The Great Canadian Towns and Villages Thread

[Tone]

Rimouski beginning of April

[itom 987]

That's a lot of snow on the ground for April.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by itom 987

That's a lot of snow on the ground for April.

Pretty average for this part of Canada. Don't forget the seasonal delay in the east........

The delimiter however has been moving progressively northward over the last couple of decades however. Predictable snow cover on the ground by the 1st of April is not a given any more south of the Miramichi River.

[Tone]

Originally Posted by itom 987

That's a lot of snow on the ground for April.

Yes its pretty impressive but not that unusual, we had like 3 big snow storms in march!

[Odyssey]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

It's in a bit of a pain in the butt area to get to. It's at the start of a peninsula that's only driving economy is tourism and farming. It used to be part of a major ship building and shipping network which is now gone. I also believe Collingwood was the main port so if there were to have been a major centre on Georgian Bay that would have been the port city. As it stands Canada only has one Major city on the great Lakes, where as the U.S has... 8?

US major cities on the Great Lakes I can think of are Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Buffalo. Detroit and Rochester are mainly on a river. So that's 4, and if you're gonna count Toledo as a "major city" on the US side then Hamilton counts as one on Canada's side...

[north 42]

Originally Posted by Odyssey

US major cities on the Great Lakes I can think of are Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Buffalo. Detroit and Rochester are mainly on a river. So that's 4, and if you're gonna count Toledo as a "major city" on the US side then Hamilton counts as one on Canada's side...

Detroit is actually on a Strait, as the Detroit River is not technically a River, and it is a part of the Great Lakes System, so it is absolutely a major Great Lakes City. The metro also extends to Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, so while the DT may not be technically on a lake, the metro certainly is.

[hipster duck]

I'd consider any city that has direct access (so not through a lock) to the Great Lakes to be a 'Great Lakes' city. So Detroit and Windsor are Great Lakes cities.

The Americans really used the Great Lakes differently from Canada. Lake Ontario, or really anything downstream from the Welland canal, didn't really play much of a role for them. Instead, they built heavy industry on the upper Great Lakes where ships would take raw materials like iron ore from Lake Superior ports like Duluth and then ship them to cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Gary, etc. for processing. The Great Lakes might as well have been a landlocked sea for them that ended at Buffalo, like their version of the Caspian Sea.

Canada seemingly was more about using the Great Lakes and our access to the St. Lawrence as a conduit from the heart of the continent out to the Atlantic. It was Canada under Louis St. Laurent (his name is a funny coincidence ) that really pushed for the St. Lawrence Seaway. Major inland ports like Thunder Bay were really intended for overseas export of Prairie wheat, not for shipping raw materials internally within Ontario.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by north 42

Detroit is actually on a Strait, as the Detroit River is not technically a River, and it is a part of the Great Lakes System, so it is absolutely a major Great Lakes City. The metro also extends to Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, so while the DT may not be technically on a lake, the metro certainly is.

I guess it all depends on what we consider major. In that case, the US has 4 major cities and Canada 1.

US
Chicago
Millwaukee
Detroit
Cleaveland

Canada
Toronto


But midsize cities included it looks more like this.
US
Chicago
Milwaukee
Detroit
Cleveland
Toledo
Green Bay
Deleuth
Buffalo
Rochester

Canada
Toronto
Hamilton
Kingston
Windsor
Thunder Bay

[north 42]

^ I would add Niagara/St. Catharines to the mid sized Canadian cities list as well.

[jamincan]

I don't know that population is the best way to gauge major port cities on the Great Lakes. If you look at tonnage in 2015:

Hamilton        10.0M
Thunder Bay      7.6M
Nanticoke        6.2M (likely much lower now due to the closure of the coal plant there)
Sault Ste. Marie 5.5M
Windsor          4.9M
Goderich         4.8M
Sarnia           3.4M
Toronto          1.8M
Colborne         1.7M
Bowmanville      1.4M
Picton           0.8M

How do they rank compared to American Ports? I don't have a good comparison, but Duluth/Superior, Chicago, Two Harbours, Detroit, Cleveland, and East Chicago are all larger ports than Hamilton.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by jamincan

How do they rank compared to American Ports? I don't have a good comparison, but Duluth/Superior, Chicago, Two Harbours, Detroit, Cleveland, and East Chicago are all larger ports than Hamilton.

Here's one source that lets you compare tonnage and shipments for the top ports in each country:
https://greatlakes-seaway.com/en/the...affic-reports/

Note that it's not perfect. E.g., it only assesses tonnage that passes through the locks.

