How much do you root for your hometown, region, province and country?

[megadude]

Definitely lots of homerism on this forum and pretty much all walks of life. So it's not surprising how skewed peoples' rooting interests are on here for their hometown and province vs the ROC.

Not trying to make this an outlet for boosting one's home and bashing others so please leave that kind of thing out of this.

I bring this up because up until my mid 20s Canadians were all equal to me in sports, music, media, whatever. I didn't care if they were from where I am or Flin Flon, Manitoba.

But then my homerism started to develop. Not to the point of bashing other places in this country (I root for Canadians in general), but rooting more for locals who made it big. And feeling more proud of the achievements of Ontarians even if they're from somewhere I've never been remotely close to or quite frankly care much about like Thunder Bay.

So now, in general, I usually root harder for those who made it from Brampton, then the GTA, then Ontario, then Canada. And I treat the rest of the GTA equally so outside of Brampton, it doesn't matter if someone is from fellow Peel Region neighbours Caledon and Mississauga or Oshawa in Durham Region or Newmarket in York Region.

Pop is not my taste in music but I find I will stop and listen to Alessia Cara (Brampton) or Sean Mendes (Pickering) for example. Beiber is from Stratford and so it's cool to know he's from Ontario but I do wonder if he was from the GTA would I actually listen to one of his songs for more than 5 seconds?

I am a fan of Drake's music and most of what he does (talented and charitable to make up for some of the douchiness), but no way would I like him as much if he were from VAN or MTL.

Now there are some Canadians from past or present that I have pretty much maximum appreciation for, for their work and success, regardless of where they're from like Sarah Maclachlan or Steve Nash or Denis Villeneuve. Ya, I wish I could claim them as "one of our own" at the local level but I am happy to claim them as one of Canada's own.

Also it's funny that our rooting interests are determined by arbitrary boundaries. Not gonna lie, if Ontario suddenly expanded its borders to capture this piece of land and someone from Vaudreuil made it big, I might care more than if they were still from Quebec.



And being honest, if someone from Waterdown, Hamilton won an Olympic medal, I wouldn't be as happy as if Waterdown was annexed by Burlington as has been proposed many times. I don't know why, I just feel that way.

So how much are you like me? Or how indifferent are you to local or provincial boundaries?

[Denscity]

85% homer.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by Denscity

85% homer.

You would definitely be one of the finest examples on the local and provincial level. But do you root for other Canadians from east of you? Or like literally just reserving 15% of your total appreciation for outside of BC?

[JHikka]

I root for Saint John as much as I can. That city was on a pretty bad streak for the first half of my life but it's very refreshing to watch it grow and prosper and improve the last few years. I'm always trying to rep it as much as I can here in Ontario.

As an aside, this reminds me of a meme I saw recently discussing when Maritimers from different provinces meet eachother. If someone from NS meets someone from NB in ON they're basically best friends, but if those two people meet each other in their respective provinces they're sworn enemies.

My rooting interests in order I guess
Saint John
New Brunswick
Atlantic Canada
Canada I guess? It depends on what we're rooting in or from.

Originally Posted by megadude

Also it's funny that our rooting interests are determined by arbitrary boundaries. Not gonna lie, if Ontario suddenly expanded its borders to capture this piece of land and someone from Vaudreuil made it big, I might care more than if they were still from Quebec.

I was looking at this on a map a few days ago and wondered how different Vaudreuil/West Island would be if the ON boundary extended to include that block of land with Perrot Island remaining with QC.

[Blitz]

I root hard for anyone from the Windsor area. Compared to the rest of Canada, we’re cut from a different cloth down here but that gives us a solid bond with each other. I root for anyone from Detroit and Southeast Michigan too since we have a strong connection with the shared economy, culture, and history. I cheer for all of the Detroit sports teams and they're the only teams I care for.

After that I root for Canadians but I don't really have provincial loyalties...it’s kind of hard to relate to the rest of Ontario. If someone is from somewhere in Ontario that's anywhere east of London, they may as well be from Manitoba or New Brunswick or something.

[esquire]

I have an IRL reputation for being a Winnipeg booster. I don't try to sell people on it or whatever, but I'm endlessly fascinated by it... the history, the politics, the culture, and I guess that comes out in my personality.

One facet of that is that I only root for the home teams in sports. Leagues that don't have teams in Winnipeg pretty well don't exist to me. Why? If I can't (even just in theory) go to the games in person and lay some kind of claim to a hometown connection, I just don't care.

