The Great Canadian Towns and Villages Thread

[megadude]

Originally Posted by 905er

Glen Williams is a really quaint little hamlet wedged between Georgetown and Brampton. I really love it.. makes you forget there's sprawl just a short distance away.. feels very quaint.

I like it too for having some interesting streets and houses but I would have like their tiny little "Main Street" to have more than like three businessnes. However, not a bad drive into Georgetown when you need something.

There's a lot of appeal to these village in suburbia type places like Campbellville, Lowville, Kilbride, Inglewood, Alton, Belfountain, Norval, Huttonville, etc. Some country vibes, but really close or at least manageable drive into the city for ammenities. And having some space or even acreage and a little bit of a slower pace. And a greater sense of community since you're not just another neighbourhood sprawling out from the other 'hoods around you.

I was seriously considering a house in Kilbride up in the Burlington escarpment about six years ago. Huge backyard, lots greenery, I don't give a fuck driveway (meaning big enough and sheltered enough by trees that you park wherever and however you want), village type setting and nature at your doorstep. But when food options are the general store and a country diner and there's one mechanic with analog gas pumps and one school that looks like it passed its shelf like two decades ago (and no highschool), it makes you wonder if it's the right lifestyle choice for you at the moment. I guess it also depends on how you grew up and your personality.

The ideal for me now is the downtown or really close to downtown in a suburb. So it would be walkable, have a good mix of businesses and some noticeable vibrancy, while also having a decent sized house with trees and with a driveway that can fit four cars.

I know a wealthy guy from Maple Grove, Oakville who has a family of four. He's from SK and the wife from Peterborough. Their backyard is basically an oasis, so that's cool. But he and his wife were very close to going to Campbellville, Milton to a house with a backyard view of the Escarpment and some acreage. She does part time WFH and raises the kids while he worked around Square One and Downtown TO. That would be a major headache for him. And both kids were house league hockey, which meant more time spent driving around. But to add to that, they then made rep. at the same time, one for a North York team, the other in Vaughan. Plus they were like in half a dozen other activities. They knew their ideal home was now out of the question.

[905er]

to add to your comment above, I just drover through the escarpment in Milton the other day. Really makes you forget you're in a sprawling mess of a suburb. very small village vibe there.. quite lovely.

[MolsonExport]

cbc, wikipedia

• Video Link


rectum

[ssiguy]

The vast majority of towns in Western Canada are uninteresting, barren, lifeless, and unattractive with BC towns being less so.

For people who love small towns, Southern Ontario is the place to be.

[MonctonRad]

I wonder if Hanna AB gets many visitors from Wake, Japan?

Does Wake have a band similar to Nickelback???

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I wonder if Hanna AB gets many visitors from Wake, Japan?

Does Wake have a band similar to Nickelback???

Hanna is giving Drumbo a running for the money in terms of crapitude.

[905er]

Hanna is the Home of Nickelback?.. That makes sense. That is one ugly town.. eeeek.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Hanna is giving Drumbo a running for the money in terms of crapitude.

Indeed. Here is Drumbo (which always makes me want to say: Innerkip, given their conjunction on the 401 highway signage)




poo, blandford

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2367...i6656?hl=en-US

[urbandreamer]

Hanna's got a nice grid - why can't we build suburbs like that today around a 1-2s commercial strip? If I could eat gluten I'd be gobbling down those Nanaimo bars at the local bakery. Oh and I can afford to live there.

I've been through far worse Ontario villages than Drumbo: Atwood, Bluevale, Ethel, Ayton, Gorrie, Wroxeter, Clifford come to mind. On the way to Chesley (very grim town full of meth and Old Order Mennonites) I've always found Elmwood downright spooky.

[megadude]

I wish I had the time and money to just drive through all these town centres. Don't even need to stop. I find them fascinating, good and bad. Of course, I'd combine that with a trip to some body of water to go fish to make it worthwhile.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

The vast majority of towns in Western Canada are uninteresting, barren, lifeless, and unattractive with BC towns being less so.

For people who love small towns, Southern Ontario is the place to be.

Agree about Western Canada. Southern Ontario does have a number of attractive town. But I'd say that Quebec wins for Canada by quite a bit.

[ssiguy]

I wouldn't say Quebec wins but rather quite the opposite. All areas of the country have some nice towns but no where has the sheer number and diversity of them as Ontario.

Ontario is THE place to discover small and quaint towns in Canada and as far as I am concerned, no other province comes close.

[harls]

When I see pictures of my hometown from the 1940s, I wonder just what in the hell happened.

[Binour]

Sainte-Marguerite, a village among others, in the beautiful Appalachian landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EEVQGxqA3Q

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

Originally Posted by harls

When I see pictures of my hometown from the 1940s, I wonder just what in the hell happened.

