Swimming pool culture of Montreal

[montréaliste]

According to this article in Montreal’s LaPresse, there are 500,000 pools in Quebec. More pools per capita than Ca and Fl.


https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/1b7...e__7C___0.html

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

According to this article in Montreal’s LaPresse, there are 500,000 pools in Quebec. More pools per capita than Ca and Fl.


https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/1b7...e__7C___0.html

There are about 4M private dwellings in the province, so about 1 out of 8 has a swimming pool.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

so about 1 out of 8 has a swimming pool.

That's nuts!

From 45 years of living my whole damn life in Chicagoland. I'd be shocked if even 1 in 50 SFH's here had a pool.

Probably more like 1 in 100.

They're just not terribly common here, for whatever reason.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

That's nuts!

From 45 years of living my whole damn life in Chicagoland. I'd be shocked if even 1 in 50 SFH's here had a pool.

Probably more like 1 in 100.

They're just not terribly common here, for whatever reason.

The Quebec article in La Presse (posted above, google translates to english for you) mentioned pool companies offer financing on above ground pools starting at 10k/8kUSD
That and keeping up with the Tremblays!

[pj3000]

I'm pretty sure that the prevalence of swimming pools in Quebec is mainly due to the desire to wear their Speedos.

[xzmattzx]

In addition to Montreal, Buffalo, NY, and the Niagara Region of Ontario have a big backyard pool culture.

I think these places have big backyard pool cultures because they have such weak neighborhood swimming pool cultures. Here in northern Delaware, there are somewhere around 60 private neighborhood pools sprinkled around northern New Castle County. The DC area, such as Montgomery County, has a huge neighborhood pool culture too; I know there used to be over 90 neighborhood pools there about 15 years ago, and it has to be about the same now. South Jersey also has a lot of neighborhood pools. People who can pay $1,000 or $1,500 a year for a pool membership are not going to dish out 20x as much for a backyard pool, especially when the pool membership means that someone else watches your kids to a degree, and it's easy to make new friends and all.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

In addition to Montreal, Buffalo, NY, and the Niagara Region of Ontario have a big backyard pool culture.

I think these places have big backyard pool cultures because they have such weak neighborhood swimming pool cultures. Here in northern Delaware, there are somewhere around 60 private neighborhood pools sprinkled around northern New Castle County. The DC area, such as Montgomery County, has a huge neighborhood pool culture too; I know there used to be over 90 neighborhood pools there about 15 years ago, and it has to be about the same now. South Jersey also has a lot of neighborhood pools. People who can pay $1,000 or $1,500 a year for a pool membership are not going to dish out 20x as much for a backyard pool, especially when the pool membership means that someone else watches your kids to a degree, and it's easy to make new friends and all.

I counted 62 outdoor and 41 indoor pools in the municipality of Montreal’s equipment count. There are a lot more on the island, in the smaller independent cities. These are all public pools, of course. I’m not aware of the private count. Membership is probably a lot cheaper than a thousand bucks for the use of these, on an annual basis.

https://montreal.ca/en/topics/swimming-and-pools

[pj3000]

Pools with lots of other people -- no thank you

[Crawford]

To be fair, we aren't really making apples-apples comparisons. The phenomenon of private pools in Quebec is overwhelmingly above-ground. I don't think above-ground pools are allowed in the vast majority of communities in the U.S., so there's nothing to compare, really. Certainly the newer sprawl-type communities and higher-end neighborhoods nationwide don't allow them.

A better comparison would be the % of built-in pools. On that measure, I'm not sure if Quebec is really a huge outlier. You can't compare all pools bc the latter costs 10x that of the former, and is a much bigger maintenance commitment, so the cost-benefit calculation is totally different. An above ground pool is functionally more like a giant kiddie pool than an in-ground pool.

[Acajack]

As has been mentioned, there is no shortage of public pools in Quebec's cities.

Or at least wasn't.

I've observed that the proliferation of backyard pools has led to almost no new outdoor public pools being constructed in recent decades.

