Quote:
Originally Posted by flar
The big appeal for most of them is that Burlington is not Hamilton, especially the people who grew up in Hamilton and "escaped" to Burlington 
It could have been so different, Burlington was very nearly amalgamated with Hamilton in the 1970s. But some people in Burlington foresaw Hamilton's decline and didn't want to be burdened with paying for all that aging and declining infrastructure. So they convinced the new government at the time to reverse it and Hamilton even gave up Aldershot, a wealthy suburb, where a lot of Hamilton's elite lives to this day. Hamilton got stuck with all the old decrepit stuff while Burlington got 30 years of low taxes and a wealth of development fees and greenfield development sites along the QEW. |
Yes, it's a classic case of the wealthy parts of a metropolitan area trying to distance itself from the poorer parts. Westmount and Outremont are technically their own city and distinct from Montreal. I have a guy from Burlington on my football team and he almost goes into convulsions if you tell him he's a Hamiltonian. Hamilton is seen as blue collar so many deny the association at all costs.
It's inevitable that Hamilton will rebound due to its infrastructure, assets, and geography. When it does, perhaps we'll see Burlington and Hamilton re-integrate.
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