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Here in good ol' Nouvelle-Angleterre the runing story has been, "there used to be Little Canadas all over New England milltowns. The French-Canadians then assimilated and those areas disappeared."
We nearly spit out our Dunkin' medium regular when we saw this gem - Little, Canada, Minnesota? Stop it. That can't be a thing....it is.
Benjamin Gervais left Winnipeg in 1844 to create the first grist mill in Minnesota and to this day traces of French-Canadian ancestry linger. We might redo that logo though a wee bit too red, it needs some blue.
The article is overall really well done. Though the CBC doesn't totally get the struggle for French names in the US. Its all about phonics down here, our names struggle. We don't judge the people of Little Canada at all for saying Jarvis instead of Gervais. Especially with how hilarious British Comic Ricky Gervais is. Ricky is half French-Canadian btw. But trying to say it the French way wouldn't be a bad thing.
What we thought was really cool was the existence of Canada Days. The event is very similar to festivals in Quebec and New England.
A solid week jam packed with events.
From the English Canadian media perspective this community isn't "very French anymore," pardon the eye roll. It's a different game in the US.
In the next breathe they say the people are very proud of the name Little Canada. Without having been to Little Canada, we'll withhold judgement. Maybe they handed down some of the French-Canadian foods? Maybe there are school trips to Quebec every so many years. Just because many of the residents don't speak French anymore, it doesn't mean make them any less French-Canadian descent than anyone else. DNA doesn't lie.
Immigrant native language loss is part of the American story and is not unique to Little Canada, but it sounds like they have held onto a lot of pride and still celebrate in a pretty awesome way.
A quick cheers to Little Canada for having a pretty awesome little town!
Full CBC article here: Little Canada