Suburban sprawl baby!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I wouldn't say Quebec wins but rather quite the opposite. All areas of the country have some nice towns but no where has the sheer number and diversity of them as Ontario.

Ontario is THE place to discover small and quaint towns in Canada and as far as I am concerned, no other province comes close.

In terms of sheer numbers of towns, Ontario wins simply due to the larger population. But Quebec and the Maritimes are about on an even keel here though--the Maritimes may come out ahead of Ontario in terms of healthy, lively, properly scaled small towns relative to population.

Agreed about the prairies, though on both sides of the BC-Alberta border there are plenty of good mountain towns, even if they tend to be rather tourist- and leisure-focused.

[hipster duck]

One difference between the Maritimes and Ontario is that, as a person who wants to visit the Maritimes, certain small towns are on my "must see" itinerary like St. Andrews and Lunenburg. I don't consider Charlottetown a "small town", but I'm willing to bet that it's probably the most vibrant and interesting city of under 100,000 in Canada. That prize certainly wouldn't go to any town in Ontario! There are no places under 10,000 in Ontario that are "must see" destinations. The closest I can think of is Niagara-on-the-Lake, and that's a bit too big. Elora is nice, but not Lunenburg nice.

Tourism can be tacky, but it does mean that small towns invest in things that they would most likely forego, like a decent public realm or heritage preservation, and it attracts things like decent restaurants and festivals.

Let's face the facts: if you take any list of "nicest towns under 10,000 people" in most countries, it'll be places where they have attracted tourists. At that size and below, you can't really have many "hidden gems". The local population by itself will be too small and often too old or too poor to support decent retail or the money and effort required to upkeep historic buildings to a level that vaults them to the top of the rankings.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Tourism can be tacky, but it does mean that small towns invest in things that they would most likely forego, like a decent public realm or heritage preservation, and it attracts things like decent restaurants and festivals.

Let's face the facts: if you take any list of "nicest towns under 10,000 people" in most countries, it'll be places where they have attracted tourists. At that size and below, you can't really have many "hidden gems". The local population by itself will be too small and often too old or too poor to support decent retail or the money and effort required to upkeep historic buildings to a level that vaults them to the top of the rankings.

The place that comes to mind in Ontario for this faux-touristy vibe is Tobermory. It's a fine tourist trap of a town, I guess, but once you've been to St. Andrews or Lunenburg you can see pretty easily that it doesn't come anywhere close to the real thing. St. Andrews is definitely touristy with the summer-residence vibe, but Lunenburg is a proper working town and a tourist destination. One of the better towns in Canada IMO.

There's a lot of really nice small towns in Ontario with Campbellford probably being my favourite. Elora is up there, too.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

One difference between the Maritimes and Ontario is that, as a person who wants to visit the Maritimes, certain small towns are on my "must see" itinerary like St. Andrews and Lunenburg. I don't consider Charlottetown a "small town", but I'm willing to bet that it's probably the most vibrant and interesting city of under 100,000 in Canada. That prize certainly wouldn't go to any town in Ontario! There are no places under 10,000 in Ontario that are "must see" destinations. The closest I can think of is Niagara-on-the-Lake, and that's a bit too big. Elora is nice, but not Lunenburg nice.

Tourism can be tacky, but it does mean that small towns invest in things that they would most likely forego, like a decent public realm or heritage preservation, and it attracts things like decent restaurants and festivals.

Let's face the facts: if you take any list of "nicest towns under 10,000 people" in most countries, it'll be places where they have attracted tourists. At that size and below, you can't really have many "hidden gems". The local population by itself will be too small and often too old or too poor to support decent retail or the money and effort required to upkeep historic buildings to a level that vaults them to the top of the rankings.

I dunno.

In much of Europe you have lots of small places that have the nice stuff like art galleries, festivals, bakeries, cafés and theatre that exist primarily for the locals. I've mostly explored these places in France but they also exist is significant numbers in other countries as well. For France yes some of the "locals" might be Parisians who have a "résidence secondaire" and are only there part of the year, but literally hundreds of places have this type of vibrancy and are barely visited by tourists at all.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I dunno.

In much of Europe you have lots of small places that have the nice stuff like art galleries, festivals, bakeries, cafés and theatre that exist primarily for the locals. I've mostly explored these places in France but they also exist is significant numbers in other countries as well. For France yes some of the "locals" might be Parisians who have a "résidence secondaire" and are only there part of the year, but literally hundreds of places have this type of vibrancy and are barely visited by tourists at all.

I caveated my explanation by saying "in most countries" and also by saying "the best towns".

Even in places like France, Italy and Spain where what we would call an "urban" lifestyle that's really only available to people in very big cities in North America and good food culture permeates down to everyone, the very best towns of under 10,000 are places that attract tourists - either from within the country or overseas. Some of those are places even we would know about 6,000 km away, like Como (just to think of one without looking).