A Comparison of Consumer Expenditures in Quebec and Ontario

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Abstract
For some time now, and with increasing frequency, it has been asserted that cultural differences between the two major language groups in Canada are marked and that these differences carry over into economic behaviour. On a less general plane it is also said that there are differences between patterns of consumption in Ontario and Quebec and that these differences are largely due to “cultural” and not economic factors. However, to date there has been no verification of the latter hypothesis.There are several reasons for undertaking such a verification. First, it may make an indirect empirical contribution to the current debate about the existence and future development of a separate French-Canadian community, different from the rest of Canada in both cultural and economic aspects. Second, as far as it was possible to determine, there have been no investigations undertaken comparing regional patterns of consumption, possibly because most economically developed countries are considered homogeneous in this respect (but note, for instance, Belgium and Switzerland). Is it likely that two large groups of people living since “time immemorial” in a single economy and exposed to much the same economic and social pressures differ in important respects in their consumption patterns? And that these differences, if any, will tend to persist even after certain important economic and demographic variables have been controlled? Finally, on the commercial plane, if we can find significant differences in consumer expenditures (albeit confined in this study to major expenditure classes), sellers may be led to a conscious effort at the exploitation of regional market segments.

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