Saint John and St. John's... Confusing?

[Acajack]

Pretty sure that in Quebec and other French-speaking parts of Canada the most common place name is "Notre-Dame" or "Notre-Dame-de... something".

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Sainte (Ste.) Catherines (Famous Montreal Street).
Saint Catharines (Ontario).

Confusing? Nah. But hard to remember the correct spelling for the latter.

Also no one spells out Saint
It's always St. Catharines or St. Kitts to Niagara locals (Kitty short for Catharine/Katharine)

And it's now a growing city of over 149,500 according to the 2023 census estimates.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by lio45

Nice urbanity in New Brunswick. There are also renderings that look even nicer (a few new shiny towers are planned for the area!)

Soon the tallest building in New Brunswick will be outside the province (if it’s not the case already)

A 30 storey tower has been approved for Moncton NB.

There are rumours of an even taller one on the way.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by lio45

Reminds me of the time SignalHillHiker posted a pic of the surprisingly beefy skyline of New Brunswick, NJ as “not sure which one of Moncton, Freddy or Saint-John but it’s impressive”

Not only is there a New Brunswick, New Jersey, there is also a New Jersey, New Brunswick!!!

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by ConundrumNL

Newfoundland has a Victoria BC, it's Behind Carbonear.

LOL!! Gotta love Newfoundland and its unique sense of humour and ways of living.

NB has a Victoria County!

[harls]

Almost every town in Canada has a King or Queen Street I find.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by harls

Almost every town in Canada has a King or Queen Street I find.

Paying homage to our close history with the monarchy, along with pioneering women's rights, we put a strip club on our Queen Street.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

Paying homage to our close history with the monarchy, along with pioneering women's rights, we put a strip club on our Queen Street.

In Moncton we have a local chain of pot shops called Queen E Hydroponics.

Rumour is they sell other things there aside from pot.

[zoomer]

I would say that St. John’s profile or awareness of is very high in Victoria and BC in general due to its culture, setting and history. Most people know that Saint John is somewhere in New Brunswick but don’t know much else, which is a shame because it’s a beautiful city.

Sidney BC (north of Victoria by our international airport and close to the main ferry terminal to Vancouver) won’t easily be confused for Sydney Australia mainly because of the spelling difference I’d say….

Victoria is a terrible name for a city however, and I have little doubt the name will be changed to an indigenous one within the next 20 years. Also try googling “Victoria” - forget about it. Endless pics of girls called Victoria, pictures of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, the state in Australia, places in the UK, etc. Sure you can add BC or Canada but that eliminates a lot of pics or search results that haven’t included those in their description.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

Paying homage to our close history with the monarchy, along with pioneering women's rights, we put a strip club on our Queen Street.

Fredericton's only "adult entertainment" store is on Queen Street, right across from Officers Square, the main downtown outdoor event venue.

I regularly run Pokemon Go events and (until recently when we changed our route), we would often end up outside "Pleasures 'n Treasures" to do a gym event. (because we didn't want to cross the street just to cross back after to go on to the next). If we had kids with us we would try to make sure we take a few extra steps to get past the store and/or we would cross the street anyway.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by ConundrumNL

Newfoundland has a Victoria BC, it's Behind Carbonear.

That whole part of the island is especially fucked in that regard.

Brooklyn, Jamestown, Portland, Long Beach, Bloomfield, Charlottetown, Princeton, etc.

[MolsonExport]

Canada:
City of Montreal
Island of Montreal, an island in the province of Quebec
Greater Montreal, the metropolitan area of Montreal
Montréal (region), an administrative region and statistical area in the province of Quebec
Montreal Metropolitan Community, a supra-municipal level of government
Montreal Agglomeration Council, a supra-municipal level of government
Montreal Urban Community, a former supra-municipal level of government
Montreal River, Ontario, a municipality
Montreal River (Algoma–Sudbury, Ontario)
Montreal River (Timiskaming District)
Montreal River (Saskatchewan)
Montreal Lake (Saskatchewan)
Montreal Island (Nunavut)

France
Château de Montréal, Dordogne
Montréal, Ardèche
Montréal, Aude
Montréal, Gers
Montréal, Yonne
Montréal-la-Cluse, Ain
Montréal-les-Sources, Drôme
Villeneuve-lès-Montréal, Aude

Jordan
Montréal (Crusader castle)
Lordship of Montréal or Oultrejordain

Spain
Montreal, Catalonia

United Kingdom
Montreal Park, a park where Geoffrey Amherst had his residence

United States
Montreal, Missouri
Montreal, Wisconsin
Montreal River (Michigan)
Montreal River (Wisconsin-Michigan)


