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Originally Posted by kwoldtimer
I would have assumed that English speakers from Gaspésie sound "Atlantic"
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I have realized there's a bit of a cultural wall there due to the provincial border (even though geographically, eastern Gaspésie is as far east as Moncton and very sea-oriented/Gulf-oriented culturally and economically).
For example my gf went to the Cégep de Gaspé in English (they have a number of programs) and then ended up moving to the Quebec City area. It's probably easier to move within your own province. Her niece currently also finishing high school in Gaspé is planning on going to Champlain (college/Cégep) in the Anglo borough of Sherbrooke and then U Bishop's. (No influence or input from me whatsoever on that.)
In terms of distance, places like Moncton or Halifax aren't further away but it seems the default choice for these Anglos is to stay within Quebec for whatever reason.
So maybe that little "wall" applies to accents as well since there's little interaction from the two sides. Because apart from geographical-proximity-caused interaction, what other factor could possibly be at play to make them sound "Atlantic"? The odor of seaweed in the local air?
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... so I can't think of what they'd have in common with someone from southern Manitoba, other than perhaps a "rural" type of accent. 
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Irish component maybe? My gf deals with Americans for her job all the time and she "sounds American" to them, not stereotypically Canadian. Her family have the same-ish accent so it's not contamination from work in her case...
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