This is true and I've seen these numbers before. It's definitely an interesting piece of history, and I wonder how things might have been different had Atlantic Canada maintained more internal migration in later decades (if it had some big cities that attracted more of the people who instead moved to places like Toronto or Calgary in the 1950's and later). But you won't normally see the long-term accent of a place get determined by a minority of 5-10% who move there during a certain period, particularly if it's migrant workers (sometimes upper class people have more impact).

We also need to explain Creignish or Mabou which I doubt offered good enough employment prospects to draw Newfoundlanders in 1920, or had some kind of reverse migration from Sydney or anything like that. In many of those places circa 1900 people were still mostly speaking Gaelic but were on their way to shifting to English.

There is a related question which is how much the culture of a minority in a place counts as being from that place instead of wherever the minority originated. I think that if 5% of people in a town have a certain culture that's just a part of the culture of the town. I don't think the "culture of Halifax minus the stuff that came from Newfoundland" is a useful construct or meaningful way to compare against other cities. And I think we should consider cities that function as regional melting pots to be showcases of those cultures. The city is just the sum of whoever moves there plus what is built by those people over time.

In the same way I think of say Chinese culture as being a part of Vancouver, not exotic or temporary. It's just a part of the city as is whatever stuff came from people who moved from somewhere else in Canada. And increasingly we're getting stuff here that is a blend of Asian and North American influences.

“Down east” or “out west”, I would say. “East” being anything beyond Quebec and “west” being anything west of the Ontario/Manitoba border. Although, when I think about it, I doubt I’d say I was going out west if my destination was Winnipeg, so maybe anything west of Manitoba.

I've worked with many folks from down east: Acadians with last names like Trudeau, Bourque from New Brunswick, Scots from Cape Breton escaping extreme poverty, a few Anglo Scots from PEI and many Newfies working in manufacturing, construction or dreaming of moving out west to work in the oil biz. Maybe SHH knows the reason there's so many of his people in Cambridge?

(My point: these downeasters whether Scots, Newfie or Acadian French seemed more Canadian than myself: obsessed with hockey, cottage life, ice fishing, drinking, weed.)

The Newfoundlander community in Cambridge, ON dates back to the war years when there were abundant jobs in the textile/clothing industry. Iirc, it was mostly young women at first, but others then followed, lured by well-paid jobs in manufacturing.

Interesting. The Goose Bay guy I knew insisted I try Mary Browns. Cambridge had the first location outside of Nfld. Eventually I did eat there but at their Lindsay (Ontario) location. Kinda blah to be honest. I briefly dated a girl from Nfld who was very conservative - rare to meet a conservative girl into military stuff ha. She never made me the promised figgy duff--I used to eat this as a child we called it steamed raisin pudding with a caramel sauce.

^What is Mary Browns? sounds like a coffee shop

Really, those are some of the nicest residences in the South East corner of Saskatoon.

https://i.imgur.com/j20LOWD.png

The back side of those houses on that cul de sac have a great location on a lake.

https://i.imgur.com/2BjJYIc.png


It's all relative, where I live anything east of lake Superior is "down east", west of here is more specifically either "Alberta, or the "West Coast".

Tbf I lived in Mount Pearl Newfoundland and regularly visited George street, signal hill, and Cape spear, never been to Halifax so I cannot speak on it.

A second rate fried chicken restaurant chain imo. You never hear about it, but there is a surprising amount of them around Ontario for some reason.

I like to think I’m mostly self-aware of my own biases when it comes to hometown things. I can typically predict what’s objectively good and what people from elsewhere will like. Mary Browns is one that truly confuses me. I LOVE it. I haven’t met a single mainland Canadian who would pick it before any other available option, even KFC they’d rather.

I guess it might just be familiarity.

*****

RE “Down East” - our annoying thing is “Up to X”. You go up to Halifax, which is south, or up to Calgary, which is more over, or even up to Canada, which isn’t even accurate anymore as we’re already in it lol If any one of you came to visit me, my parents would say I brought a friend down from Canada, even if you were from Windsor.

Down East is related to the way water flows towards the ocean. Especially the St Lawrence.

Acadians go up to Montréal and go down to Caraquet.

