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The question the OP asked is "what is the most Canadian Part of the US?" I would say undoubtedly, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan is by far is the most Canadian Part of the US.
With respect to Detroit, I think you may be downplaying the connection between people in Metro Detroit with Canada. You need to analyze the question looking at the population and local customs.
Each year, Detroit and Windsor, Ontario celebrate the independence of their respective countries simultaneously. Windsor and Detroit also jointly cohost the annual Detroit Windsor International Film Festival. People in Metro Detroit cross into Windsor in a significant pattern. People go to Canada for entertainment, dining, shopping, gambling, etc. I don't think there is another American major city with the exception of Buffalo perhaps with such an affinity and strong connection to Canada. People in Metro Detroit receive both radio and television service from Canada. In my opinion, looking at people's ties and exposure to Canada is the most important factor when trying to discuss the most Canadian part of the US. So yes, Detroit above any other city meets this factor. I don't know, perhaps you might think that places like Chicago, Dallas, or Salt Lake City are more Canadian than Detroit.
Last, from a geographical point of view, Canada is a focal point of leaving the State for the 4.5 million people in the Detroit area. So there is a little more complexity in the ties between Canada and Detroit than just hockey and the climate. In short, do not just look at the city, but look at the population base and its ties with Canada.
I am not downplaying the connections between Detroit and Windsor at all. I know they exist and are strong.
But the OP was asking what is the most Canadian part of the U.S.
To me that means where in the U.S. would you be able to go, replace the blue mailboxes with red ones, toss in a Canadian Tire store here and there, metric road signs and bilingual product labels in English and French, and pretty much get the impression you're still in Canada.
Among the major cities of the U.S., Detroit is most definitely not a place like that.
There is of course the blight and decay in the city which has no parallel anywhere in Canada, and the edginess about personal safety that goes along with it. (Felt not just by non-Windsorite Canadians visting, but also by Detroiters themselves.)
But also the demographics of the city. Obviously the city proper is majority African-American, most of them descended from people who came from the southern states during the Great Migration. Black Canadians are predominantly from the Caribbean with strong recent growth of people from Africa itself. That's a huge difference.
As for white people in the Detroit area they are often descended from people from the southern U.S. as well and if you meet them it's quite interesting to see how they're not quite "northerners" in temperament and culture like people are in the rest of the Great Lakes region are.
Again, I realize that for Windsorites there is not that much of a clash as you're in familiar territory with these people and that's perfectly normal and fine. But that doesn't make Detroit a pseudo-Canadian city even if many of those descendants of southerners are Red Wings fans and Tim Hortons has several locations in SE Michigan.
For the purposes of the OP I'd probably go with the Twin Cities or maybe Seattle.
Outside of Speaking English the US and Canada are generally influence by versus cultures across Europe and the World,
Which is why the US has such a broad range in traditional cuisine, assents, music, architecture and etc.
The English colonies were only on the east coast, And some them have Dutch roots, The Brittish gain land from French after the French and Indian war but never really settle that land, the French did to a small extent, which is why so many states, cities, rivers and etc have french influences names. Boston was a British colonial city while New Orleans was french and Spanish, America began a massive pour of immigration from Europe, Italians, Germans, Irish, Scandinavians and even Chinese. While over several generations people lost them native tongue their accented, cuisines and architecture and affect the history of their cities and regions.
In the midwest for example. had huge influx of German, Scandinavians. So their accents are influence by a lot of cultures but strongly by history of Germans and Scandinavians that migrated their.
The Spanish, French, and Portuguese wasn't as strick as the British in trying to suppress African culture among slaves, their culture was probably closer to blacks in Cuba than Virginia, until Louisiana became part of the US. but this play huge effect on the culture down there, Creole, Jazz and etc in The US.
It's funny because when people think of the Western United States... They think of Cowboys, it's part of some states identity like Texas and etc, America has romanticize image of the cowboy in the media...... the irony it's all Spanish and Mexican influence. It comes from traditional horse riding, cattle culture of these countries culture,
The Vaquero culture of Mexico, became the Cowboy culture of the US.
the term "Latin culture" is already criticize for overgeneralizing different nations saying "Anglo" is worst.
So the way I see it America is pretty much it's own thing
The U.S. is most definitely its own thing but the British influence is most definitely the strongest and most enduring one by a longshot.
