Quote:
Originally Posted by Capital Shaun
It's not that there's a strong separatist attitude in Gatineau but there's certainly a vibe that it likes to pretend it's a real independent city (in the economic sense) and that Ottawa is just some far distant land where a few of its residents just happen to work.
If it wasn't for all the employment in Ottawa, Gatineau wouldn't be much of a city. The bridges into Ottawa are full of traffic every morning for a reason.
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IMO Quebecois nationalism does play some role in Gatinois' false sense of independence. While many people are not separatists politically, they do feel a sense of Quebec as a distinct community (this is something a lot of English Canadians have difficulty understanding, they hear 'nationalism' and immediately think of political separatists) With a viewpoint like that the reality that your city is dependent on one outside of that distinct community is a hard pill to swallow.
I do agree that non-nationalist factors are definitely at play as well. Kanata long had a similarly snarky sense of independence from Ottawa (although one without cultural/national factors obviously), and over the years with greater integration of the RMOC followed by amalgamation Kanatans were put in their place, although the sense of independence still pervades their civic mindset to an extent.
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