to Florida but stay only two or three months and come back to Quebec for the rest of the year. That's important, because they are there when our activities take place.
We organized a social activity a couple of weeks ago to celebrate a series of events including the departure of Karen Macdonald, owner of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, an English newspaper. She is leaving to join Global Television in Montreal, but the newspaper will remain and continue in more or less the same style. At the event, there were many older people I hadn't seen for several years. They might have been there because of Karen Macdonald's departure, but they do like to go out, see one another and communicate.
About a dozen years ago, people were leaving Quebec for political reasons. Politics have played a role in the exodus. In some cases, parents have children living in different cities, perhaps in the United States, and wanted to move closer to them. There are many reasons why people have left.
We did not visit 1,000 older people, perhaps because we were afraid we would not find enough to conduct the study properly. We visited 1,000 younger people, because it was easier. Though we recognized the feeling of belonging they expressed when we talked to them, their community's vitality was still the most important thing. That's what they talked to us about.
However, I still don't have an answer to why they leave. Many continue to leave for Ottawa, Toronto and elsewhere. If we occasionally ask them why, they say that it's just for a change. Sometimes, they want to move to an English-speaking province. That does happen.
