Good points but I suppose that this was not a direct answer to my post?

As for the Bluenose on the dime, it's been there for close to 100 years I think. And Nova Scotia was one of the four original provinces in Confederation.

So I wouldn't say the Bluenose on a coin is something perfunctory that is just there to prove a point.

How very Torontonian of you! :haha:

This Canadianistic stuff is semi-interesting, but we're just too busy doing more important shit with New York and New Delhi. Tah tah, dears. :haha:

(Please don't take offence. Just teasing! :))

...............

Of course it is there because of an effort to incorporate symbols from every part of Canada. I wonder if it really is a national rather than provincial cultural symbol though. Do people in Regina feel pride about the Bluenose? Do they generally understand the significance of it, or is it just the thing on the dime?

If our definition of "Canadian" is merely "from the geographical area now known as Canada" we don't have a rich discussion topic. Using the same standard you could say Scotland is just and British as England because they've both been parts of the UK for hundreds of years. The Stone of Scone is just another item in the same cultural collection as Buckingham palace.

Part of the difficulty is that "Canada" is overloaded as both an older cultural term and the name of a country. It would be like if England were the name of the UK today.

I'd say that issue goes far beyond this thread. It's actually the very essence of the Canadian identity and culture conundrum. We did not invent it here on SSP.

Most: Edmonton, Ottawa and Moncton for most of the reasons others have already listed. I’ve found all three to be friendly, welcoming and proudly Canadian. They represent ‘peace, order and good government’.

Least: Calgary - again for the reasons mentioned by a Calgarian above. Visiting does feel like going into a pocket of something different.. hmm, gotta think about this one a bit more.

Victoria - well, living here colours my perspective, but for so many reasons it feels different, not sure if that makes it less Canadian, who knows, maybe we’re the most Canadian - yah, no. Victorians are proudly Canadian as much as you’ll find anywhere, but Canadian is defined by the ideals that we stand for and less so the way of life, culture, attitudes, etc.

Partly a reality of living on an island, and an island where it’s very time consuming and/or expensive to arrive or leave. It does lead to an island mentality, which at times can be limiting, on the other hand it does result in greater local innovation and creativity. Victoria elects Green Party politicians federally and provincially, in some tidings the leading two candidates are the NDP, then Green, followed by Liberals and finally the Conservatives. So there is that massive overriding left leaning, and environmental perspective, whatever you think of that.

It doesn’t feel or look like the rest of Canada - you can see the geographical difference when you arrive back in Victoria and you can feel it too. While a lot of people enjoy going over to the mainland for the weekend as soon as they drive off the ferry there is a sigh of relief.. things are slower and more grounded.

What makes it feel less Canadian - a disdain of large companies, chain restaurants, anything large scale really. When we have colleagues visit from Edmonton they all want to go to Earl’s, Cactus Club or Milestones without fail. We snobbishly judge them - those places are for tourists who don’t know better. BTW, I swear Edmonton is the most meat and potatoes city ever when it comes to liking basic food. Even finding a restaurant large enough to handle larger work groups (more than 8!) is a near impossibility, usually means going to a pub right after work and having them put a few tables together. Unlike other Canadian cities I’ve been too most of the restaurants here a little holes in the wall, with limited seating. The smaller the better, it’s deemed as more authentic - Victorians don’t like to see anything get too big and successful because then it’s a sign of being a capitalist sellout.

Other things just look different here - billboards are not allowed, the only advertising you’ll see is at bus stops, business signs also face strict size limits, so it leaves a less cluttered look. Also, Victoria has by the far the highest percentage of people who walk or bike to work, bike traffic is everywhere, as are walkers, runners, joggers, water based activities. You really notice that difference compared to other cities.

Watching Canadiana on TV - can’t relate when they speak to the stereotypes - the cold, the wide open prairies, kids playing on frozen ponds and rivers. Tired of seeing that on hockey broadcasts with Ron McLean (maybe the most Canadian person ever - although he’s annoying as heck). We have no frozen rivers or lakes (although some years there is one field in town that gets flooded with enough water and then can freeze allowing kids to skate for a few days). The only outdoor hockey is street hockey or indoors - which probably explains why Victoria has supplied only 19 players ever to the NHL, only four of whom have over 200 career points.