But that said, I can appreciate the good in any place I go to. One thing I have learned about myself over the years is that there is no place I can't visit and enjoy for a weekend. Like literally, no place, even tiny rural towns. There will be something awesome that I will end up loving about the place. The kind of homerism where people feel compelled to knock other places down a peg all the time is irritating and I do my level best to avoid doing that.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by megadude

You would definitely be one of the finest examples on the local and provincial level. But do you root for other Canadians from east of you? Or like literally just reserving 15% of your total appreciation for outside of BC?

My answer was a bit tongue in cheek.
I do like Ontario guy Jamal Murray a lot but dont cheer for any Toronto sports teams.
I like underdogs. I actually consider BC a bit of an underdog on the national stage being 4th place at best. And with most Vancouver posters hanging out in their own section, sticking up for and cheering for BC is left up to me sometimes.
I like all Canadian musical acts regardless of what province they are from as long as the genre suits me.

[Bishop2047]

I don't think I am much of a homer, though I love to be "in the know" about things happening in my city (thus why I am on SSP). I now live in Fredericton, and don't get too hyped up trying to compare to other cities in Atlantic Canada or elsewhere.

When I lived in Saskatoon I felt like I was more of a homer, as the Saskatoon/Regina/insert western city here conversation came up alot in my work. I loved the city and truly felt it had a leg up on the competition (as does any homer).

[Denscity]

I'll also cheer for other individual athletes no matter where they're from in Canada.

[Nites]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I'll also cheer for other individual athletes no matter where they're from in Canada.

Same. Especially in the NBA where Canada just really started breaking through with players in the last 5-10 years.

[SpongeG]

I hate my hometown so...

I don't really care that much about this in general, It was nice that Schitt$ Creek won big at the emmys but it didn't make me be like yay Canada.

[VANRIDERFAN]

I've lived on both coasts and pretty much every province in between. But deep in my soul I remain a hard core east central Prairies booster. As esquire has said there is beauty in every corner of the country and I've enjoyed exploring a limited amount of it. As I reach my end with the Navy, I'm looking forward to seeing much more of the country that I haven't been to yet.

[SignalHillHiker]

For me it’s been a journey. Growing up I always assumed St. John’s was absolute rubbish and anywhere on the mainland would be better because that seemed to be the general popular consensus in Canada. I moved away at 17 - Maritimes first. That was a rude awakening for me. So much vicious prejudice toward me based on where I was from, and cities I thought were objectively more generic and boring than St. John’s. It wasn’t the Disneyland I was expecting. Then Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. Loved some, hated some. Overall, though, it awakened in me an appreciation and love for the things that previously mainlanders made fun of me for.

I definitely love my city. But I’m well aware that’s an individual thing, and you’d have to feel that way to stand living here any length of time. I’m definitely a homer, but I don’t think we’re objectively better than everywhere else, and I recognize we’re not for everyone, not even a plurality. So... mixed.

And it depends on the audience. Here I can be provoked to not only say but genuinely feel sentiments like: oh FFS Canada is the most boring country on the face of the earth, who gives a shit. But chatting with people in Europe who ask I’ll sing the praises of Montreal and, lately, Toronto.

[le calmar]

I care way more about the city and region I currently live in than my hometown. I have nothing against my hometown, I guess I just adopted the Ottawa-Gatineau area and to some extent Eastern/Southern Ontario to the point it feels like I have always lived here.

The thing about being a homer is the subjectivity involved. I once had a guy from Saskatchewan tell me that it was not “flat enough” here. I understand what was going through his mind though. This guy grew up in a context where he the horizon is infinite and he just could not imagine life without it.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I care way more about the city and region I currently live in than my hometown. I have nothing against my hometown, I guess I just adopted the Ottawa-Gatineau area and to some extent Eastern/Southern Ontario to the point it feels like home. The thing about being a homer is the subjectivity involved. I once had a guy from Saskatchewan tell me that it was not “flat enough” here. I understand how what was going through his mind though. This guy grew up in a context where he the horizon is infinite and he could not imagine life without it.

When I lived in Ottawa I was a 5 min walk from the experimental farm. That place saved my soul as I could walk through the trails throughout the growing season and get my farm fix at any time.

To me Ottawa was a great city. Had all the amenities a city could offer to me. A Farm in my backyard and Gatineau Park a 10 minute drive to get into nature. What a fantastic place.

[Nashe]

I have some nostalgic feelings for my home town/county due to my extensive family tree research (basically my great-great-great-grandfather came over from England in 1829 and my ancestors never moved out of a 20km diameter circle until 2008...) Musically, Irish/Celtic/English music speaks to me like no other. Nearly everyone in my family as far back as I can trace plays some sort of instrument (violin, piano, guitar, mandolin, accordion... you name it) and I swear there must be something beyond our kitchen party tradition that is ingrained genetically here...

