Quote:
Originally Posted by hipster duck
Here in BC, people have a close association with the border, but they don't have negative connotations of the immediate area across the border because Washington state is quite economically rich. You aren't presented with the ghettos of Detroit or Buffalo or the scary, Deliverance/prison-industrial complex rural backwaterland of Upstate NY.
A question I would pose for Canadians is whether it's generally true that when you cross into the US, you cross into an area that is relatively poorer and more backward. Aside from coastal BC, I think this is generally the case.
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"Here in Vancouver" would be a better way of putting it. BC is more than just Vancouver and growing up in the Okanagan I wouldn't say we had a close association with the boarder (unless maybe you lived at the south end of the Valley). A lot of people where I grew up had similar feelings about Vancouver that the rest of Canada has about Toronto.
When I go to the States these day, it's usually the Coutts/Sweet Grass crossing. About an hour drive from Lethbridge. To me, the minute I cross the border I feel like I'm in a very remote place but I wouldn't say it feels poorer or backward. There are a few smaller towns close by but the next relatively big place is Great Falls and I wouldn't say it really feels much different to Lethbridge although I think it looks like it's been around longer.
The other location I've crossed a few times is just south of Cranbrook BC and the truth is, the part of BC doesn't feel any less backward than that part of Idaho. Both very rural. I would guess that residents on both sides of the border there are protecting their properties with guns.