Josh Freed: I'm stressed thinking of how stressed we are

Quebec is the most stressed-out province in Canada. And for good reason.

Article content

A recent Canadian health study just found Quebec to be the most stressed-out province in Canada.

According to the much-publicized survey done by B.C. health experts, almost 23 per cent of Quebecers have great “perceived stress” compared with a Canadian average of about 19.

Article content

But don’t stress over it — that’ll only make things worse.

Why all the stress now? For three years, COVID ate up so much of our brains’ anxiety space, we didn’t have room to stress about anything else in Quebec.

Advertisement 2

Article content

But now that fear has relaxed or vanished, experts say, so we have more mental room to worry about other things again.

What’s to worry about? Let’s consider some possible culprits:

a) For starters, about 13 per cent of Quebecers list English as their first language and almost every one of us is stressed out by recent university tuition hikes and mean-spirited language legislation.

That could account for 13 per cent of the 23 per cent of Quebecers who told B.C. researchers they feel stressed out.

Add in all the new immigrants stressed out because they must pass a French test within six months of arriving here, while looking for housing, work and a new community — and that could nearly account for the rest of the 23 per cent.

Most of this stress is simply because the Coalition Avenir Québec government is worried about losing the next election and thinks beating up on non-francophones can reduce their own electoral stress.

But linguistic problems aren’t the only possible explanation for high anxiety in Quebec. There’s lots of other stuff to stress us out too, like:

b) Financial stress: Another recent survey by Quebec’s Institut national de la paie found that one in four Quebecers is anxious about whether they can pay their bills and mortgages, especially given inflation.

Article content

Advertisement 3

Article content

However, there’s not much the Quebec government can do about inflation anxiety. So it’s easier to simply distract everyone, by picking needless fights over language and English university tuition.

c) Many Quebecers have health care stress, because only 80 per cent of us have family doctors. That’s the lowest percentage of any province in the country, according to the health study — in a field where 80 per cent is a failing grade.

d) Adding to our anxieties, everyone in Montreal has construction-and-cul-de-sac stress. There’s so much roadwork confusion we must use our cars’ satellite navigation systems every time we drive to the dépanneur for milk, because all roads lead to roam.

Given all the above anxieties, if you don’t feel some stress, there’s something wrong with you and you should probably see a psychiatrist.

In fact, just thinking about it all gives me stress, so let’s move on to some less stressful findings from the same health report.

On the bright side of the study, we Quebecers have by far the lowest obesity rate anywhere in Canada, along with super-healthy B.C. So either we’re extremely fit, or we’re just losing weight because of … our stress.

Advertisement 4

Article content

We also have one of the tiniest proportions of people in any province with high blood pressure. So overall it’s possible we perceive ourselves to have more “perceived stress” than we actually do.

Frankly, none of our Quebec or Canadian stress-inducers are all that terrible compared to other places in the world these days, like Ukraine and the Middle East. Their nightmarish problems and unimaginable stress levels make ours look like we’re living in a Buddhist retreat.

Let’s hope all of us here, however strong our feelings about world situations, can keep our disputes verbal, peaceful and civilized — in Canadian and Quebec style.

That’s who we are.

It’s similar when comparing ourselves to the U.S., a country so divided and stressed by their political feuding a major poll last week suggests the next American president could conceivably be elected while inside jail.

There’s so much to stress about all over the planet that we’ve recently been forgetting to stress enough about climate change, which threatens to destroy our whole planet.

In fact, thinking about that is stressing me out again, so let’s just stop stressing about stress right now.

Advertisement 5

Article content

Instead, let’s all take a big deep breath. The good news is at least we can do that here in Quebec, where the B.C. health survey finds we have by far the country’s lowest air pollution from cars and industry — apart from Canada’s lightly populated three northern territories.

Quebec emits only 1/14th the pollution per square kilometre of Alberta or Saskatchewan, where judging by the study they’d better not breathe.

Other relatively good Quebec news: we’re far from the heaviest drinkers in the country, though we still have the most fun. So, ultimately, we don’t have more to feel stressed about than other provinces, except for the fact that … we think we do.

So let’s stop thinking now. Instead let’s be thankful we live in a place where we can afford to feel stressed out about inflation, construction traffic and foolish, often pointless language laws.

Now relax and breathe in deeply again — unless you live in Alberta or Saskatchewan in which case maybe you should just keep holding your breath.

[email protected]

Related Stories

Advertisement 6

Article content

Article content

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.