Then a bit of attachment to my current city, as I've worked in it and for it for nearly 30 years and have seen it go through (and participated in) changes during that time. It's growing quickly now and booming quite a bit, so the enthusiastic spirit is contagious, despite the nay-sayers.

I bristle a BIT when people denigrate NB or the Atlantic provinces as "backwards" and "hickish" while at the same time recognizing that by increasingly urban world standards, they definitely HAVE lagged by many measures. That said, there might be a tiny bit of smugness looking at the recent influx of folks abandoning the denser urbanity of ON and westwards for the smaller cities we have.

The country feels like home to me too... even though I have seen the differences even a few provinces over... I've relatives in rural ON that have a different culture but are still somewhat familiar to me. We (used to) visit the US quite often and it was always "fun" but I always feel a bit of a weight lift off my shoulders once we're back across the border... even if the crossing isn't into my home province. I think that says something.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by megadude

Definitely lots of homerism on this forum and pretty much all walks of life. So it's not surprising how skewed peoples' rooting interests are on here for their hometown and province vs the ROC.

Not trying to make this an outlet for boosting one's home and bashing others so please leave that kind of thing out of this.

I bring this up because up until my mid 20s Canadians were all equal to me in sports, music, media, whatever. I didn't care if they were from where I am or Flin Flon, Manitoba.

But then my homerism started to develop. Not to the point of bashing other places in this country (I root for Canadians in general), but rooting more for locals who made it big. And feeling more proud of the achievements of Ontarians even if they're from somewhere I've never been remotely close to or quite frankly care much about like Thunder Bay.

So now, in general, I usually root harder for those who made it from Brampton, then the GTA, then Ontario, then Canada. And I treat the rest of the GTA equally so outside of Brampton, it doesn't matter if someone is from fellow Peel Region neighbours Caledon and Mississauga or Oshawa in Durham Region or Newmarket in York Region.

Pop is not my taste in music but I find I will stop and listen to Alessia Cara (Brampton) or Sean Mendes (Pickering) for example. Beiber is from Stratford and so it's cool to know he's from Ontario but I do wonder if he was from the GTA would I actually listen to one of his songs for more than 5 seconds?

I am a fan of Drake's music and most of what he does (talented and charitable to make up for some of the douchiness), but no way would I like him as much if he were from VAN or MTL.

Now there are some Canadians from past or present that I have pretty much maximum appreciation for, for their work and success, regardless of where they're from like Sarah Maclachlan or Steve Nash or Denis Villeneuve. Ya, I wish I could claim them as "one of our own" at the local level but I am happy to claim them as one of Canada's own.

Also it's funny that our rooting interests are determined by arbitrary boundaries. Not gonna lie, if Ontario suddenly expanded its borders to capture this piece of land and someone from Vaudreuil made it big, I might care more than if they were still from Quebec.



And being honest, if someone from Waterdown, Hamilton won an Olympic medal, I wouldn't be as happy as if Waterdown was annexed by Burlington as has been proposed many times. I don't know why, I just feel that way.

So how much are you like me? Or how indifferent are you to local or provincial boundaries?

Just to point out that Quebec once extended far more westward than the current boundaries.


Having lived in both East and West, and in four provinces, I feel I can root for any Canadian hero or heroine (however you define it). But of course, I will always have a special spot for people from Quebec, my home province, as well as for Montreal, my hometown. And when it comes to NHL teams, I will always root for the Habs.

At the same time, I reserve particular scorn for those Canadians that I find to be loathesome (e.g., His Lordship of Unrivaled Pomposity Conrad Black, Mr Unwonderful Kevin O'Leery), as well as douchebags like the BM, Chad Kroeger, Galen Weston, Derek Fildebrandt, etc.
-not an Idiot

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Just to point out that Quebec once extended far more westward than the current boundaries.

Ah..the creation of the Province of Quebec which was a part of the intolerable Acts that the traitors in 13 colonies used for their rebellion.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by le calmar

The thing about being a homer is the subjectivity involved. I once had a guy from Saskatchewan tell me that it was not “flat enough” here. I understand what was going through his mind though. This guy grew up in a context where he the horizon is infinite and he just could not imagine life without it.

I've had Prairie people (at least 1 or 2) mention that Ontario-Quebec feels "confined" compared to what they're used, due to the presence of dense woods, hills and mountains that always limit the horizon view.

[Acajack]

Great idea for a thread!

Takes me back to my reading of this very interesting book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_of_the_Self