While the origins were British, Victoria looks more to Asia for inspiration even though that population is lower than Vancouver. In many ways Victoria is cautious.. we built one commie block back in the 1970s and it still haunts and influences what happens today. We’re sceptical of any new trend or style, we only know for sure ‘we don’t want to be like Vancouver’. As a result, new development is small scale, and at times feels quite random and quirky. Unlike Vancouver, Victoria did not go in for the all glass condos. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s enough wild generalizations and anecdotal stories for one day, lol.

I forgot what a nickel looked like, perhaps a very Canadian trait. We need to put the Bluenose on our Visa cards instead.

For the purposes of this thread you need to define what (more or less) Canadian actually means. I think more Canadian means things that are defined by the outside world as Canadian, also things that are shared within the country by the majority of people, but not by people outside the country, therefore more common or average here.

So in conclusion, everyone has a different opinion on what Canadian means.

Yeah when I think "Canadiana" I really envision those romantic ads of wide open expanses of frozen lakes and kids skating alone on it with a hockey stick, usually against a backdrop of sunset/sunrise. Then of working class moms and dads driving their kids to hockey practice at 5 in the morning on a snowy winter morning. The true hinterlands of the country. I guess Tim Horton's / Olympics 2010 marketing got to me.

The Prairies (sans Calgary) from Alberta to Northwest Ontario really feel to me as the most quintessentially Canadian, again maybe from marketing and personal travels. Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay. Classically Canadian attributes. But the country is a heck of a lot more and what I learned is that Canada would be much significantly less interesting without all the parts that make its whole. The BC coast, much of Quebec, Toronto and NL I think would be the "least Canadian", but yet every bit as much part of Canada. Imagine the US without California or Northern Virginia.

Pretty much a foregone conclusion on this site.

The great thing about Canadian is that we can have it mean literally whatever we want it to mean.

Most: That would have to be just about anywhere in Quebec; Ottawa, too, I suppose.

Least: Hamilton, perhaps Toronto. Hamilton is just an extension of the Mid-West. You could plop it down anywhere in Upstate NY, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. and nobody would bat an eye...

So we're going by residence duration of one's ancestors now? :koko:

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned First Nations Reserves as feeling the most "Canadian". Heck there's probably no place more Canadian by far than our Territories if you subscribe to the Bering Strait Migration theory. If by city then Winnipeg should be #1 based solely on their proportion of First Nations population.

Victoria feels the most English-Canadian to me, as in how us English used to live in Canada pre-1960s. I like it. Laid back, quiet money. It's the opposite of Markham or Vaughan. Peterborough, parts of Barrie and Orillia, old London, North Vancouver still have this feel. Victoria also feels the most American - it reminds me of parts of north Seattle, Portland or Medford or Petaluma. It's got this almost Colonial English vibe to it.

Last week when I was in London, I went shopping for groceries: It felt like I was in a suburban Victoria grocery store. Friendly, attractive English people.

An interesting book I've got, "The Tourist for 1836" describes Toronto:
"York ... presents more nearly the appearance of an American village than any other in the Canadas: there are a great number of stores, and many of them are kept by young men from the States. It is uncommonly thriving; and the value of property is nearly as high as in the city of New-York: more than 300 buildings were erected in 1833."

Generally speaking, yes. Though taken to the extreme you get into "diminishing returns".

What's the most "American" Big City in the United States? In terms of representing the most "American" cross-section of the population and being the prototypical American City? Surely not New York (too cosmopolitan), or Chicago (too ethnically plural), or LA or Miami or Houston or Phoenix or San Diego (too Hispanic), or Atlanta or Washington (too African American), or Seattle or San Francisco (too Tekkie), or Detroit or Cleveland or Pittsburgh (too Rustbelty). Probably not Denver. Definitely not Salt Lake City or Vegas or Portland.

Dallas? Minneapolis? Columbus? Nashville?

Jacksonville? Or is that too much like Toronto (e.g., skyline)?

I have always associated Niagara Falls as being 'least Canadian'. It is a place (prior to the pandemic) dominated by American tourists and restaurant chains. I always thought that if Americans really wanted to experience Canada, they needed to go beyond Niagara Falls. This is from someone who actually enjoys Niagara Falls.

It seems that in any country (what's the least French city in France?) the cities on the peripheries will generally be the least representative of that country's identity.

Boston.

I mean, you're talking to someone who doesn't really believe in the notion of Canadian as it pertains to people. We all happen to live in Canada but we're all a mash of whatever our background is. It's a shared-experience with wildly different language, cultural, and social backings. Canadian is a blank slate that can be whatever we want it to be on that day, for better or for worse.