Almost all of our outdoor public pools are quite old.

Though the construction of new indoor public pools continues unabated and these remain very popular in the winter.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Pools with lots of other people -- no thank you

private neighborhood pools arent usually crowded like public neighborhood pools. they are actually pretty great if you live in the suburbs. typically way cheaper than a country club.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I have fairly large heated in-ground pool in my backyard.

I open it around the same time as you: late April. We generally start swimming around May 10-15.

It's generally nice enough to swim until mid to late September. We've had pool parties as late as Oct. 10 though.

I usually run it a few hours a day towards the end of the season and close as late as possible (late October or early November) which makes the water a lot clearer in the spring when I open it.

Same here. Spring comes earlier in London (Ont) than in Montreal/Ottawa, but Fall is about the same. I had an above ground pool when I was growing up in suburban Montreal (half the homes on the block did), and now I have a large inground pool in my backyard in London.

The story I heard about the preponderance of pools in Quebec was connected to culture: That historically, most Quebecois did not travel much beyond their borders (aside from Old Orchard Beach in Maine), and that as a more collectivistic/tribal culture, they enjoy having families and friends gather in local settings. Above ground pools are way cheaper than the dug in alternatives. Anyways, the phenomenon took root, and it still flourishes, despite the fact that Quebecois are less tribal and more likely to travel abroad than they were in the 1970s and before. Voila.

Summer weather only lasts for 3 months, but with a heater or solar blanket, you can add a month to each end. Montreal (and I suppose to a lesser extent, Ottawa) can get very muggy during the summer months, due to the humidity added by the Fleuve St. Laurent.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Same here. Spring comes earlier in London (Ont) than in Montreal/Ottawa, but Fall is about the same. I had an above ground pool when I was growing up in suburban Montreal (half the homes on the block did), and now I have a large inground pool in my backyard in London.

The story I heard about the preponderance of pools in Quebec was connected to culture: That historically, most Quebecois did not travel much beyond their borders (aside from Old Orchard Beach in Maine), and that as a more collectivistic/tribal culture, they enjoy having families and friends gather in local settings. Above ground pools are way cheaper than the dug in alternatives. Anyways, the phenomenon took root, and it still flourishes, despite the fact that Quebecois are less tribal and more likely to travel abroad than they were in the 1970s and before. Voila.

Summer weather only lasts for 3 months, but with a heater or solar blanket, you can add a month to each end. Montreal (and I suppose to a lesser extent, Ottawa) can get very muggy during the summer months, due to the humidity added by the Fleuve St. Laurent.

Yup. Ottawa is actually pretty muggy as well.

To someone from warmer climes who comes to Quebec (or even southern Ontario) in the winter and sees all those pools frozen solid and covered in snow, it probably seems like a bit of fanciful denial.

But anyone who spends a summer here will change their tune.

The season is even long enough for the novelty to lose its lustre for a lot of people by late August. Believe it or not.

[isaidso]

^^ Agree. Foreigners, and even some Canadians, have this bizarre notion that Quebec doesn't get a proper summer. Any one who's lived in Quebec knows it's very similar to a southern Ontario summer. It's hot, humid, and lasts a solid 3 months. You get a month of decently warm weather on each end of that. So up to 5 months of swimming pool weather.

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

There are about 4M private dwellings in the province, so about 1 out of 8 has a swimming pool.

Technically, every Quebecker could be in a pool at the same time and they'd still be space in the water for more people. It's surely cultural as the prevalence of swimming pools is MUCH higher in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. Interestingly, its the same in Europe. The prevalence of swimming pools in France is MUCH higher than in the rest of Europe.

Canadians do embrace the seasons with more zeal than other countries though. In winter people go skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding, skating, etc. en masse. When spring hits, people hit nurseries en masse to plant flowers and vegetables. When summer arrives, people are boating, at the lake, cottage, barbecues, beaches, and pools en masse. The enthusiasm in which people approach the seasons is one of the things I've always liked about Canada. People know that these seasons only last 3-4 months so they make the best of it.

