So long, fiancé ... hello minus 40

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Sophie Gaulin with her St. Bernard, Chloe: You can't explain it. When you feel it's home, it's just home. This is where I feel right. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

NO matter how much you say you love Winnipeg, Sophie Gaulin has you beat.

The 32-year-old editor-in-chief of La Liberte, the St. Boniface-based newspaper targeting Manitoba's francophone community, immigrated to Winnipeg two years ago, leaving behind a life in the south of France.

"I left my fiancé, my family, my horse," she said. "My fiancé couldn't stand the cold. He couldn't imagine living in a country where it gets to -40 in the winter and I couldn't imagine myself living somewhere other than Winnipeg."

After coming to Winnipeg in 2003 on a work program to teach at the University of Manitoba, Gaulin fell in love with the city, its people, its culture, and even its weather.

"Winter is my favourite season. When I saw the white snow, I felt like I was healing. I was at home," she said.

Gaulin's decision didn't only catch her fiancé off guard, but also her father, who was particularly baffled. A sailor, he had taken his daughter around the world on his boat when she was a child.

"He said, 'You've seen so many countries and beautiful places, why did you choose Winnipeg?' I told him, 'You can't explain it. When you feel it's home, it's just home. This is where I feel right,'" she said.

Gaulin is the unofficial poster child for an immigration program spearheaded by L'Agence nationale et internationale du Manitoba (ANIM), which aims to attract people from France and Belgium to Winnipeg. In the last 12 months, 56 people have made the cross-Atlantic move and another 80 are expected to follow in 2010.

Mariette Mulaire, president and CEO of ANIM, said the two countries aren't obvious targets for immigration, because citizens there are seen to have a good life, work in a stable economy, and not be threatened by war.

"We know we can attract them. We can give them really good professional opportunities," she said.

Mulaire said she wants to see the program grow and attract more residents from France and Belgium, but she's more concerned about the quality than quantity.

"We'd much rather have people come here and have a great experience, get cold, and see that it's different, than people who come here, get turned off, go back and give us a bad reputation.

"It's not for everybody. We want to make sure we're connecting with people that want an adventure. We'd rather make sure they come here with open eyes than increase the numbers. We want to make sure the ones that come make roots here," Mulaire said.

Mulaire said eight participants in a hospitality industry exchange program with France and Belgium recently immigrated to Winnipeg on work visas. Because these cooks and servers come from a culture where working in a restaurant is a career, not just a means of paying for university, they bring a certain je ne sais quoi to local eateries.

"For them, it's a profession, it's taken very seriously. They bring a savoir faire that we don't necessarily have here," she said.

Doug Stephen, president and CEO of WOW! Hospitality Concepts, which operates seven eateries in Winnipeg, has hired three of the newcomers. Two are at 529 Wellington -- one is the assistant sommelier and training to be a manager, while the other is a server -- and the third is a server and in training to be a supervisor at Terrace Fifty-Five in Assiniboine Park.

"We're striving to improve the dining landscape in Winnipeg and Manitoba. They bring a different perspective. They have certainly helped us improve our training programs. They give us feedback how things are being done in another country," said Stephen.

"I'm really ecstatic about the fact we're being recognized as a profession, as opposed to an entry-level job people work at on the way to something else. With them choosing to come to Winnipeg for a career, it's a feather in our cap that we're getting on par with the world stage."

Gaulin said she doesn't think many Winnipeggers know how good they have it here in the Manitoba capital.

"Sometimes it saddens me to see them despising Winnipeg. They haven't seen the whole world. France looks exotic and romantic but when you live here you have a quality of life that is amazing," she said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 7, 2009 B1