How many people have been confused about the fact that Vancouver, BC is NOT on Vancouver Island (which I have heard some people call "Victoria Island")?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Canada:
City of Montreal
Island of Montreal, an island in the province of Quebec
Greater Montreal, the metropolitan area of Montreal
Montréal (region), an administrative region and statistical area in the province of Quebec
Montreal Metropolitan Community, a supra-municipal level of government
Montreal Agglomeration Council, a supra-municipal level of government
Montreal Urban Community, a former supra-municipal level of government
Montreal River, Ontario, a municipality
Montreal River (Algoma–Sudbury, Ontario)
Montreal River (Timiskaming District)
Montreal River (Saskatchewan)
Montreal Lake (Saskatchewan)
Montreal Island (Nunavut)

France
Château de Montréal, Dordogne
Montréal, Ardèche
Montréal, Aude
Montréal, Gers
Montréal, Yonne
Montréal-la-Cluse, Ain
Montréal-les-Sources, Drôme
Villeneuve-lès-Montréal, Aude

Jordan
Montréal (Crusader castle)
Lordship of Montréal or Oultrejordain

Spain
Montreal, Catalonia

United Kingdom
Montreal Park, a park where Geoffrey Amherst had his residence

United States
Montreal, Missouri
Montreal, Wisconsin
Montreal River (Michigan)
Montreal River (Wisconsin-Michigan)


How many people have been confused about the fact that Vancouver, BC is NOT on Vancouver Island (which I have heard some people call "Victoria Island")?

While Montréal-Nord and Montréal-Sud don’t exist as municipalities anymore (first merged with Mtl, second with Longueuil), in your list you forgot Montréal-Est and the tiny Anglo municipality of Montréal-Ouest.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by lio45

While Montréal-Nord and Montréal-Sud don’t exist as municipalities anymore (first merged with Mtl, second with Longueuil), in your list you forgot Montréal-Est and the tiny Anglo municipality of Montréal-Ouest.

ah yes, of course. Thanks to wikipedia and its incomplete entries. I used to pass through Montréal-Ouest everyday. (but only very rarely, through Montréal-Est, as she ain't a beauty queen)

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

That whole part of the island is especially fucked in that regard.

Brooklyn, Jamestown, Portland, Long Beach, Bloomfield, Charlottetown, Princeton, etc.

Some of these are the result of name changes from more traditional names, some to avoid confusion with other places. There were / are quite a few places called Seal Cove, etc..

Overall, being so far away geographically, I have frequently run into confusion between the two SJ's, so much so that I automatically intercept and make the distinction to avoid that. I've known people who were even confused about which Atlantic province they had actually visited, such as confusing Saint John NB with Halifax, etc. Similarly, there is confusion on the other end between Vancouver and Victoria, the wrong one apparently being on Vancouver Island, or perhaps it's Victoria Island?

[SignalHillHiker]

Yikes, in my personal experience, the only mainland Canadian confusion I routinely encounter is tourists renting a car and expecting to go on a day trip to Gros Morne.

"I've got reservations for 6 p.m. for a lovely dinner in Rocky Harbour in a few hours! That's RIGHT in the park!"
"You won't hit Clarenville by 6 p.m., my love. You are a day away from Gros Morne."

I imagine they get that on the West Coast too - Canadians driving off the ferry in Port aux Basques expecting to get to their hotels in St. John's in a couple hours at most.

But Saint John/St. John's? Doesn't come up, as Saint John (unfortunately) doesn't come up.

[Maldive]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Sainte (Ste.) Catherines (Famous Montreal Street).
Saint Catharines (Ontario).

Confusing? Nah. But hard to remember the correct spelling for the latter.

You are just the 4th person (besides me... grew up nearby) in history to spell this part correctly.

But Saint is never used of course... always St. Catharines.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Just a note though, a city is generally considered "founded" when it becomes a permanent settlement. That happened in the 1630's in both cities. Otherwise we could say Toronto was founded in 1720 and Kingston in 1673 due to the temporary and/or military presence at the time, which is not accurate.

For Saint John it is really 1783 when a couple thousand Loyalists arrived and created new townsites. There were Europeans living permanently in the area since the 1600's but that's true all around the region in desirable coastal areas around rivers/harbours and farmland. There were lots of small Acadian villages.

For St. John's there's less of a clear founding date but it also wasn't really a city in the 1700's and earlier. Some forms of development would have happened first in St. John's (streets and buildings being used into the future), others in Saint John. The Loyalists were advanced, had a bunch of expectations around how they wanted things to be run, and developed NB quickly.

[someone123]

A map of Acadia in 1700:


https://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/amno...e-map-1700.htm

Looks surprisingly like a map of the larger towns in the region today. And of course PEI used to be St. John Island, so there must have been even more St. John confusion.

[Doady]

There also Niagara Falls (Ontario) and Niagara Falls (New York).