Je monte à Montréal.

Je descends à Caraquet.

Also people who live in Quebec and Ontario refer to New Brunswick as down there in French: par en bas.

Awe, that explains it, I didn't think about it at first but thought maybe it's actually Brown's Social House.

I usually choose Popeyes
or even KFC if I'm going for fried chicken.
One of the KFCs in Saskatoon was the first in Canada, and probably it's first out side of America of all it's 23,000 locations world wide, also making Saskatoon the first to begin importing he's trade secret recipe across the border.
The 8th street restaurant has photos on the wall with the actually Colonel Sanders at it's store opening in Saskatoon. :worship:

I think it's a bit similar to Church's Chicken, a chain that is American but international, including here in BC. I've had both.

That's all true, but the one that confounds me most is "down north", or down to Labrador. And from many parts of NL it was always "up" to St.John's. although mostly it's going south.

Lived in Manitoba and ALWAYS considered myself a westerner without any doubt!

Same here Manitobans have far more in common with our neighbours in Sask and Alberta than in Ontario. Be it cold weather love of curling and CFL football the list goes on.

If you haven't played crokinole you're not Canadian.

Mary Browns chicken is bland. The opposite of Popeyes. Maybe Canada needs a proper Newfie fast food chain serving fast food versions of Newfoundland cuisine?

I've only ever used and heard "out east" to mean the Maritimes. Quebec is Quebec, it would sound weird to say going "out east" when you're going to Quebec.

I would. And I'm pretty sure I did when I came home for visits during the period I lived in Winnipeg. Then again, I would probably have simply said "Winnipeg" as my destination instead of the vaguer "out west."

From a BCer's point of view
Back East - Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada
Out West - Here.
Up North - Anything North of Kamloops
Down South - USA, Mexico

Do people outside Ontario play crokinole? To me it’s a very SWOntario thing.

Yup exactly.

I've never played crokinole, I'm more into strategy board games where you have to use your brain.

Popeyes or Jollibee spicy chicken is indeed the opposite of bland. I was thinking Mary Browns would be like Chesters Fried Chicken, there's only a handful of Chesters in Saskatchewan that I know of but tend not to eat there when there's other options.

Newfie fast food chain where you kiss a fish upon entering and where they serve flipper fin soup?
...I'll pass.

There is a similar game in Quebec called pichenotte or pichenette.

My extended family in Saskatchewan always played crokinole. I'm not sure if that came by way of central Canadian roots a few generations back or not. I always thought of it as a very Prairie game, but maybe those of Ukrainian or Mennonite heritage would think differently (perhaps someone here can comment on that?)

On the other hand, everyone in Ontario seems to play Euchre, while here Kaiser is the similar game found in the same niche, appearing in the same sorts of family gatherings as Crokinole.

I sense a Great Canadian Card and Board Game thread coming soon!

I'd forgotten about euchre - very '80s small town Ontario game.

Prairie Polish-Ukrainian person here. I have heard of crokinole but I don't ever recall seeing anyone in my extended family playing it. I remember seeing people having boards out at the lake, but I never remember seeing anyone actually playing.

Thinking back to when I was a kid back in the 80s, cribbage was the undisputed king of "grown-up" games (at least ones that required anything more than just a deck of cards) in the family although my parents weren't into it at all.

Older Quebec/Ontario relatives had this game. In French it's croquignole. It's an obscure example of a name I learned in French but not really in English one even though I spend 99% of my time now speaking English.

It's phonetically closer but reminds me of French loanwords in English that I didn't recognize at all when I was young like "debut" ("dei-byoo" vs. French pronunciation sounding different enough to me that it took a long time to notice they were supposed to be the same).

I'm a Russian Mennonite from Ontario who lived in Winnipeg for six years. I never saw crokinole anywhere on the prairies. I grew up assuming it was a Mennonite game, but in actual fact it was invented in southwestern Ontario by a German immigrant.

Of course, it's not like crokinole is astoundingly innovative or unprecedened. It's really just a variation on similar games that have been played throughout the world for millennia.

This talk of crokinole and euchre is reminding me of Rummoli, which I think is also a game of Canadian origin. It’s a long time since I’ve heard of anyone actually playing it.