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The Soos are closely tied as well, and the UP has a lot in common with Ontario from Sudbury west. Also, Ontario gets it's cable US TV stations from Detroit. When I briefly lived in Montreal, I once drove to Ottawa to to watch the Michigan- Michigan State football game because the Ontario ABC feed came from Detroit whereas Montreal came from NYC, I believe.
Yeah, I forgot about the Soos. You're right.
But I'm from a city just south of Toronto, (spent teen years in Montreal), and lived in Detroit for 14 years. Southern Ontario has close ties to Buffalo (people in Ontario do a LOT of shopping/hanging out there, and often fly out of Buffalo airport, and vice versa), but people simply don't think much about Detroit. Not positively, anyway, which is a shame. When we lived in Detroit, friends and family rarely wanted to visit us there.
Last edited by newdixiegirl; 04-05-2019 at 11:01 PM..
I am aware that Ontario is much larger than Michigan - but its mostly unpopulated and only has a population of 14 million people - only 4 million people more than Michigan. You state "Detroit has a connection to Windsor and perhaps to other smaller towns in southwestern Ontario (ie Sarnia). That's it."
You are correct - That's it. Is that not enough? Or the Canadian border with Michigan doesn't count as Canada? Where else is there such a large amount of Canadian-American contact?
My point is that - in an earlier post, it was argued that Michigan is completly separated and has a different vibe than Canada. My response was simply that if you were to look at American society and make an analysis of what population base in the USA is the most interconnected with Canada and/or knows the most about Canada, it would naturally be a population base which resides right on the border of Canada - Detroit and/or Buffalo. It was more of a tangential point - I wasn't saying which American population base is the most similar to Canada. Rather - what American population base is most connected to Canada. Perhaps it is the 42,000 people in Burlington or the 8,000 people in Montpelier, Vermont as opposed to the 5.3 million people in Metro Detroit or the 300,000 people in the UP.
Fair enough. You aren't talking about which population is most culturally similar, just most connected. In that case, I still say there is much more Canadian-American contact between the huge population in the GTA-Hamilton corridor and south through the Niagara Peninsula to NY State than there is between the significantly smaller populations of cities like Windsor and Sarnia to Detroit.
For one thing, Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, NY are, of course, huge tourist draws, and they are like twin cities. People go back and forth across the river, and many even walk or bike across the Rainbow Bridge. The border crossing at Windsor is much busier with commercial traffic, certainly, but I think there is more of a sense of general interconnectedness between Southern Ontario and Western NY.
That's my opinion, anyway, as someone from Southern Ontario. Maybe other Southern Ontarians will chime in with their thoughts.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by newdixiegirl
Canadians like Vermont, as well. But the answer to the OP's question depends on where in Canada Vermont would go. Insert Vermont into a large rural area in, say, Eastern Ontario or somewhere in the Maritimes? Sure. In many ways, you could incorporate Vermont into rural areas of Quebec, though rural Quebec is VERY French.
But Canada's major cities -- Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary -- are large, urban, busy, and very diverse, similar to NYC, Philly, or Chicago. In other words, the antithesis of Vermont (though I admit I say that as someone who hasn't been to Vermont in 25+ years). Would Vermonters like that change of pace?
Vermont has a lot of transplants with people originally from other Northeastern states like myself who are quite familiar with the urban vibe of the Northeast. No they definitely would not want that change of pace, we like our laid back life here which is why I choose to live here. But we're also within arms reach of Montreal, which is a nice pretty nice luxury as far as the whole package goes.
I've visited a lot of cities around North America, as far as big cities go at this point, if Montreal doesn't have it, then I probably don't need it. It has everything I could need in an urban North American metropolis. I totally agree Montreal has a very similar pace of life as Boston, Philly, etc. Yes most of the Canadian population lives in that belt of urban/suburban settlement. The discussion turned to what state was most politically aligned with Canada, to that I'd say Vermont. In that aspect I think Vermont and Canada are on a very similar wavelength.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 04-06-2019 at 08:24 AM..
In certain superficial regards such as climate and scenery, yes, but the two cities are actually quite different in many other regards.
Metro Vancouver is more urban, cosmopolitan and compact while Seattle’s metro area sprawls. Vancouver has a much higher East Asian population with a ton of UK ex-pats while Seattle has significantly higher White, African/Black and Hispanic populations. Seattle has significantly higher violent and property crime rates. Seattle is more of a bar town while Vancouver is a club town. Vancouver has way more of a preppie vibe. The economies are completely different. I could go on and on...
Agree.
You hear this a lot about Seattle and Vancouver, but the two cities have totally different feels to them.
Sounds about right. That said, climate and recreation give us a shared feel in many ways, and a steady diet of weekend trips means a large percentage of residents know the other city well.
Seattle sprawled way more in past decades, and even outside of that there's the highway-related crap that infests the US. But now our growth patterns are more similar. Seattle is doing Vancouver-lite/late...similar focus on transit and density but generally decades behind on both, and without the numerous highrises nodes.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by Natnasci
Agree.
You hear this a lot about Seattle and Vancouver, but the two cities have totally different feels to them.
They do, we've gone into discussion before of their differences (and preferences). Though I always felt that Vancouver and Seattle were always culturally closer than Vancouver is with Toronto and Montreal. Vancouver and Seattle are governed very differently and the way Vancouver's urban infrastructure developed is more aligned with Toronto, but there is a west coast vibe about Vancouver that feels more aligned with Seattle than the ROC.
They do, we've gone into discussion before of their differences (and preferences). Though I always felt that Vancouver and Seattle were always culturally closer than Vancouver is with Toronto and Montreal. Vancouver and Seattle are governed very differently and the way Vancouver's urban infrastructure developed is more aligned with Toronto, but there is a west coast vibe about Vancouver that feels more aligned with Seattle than the ROC.
Yes we have
Yes people in Vancouver and Seattle share certain common things, like the weather, the type of recreational actives we do because of the lay of the land and sea. We both have our own set of islands off the coast as well.
Both cities growing at the same time also contributes to the shared vibe you mention. That is part of culture.
However the main part of a person culture is deeper than that. For example, I'll will have more in common with a fellow Canadian when we talk about Canada, it's politics, it's artist, it's people. I won't have to explain things like I do with most Americans. So I have to disagree and say I have more culturally in common with someone from Toronto and even Montreal, than Seattle, even though a person from Seattle and I will have more in common than someone from Mexico.
Oregon. It's a mini-Canada. Awesome scenery, friendly people, live-and-let-live attitude. Underachieving economy. Portland is Montreal without the French tradition. Eugene is Victoria without the British tradition - or a harbor. Ashland is similar to Niagara on the Lake.
Oregon. It's a mini-Canada. Awesome scenery, friendly people, live-and-let-live attitude. Underachieving economy. Portland is Montreal without the French tradition. Eugene is Victoria without the British tradition - or a harbor. Ashland is similar to Niagara on the Lake.
Partly...but Portland is no Montreal. Not even close.
Eugene is just another US college town. Nice enough, but again, nothing like Victoria.
I like Ashland. It's a nice town and I could see that being a bit like Nelson in BC.
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