This is something that was posted recently in another forum about Canada. It also applies to the U.S.:
Canada, for the most part, started out as an extension of Britain. The most fundamental aspects of our society - language, culture, religions, institutions - are all derived from Britain. It has nothing to do with "Anglo-Saxon stock" or ethnicity. Those of us who aren't of Anglo-Saxon stock are just as affected by the British roots of our country as those who are. These are fundamental things that will always tie us to them and always make them a bigger part of our consciousness than most other countries. It's the same way with the way Western culture pays more attention to ancient Greece and Rome than other civilizations of that era that were similarly dominant, like the Persians, Arabs or Chinese. This is never going to change regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon stock there is.
The anglo influence also extends to stuff like the nursery rhymes you sing to your kids, personal space and relationships and interpersonal contacts, high culture, etc.
It's an oft-contested notion but a huge proportion of culture is language-driven. Even stuff that doesn't appear to be like cuisine is often indirectly affected by language. Which why North African merguez is easy to find in any grocery store in Gatineau or even Quebec (mainly French speaking), but tough to find outside of specialized shops even just across the river in Ottawa (majority English speaking). And Indian stuff like samosas is very hard to find north of the Ottawa River on the Quebec side.
Maybe it's a bit like Vancouver - gotta be part of the in crowd to know where to be.
Nothing like Vancouver. Vancouver's downtown is extremely vibrant, especially compared to Calgary. Vancouver after hours scene, is what I was referring to before, if that is what you mean.
Outside of Speaking English the US and Canada are generally influence by versus cultures across Europe and the World,
Which is why the US has such a broad range in traditional cuisine, assents, music, architecture and etc.
The English colonies were only on the east coast, And some them have Dutch roots, The Brittish gain land from French after the French and Indian war but never really settle that land, the French did to a small extent, which is why so many states, cities, rivers and etc have french influences names. Boston was a British colonial city while New Orleans was french and Spanish, America began a massive pour of immigration from Europe, Italians, Germans, Irish, Scandinavians and even Chinese. While over several generations people lost them native tongue their accented, cuisines and architecture and affect the history of their cities and regions.
In the midwest for example. had huge influx of German, Scandinavians. So their accents are influence by a lot of cultures but strongly by history of Germans and Scandinavians that migrated their.
The Spanish, French, and Portuguese wasn't as strick as the British in trying to suppress African culture among slaves, their culture was probably closer to blacks in Cuba than Virginia, until Louisiana became part of the US. but this play huge effect on the culture down there, Creole, Jazz and etc in The US.
It's funny because when people think of the Western United States... They think of Cowboys, it's part of some states identity like Texas and etc, America has romanticize image of the cowboy in the media...... the irony it's all Spanish and Mexican influence. It comes from traditional horse riding, cattle culture of these countries culture,
The Vaquero culture of Mexico, became the Cowboy culture of the US.
the term "Latin culture" is already criticize for overgeneralizing different nations saying "Anglo" is worst.
So the way I see it America is pretty much it's own thing
Good post and I like the pictures you found. I agree with everything you’ve said about the influence of all of those groups, and your right to say this history you cite is why our nation is distinct from the UK. Canada and Australia have thier own immigration patterns that have done the same thing for those nations.
My point however was that the Anglo culture is the foundation that everything is built on here in the US and in Canada (other than Quebec) as well. No doubt our language, government and laws are based in English tradition as well as many other institutions. Also all of those immigrants adapted the Anglophone culture so your actual ethnicity does not mean as much as you would think. Even black Americans are part of Anglophone culture in many ways, even if they do not want to admit it. We all learned English, accept the governing system which is very English in its origins, and accept the system of law that is also very English. What all these immigrants have done and what black and Indian Americans have done has put an American spin on Anglophone culture.
I am not downplaying the connections between Detroit and Windsor at all. I know they exist and are strong.
But the OP was asking what is the most Canadian part of the U.S.
To me that means where in the U.S. would you be able to go, replace the blue mailboxes with red ones, toss in a Canadian Tire store here and there, metric road signs and bilingual product labels in English and French, and pretty much get the impression you're still in Canada.
Among the major cities of the U.S., Detroit is most definitely not a place like that.
There is of course the blight and decay in the city which has no parallel anywhere in Canada, and the edginess about personal safety that goes along with it. (Felt not just by non-Windsorite Canadians visting, but also by Detroiters themselves.)
But also the demographics of the city. Obviously the city proper is majority African-American, most of them descended from people who came from the southern states during the Great Migration. Black Canadians are predominantly from the Caribbean with strong recent growth of people from Africa itself. That's a huge difference.
As for white people in the Detroit area they are often descended from people from the southern U.S. as well and if you meet them it's quite interesting to see how they're not quite "northerners" in temperament and culture like people are in the rest of the Great Lakes region are.