[MonkeyRonin]

Newmarket is a sprawly GTA exurb these days - but you wouldn't know it from its charming Main St: https://goo.gl/maps/hcUJDYsggXzj4dDp6



Just another day... by Holly, on Flickr

[urbandreamer]

A few weeks ago I explored Norwich and Port Rowan, Ontario. Norwich has a vibrant main strip and excellent housing stock, great churches etc. I could live there happily. Port Rowan is one of my favourite Lake Erie beach towns. Otoh, Simcoe felt shabby and sketchy, reminding me of Strathroy.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Newmarket is a sprawly GTA exurb these days - but you wouldn't know it from its charming Main St: https://goo.gl/maps/hcUJDYsggXzj4dDp6



Just another day... by Holly, on Flickr

Usually the giveaway that it's within the GTA or close to another city with lots of people is that you see very few empty storefronts.

[urbandreamer]

^When my dad immigrated to Canada 60 years ago, he first lived/worked in Newmarket before moving to Toronto.

I find it's full of beautiful blondes but really ugly new suburbs.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

A few weeks ago I explored Norwich and Port Rowan, Ontario. Norwich has a vibrant main strip and excellent housing stock, great churches etc. I could live there happily. Port Rowan is one of my favourite Lake Erie beach towns. Otoh, Simcoe felt shabby and sketchy, reminding me of Strathroy.

You'd better be part of one of those churches if you do.

The Dutch Reformed church built their own private school. When they extended it cover high school as well, the public high school closed within a couple years due to a lack of students.

When they finally opened a Tim Horton's they tried to fight to have it closed on Sundays. (They lost of, course).

It's a very close knit community, and you be very aware that you aren't part of it. I sometimes slipped by due to my Dutch last name even though I was Catholic.

I grew up just over the county line in Norfolk, an equal distance between Delhi and Norwich. And since there's only one Catholic high school in Norfolk I went to high school in Simcoe, and my mom grew up there - yeah you're pretty much bang on . All the kids call it "Skid-coe".

Waterford and Port Dover are the nicer two out of the "big" Norfolk towns. Probably why they're blowing up with subdivisions a lot more - and slightly better proximity to Hamilton and Brantford I suppose.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

A few weeks ago I explored Norwich and Port Rowan, Ontario. Norwich has a vibrant main strip and excellent housing stock, great churches etc. I could live there happily. Port Rowan is one of my favourite Lake Erie beach towns. Otoh, Simcoe felt shabby and sketchy, reminding me of Strathroy.

Originally Posted by jonny24

You'd better be part of one of those churches if you do.

The Dutch Reformed church built their own private school. When they extended it cover high school as well, the public high school closed within a couple years due to a lack of students.

When they finally opened a Tim Horton's they tried to fight to have it closed on Sundays. (They lost of, course).

It's a very close knit community, and you be very aware that you aren't part of it. I sometimes slipped by due to my Dutch last name even though I was Catholic.

I grew up just over the county line in Norfolk, an equal distance between Delhi and Norwich. And since there's only one Catholic high school in Norfolk I went to high school in Simcoe, and my mom grew up there - yeah you're pretty much bang on . All the kids call it "Skid-coe".

Waterford and Port Dover are the nicer two out of the "big" Norfolk towns. Probably why they're blowing up with subdivisions a lot more - and slightly better proximity to Hamilton and Brantford I suppose.

Went looking for the excellent housing stock in Norwich and saw only slightly substandard southern Ontario streets. Would be interested in links to Google Street View to see examples in case I missed anything.

The Dutch Reformed are the worst. They're the Canadian version of Southern Baptists, with the social conservatism and dogmatic approach to life, just without the speaking in tongues and dancing with snakes. And thankfully a far smaller constituency, save for when they dominate a town, which, going by your description, they do in Norwich.

I actually once asked a gas station attendant in Norwich if they pronounced it Nor-itch or Nor-witch, and he said the former. Which surprised and delighted me, but he was pulling my leg, because subsquently I heard other people say it like the latter, which should be punishable by dea...erm, too far...by having to listen to nothing but Dutch Reformed sermons for 24 hours in a row.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I actually once asked a gas station attendant in Norwich if they pronounced it Nor-itch or Nor-witch, and he said the former. Which surprised and delighted me, but he was pulling my leg, because subsquently I heard other people say it like the latter, which should be punishable by dea...erm, too far...by having to listen to nothing but Dutch Reformed sermons for 24 hours in a row.

It's really both... I saw Nor-wich, and I think most younger people do. But my dad's family and other people of that generation have a different way that's closer to "nor-itch"... but maybe more like "nor-idge" and some times the I edges closer to "nor-eedge" (this is more noticeable with one uncle in particular). But the two syllable are very quick, not dragged out.

[ScreamingViking]

Funny how different generations seem to use different ways of saying things.

My parents and other family of their age group (70s) always call the QEW "the Queen E" but I rarely hear it termed that way by anyone younger; most just say the letters. There must be other towns where the same thing happens, especially if their name (like Norwich) is that of a British or European place originally pronounced differently than the spelling indicates.

[ssiguy]

^ Ya, everyone use to call it "The Queen E", I still do.