Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgarian
Prairie cities are far more remote than anything in the Maritimes or Nfld. Calgary has Edmonton within 3 hours driving, but then nothing for about 10. Kelowna is flirting with big city status, but they are still >250 000. Flying is a different story, but not everyone wants to fly everywhere and deal with the shit show that is flying these days...
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I think part of the reason why the Maritimes feel remote is because we basically only have a single road connection to the rest of Canada which tends to go through very rural territory (up through the Gaspe). It's not even fully twinned highway yet (but should be done in another year or two). So even though the drive isn't bad and the distance isn't bad, it feels further than it actually is, especially once you get to the Fredericton to Riviere du Loup stretch (and even Riviere de Loup to QC can seem very sparse).
Going to the states can be almost as bad, even if the distance is comparable and it's separated highway the entire way. The long stretch through Maine is comparable to the long stretch through Northern NB/Gaspe Quebec, and makes it feel further than it actually is.
The isolation and self dependency is probably further enhanced because the core Maritime cities (Freddy/SJ/Moncton/Charlottetown/Halifax) are all basically just a few hours from each other, and while there are some isolated stretches between some of them (Freddy to anywhere else basically) it doesn't feel as 'bad' as trying to get to the rest of Canada or to the States. Even Sydney is in the orbit of the core 5 since getting there is relatively urbanized with lots of small and a few larger towns along the way to break up the isolation. (And some gorgeous natural scenery in the Cape Breton Highlands to distract you as well)
It's not going to happen, but the only way to really offset that "Remote" feeling would be to more fully urbanize the connections. Edmundston to R-du-Loup and Houlton Maine to Bangor especially would probably do a lot to make the Maritimes feel "closer" to the rest of North America. Get a few more mid sized towns along those routes basically. (Temiscoutta-sur-Lac is a good start)
On a side note, I was looking at Google Maps recently, and I was surprised at how developed western NB/Northern Maine actually is along the border. Granted it is mostly farmland, but you can really see a lot of stuff in the Woodstock to Grand Falls stretch. I think it gets overlooked a lot because aside from Florenceville, Perth Andover and Hartland, most of the development is actually in Maine (Presque Isle/Mars Hill/Fort Fairfield/Caribou/etc....) so from the Canadian side it looks like a bigger rural gap than it actually is.