Again, I realize that for Windsorites there is not that much of a clash as you're in familiar territory with these people and that's perfectly normal and fine. But that doesn't make Detroit a pseudo-Canadian city even if many of those descendants of southerners are Red Wings fans and Tim Hortons has several locations in SE Michigan.
For the purposes of the OP I'd probably go with the Twin Cities or maybe Seattle.
As someone who has lived in Michigan I can agree with you about Detroit. It is different no doubt, and as you say much of it’s people are only two generations from the south, both black and white. The great migration is often cited when speaking of blacks but just as many of the whites are also southern and migrated at the same time. For this reason Detroit is different from the rest of Michigan which becomes very traditional upper midwestern as soon as you get outside the influence of Detroit’s suburbs. I guess I am saying your right that Detroit is not much like Canada, but IMO there are far more similarities between the rest of Michigan and Canada.
Montreal, Ottawa/Gatineau, Calgary to name a few have large Arab populations. For Quebec, older populations still think like that, younger populations are more open to the Anglo world, and I agree as well that French Canadian is an ethnicity.
Northern Maine has a lot of French speakers like Quebec.
I never considered Canada as having a large Arab and Asian population except for the big cities. Most of Canada is very rural, like northern Maine, so that's a good fit.
Canada and the U.S are almost exactly as urbanized as the other although Canada's urbanization rate is higher, so over time if that trend continues Canada will actually be more urbanized.
Canada's rural areas are simple more sparsely populated than in the U.S, but like the U.S - 80 percent of its inhabitants live in urban areas not rural.
When we were in Calgary last summer, it seemed pretty much like Denver to me.
Yeah when it comes to demographics, Canada categorizes things better. Also, do note that there was a pretty big undercount with our 2016 census and we should be getting the numbers in a couple of months from now.
The U.S. is most definitely its own thing but the British influence is most definitely the strongest and most enduring one by a longshot.
This is something that was posted recently in another forum about Canada. It also applies to the U.S.:
Canada, for the most part, started out as an extension of Britain. The most fundamental aspects of our society - language, culture, religions, institutions - are all derived from Britain. It has nothing to do with "Anglo-Saxon stock" or ethnicity. Those of us who aren't of Anglo-Saxon stock are just as affected by the British roots of our country as those who are. These are fundamental things that will always tie us to them and always make them a bigger part of our consciousness than most other countries. It's the same way with the way Western culture pays more attention to ancient Greece and Rome than other civilizations of that era that were similarly dominant, like the Persians, Arabs or Chinese. This is never going to change regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon stock there is.
The anglo influence also extends to stuff like the nursery rhymes you sing to your kids, personal space and relationships and interpersonal contacts, high culture, etc.
It's an oft-contested notion but a huge proportion of culture is language-driven. Even stuff that doesn't appear to be like cuisine is often indirectly affected by language. Which why North African merguez is easy to find in any grocery store in Gatineau or even Quebec (mainly French speaking), but tough to find outside of specialized shops even just across the river in Ottawa (majority English speaking). And Indian stuff like samosas is very hard to find north of the Ottawa River on the Quebec side.
I'm not saying America is not with in an Anglophone culture, I'm saying that extremely simplistic. "language, culture, religions, institutions - are all derived from Britain." I don't think you understand that this is the debate itself, You just re instated what being debated as a answer itself. I'm explaining to you into detail why " language, culture, religions, institutions" of the US have been affect by more than just Britain.
And part of your post is straw maning Anglo-Saxon as western, when all of that is "Western culture" of the US is not anglo-saxon. Western culture also include German, Italian, Spanish, Irish, and Scandinavian countries. "nursery rhymes" mean while half of fairy tales in the US is coming from Germany and other European nations. My point wasn't the stock of people my point was the culture of those people drastically affect the US.
Also let point the oblivious more group colonized the US and far more immigrants historical went into The US than Canada. in fact more immigrants have to the US 1830 to 1930 than the whole current population Canada. From 1820 and 1870 there was massive immigration from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and etc. That double the US populations, Another massive wave of European immigration from 1870 - 1920. Today Americans are familiar with Italian, Mexican and etc foods but not Ukrainian foods why? because the cultures of immigrants mix in with US and it became American. So stuff like Hot-dogs and Hamburgers which are German became American. The US gain significant influences from all these cultures and others, not just immigrant today but immigrant 1 and 2 hundred years ago, When they started speaking English they didn't start speaking English, they change what people spoke and thought with in the language and culture which is why The US culture is far different than Britain today. Because the US over last century has vast more variables.
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