In places where summer lasts an eternity people don't seem to have that same sense of urgency. On my last trip to Australia people suggested we not go to the beach because it was overcast. Another day our hosts warned us not to go to the corner store because it might rain later on. They were alarmed when we went any way. It was shocking to me how hesitant people were about a little bit of weather.

It speaks volumes that Quebeckers are willing to shell out $5,000-15,000 on a pool that they can only use for maybe 4-5 months (May - September) of the year. Having lived in Canada for this long I totally understand why but I bet it's a head scratcher to foreigners.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Technically, every Quebecker could be in a pool at the same time and they'd still be space in the water for more people. It's surely cultural as the prevalence of swimming pools is MUCH higher in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. Interestingly, its the same in Europe. The prevalence of swimming pools in France is MUCH higher than in the rest of Europe.

Yeah, private pools in Germany are really, really rare. Probably not even 1/5,000 have a private pool, and if they do it's more likely to be an indoor pool. The two Germans I know with pools are both quite wealthy and both have indoor pools.

I don't recall ever seeing a private, in-ground, outdoor pool for a single family house in Germany, though they're common in apartment complexes, and municipal outdoor pools are everywhere.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

There are 3 million private swimming pools in France, it's the largest number outside of the USA and as such private swimming is a common feasure of suburban France but with large disparity between the north and the south of France.
Very common in the south of the country, much rarer in the north.


Avignon suburbs, Le Pontet by Minato ku, sur Flickr

I once flew over Toulouse and from the air the suburbs look like Phoenix, Arizona or something.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Canadians do embrace the seasons with more zeal than other countries though. In winter people go skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding, skating, etc. en masse. When spring hits, people hit nurseries en masse to plant flowers and vegetables. When summer arrives, people are boating, at the lake, cottage, barbecues, beaches, and pools en masse. The enthusiasm in which people approach the seasons is one of the things I've always liked about Canada. People know that these seasons only last 3-4 months so they make the best of it.

In places where summer lasts an eternity people don't seem to have that same sense of urgency. On my last trip to Australia people suggested we not go to the beach because it was overcast. Another day our hosts warned us not to go to the corner store because it might rain later on. They were alarmed when we went any way. It was shocking to me how hesitant people were about a little bit of weather.
.

In much of the world the weather is much more of a banal, passive thing. Sure there are seasons and occasional climatological disasters, but in relatively few places is it truly an everyday concern like it is in Canada.

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by Crawford

To be fair, we aren't really making apples-apples comparisons. The phenomenon of private pools in Quebec is overwhelmingly above-ground. I don't think above-ground pools are allowed in the vast majority of communities in the U.S., so there's nothing to compare, really. Certainly the newer sprawl-type communities and higher-end neighborhoods nationwide don't allow them.

A better comparison would be the % of built-in pools. On that measure, I'm not sure if Quebec is really a huge outlier. You can't compare all pools bc the latter costs 10x that of the former, and is a much bigger maintenance commitment, so the cost-benefit calculation is totally different. An above ground pool is functionally more like a giant kiddie pool than an in-ground pool.

There are more than 100,000 built-in pools in the province of Quebec.

[Centropolis]

man thats wild, especially in an area prolific with cabin properties on lakes which are a better long term investment, or rather they are an investment at all compared to pools. i presume this is why the chicagoland middle class is like “fuck pools,” lol.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

man thats wild, especially in an area prolific with cabin properties on lakes which are a better long term investment, or rather they are an investment at all compared to pools. i presume this is why the chicagoland middle class is like “fuck pools,” lol.

yes, a "lake cottage" or "cabin in the woods" are MUCH bigger aspirational goals for the middle and upper middle classes in chicagoland than backyard pools are.

i grew up in the VERY upper middle to upper class northshore burbs. only a few people that i knew growing up had a pool, but vacation homes up in wisconsin or over in michigan were plentiful among my peers.