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  #61  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 10:13 AM
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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.
Like me, my high school sweetheart was born in The Peg and grew up in Niagara (we're still in touch a 100 years later). She was schooled at U of W and has lived most of adult life in Windsor (including cross-border work with inner-city kids in Detroit... interesting stories there).

My favourite Windsor homerism (used often by aforementioned girlfriend and other friends in Windsor) is "Windsor is the banana belt of Canada". Typically these comments happen in January when Windsor is 2 degrees warmer than The Six.

I guess I know 6 people in Detroit-lite. The number of them who have any interest in discussing the glories of the most diverse city on the continent (or the un-matched avalanche of city-building*) = 0.

I did hear one friend with a very strong work ethic, whisper their love for The Raptors (when they didn't realize I could hear them).

*homerism opportunity
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  #62  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 11:30 AM
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I often feel the BC Coast is kind of its own thing separate from Canada, particularly Victoria and Vancouver and will give the most of my boosterism/homerism efforts to that sphere.
That region is definitely Canada's Perth - a large city, by our standards, off to itself on the west coast.

*****

I've covered hometown and province, regarding region and country...

Our region is Atlantic Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador isn't part of the Maritimes). I definitely feel part of the Atlantic Canada region, although it is distant. There's not really any daily interaction - a trip to Halifax might as well be a trip to anywhere else in the world, it can take about as long and cost as much to get there. It's similar to how it makes more sense for a mainland Canadian to visit Dublin and Reykjavik than St. John's. The experience is more original, less reductive, and probably will cost them less. For us, we're so isolated and our connections to mainland Canada so primitive and expensive, that it's just as well to go somewhere farther, well outside Atlantic Canada. But lots and lots of historical and family connections. I still have aunts/uncles there, and their children who were born/raised there - though in recent years most have moved farther west, and a few came home.

The Atlantic Bubble during this pandemic could change that - in both directions (for example, Marble Mountain is mounting an advertising campaign in the Maritimes since it will be the best ski hill available to them without the need to isolate upon their arrival or return home). It'll be an uphill battle, I'm sure. Some of my strongest memories from living in the Maritimes (1999-2003ish) are people thinking I would be impressed by the most basic shit (cabbies pointing out four-lane roads, "Bet ye don't have them in St. John's!", etc. Like... who THINKS like that? What the fuck is that mindset? How do you end up with a head that small? I understand not knowing anything about St. John's, but why care or ever think let alone bring up whether someone has seen four-lane roads? lol I don't understand it at all; people in Moncton straight up thinking I was lying when I said St. John's was larger, etc.). So it's not like we're besties who know each other well.

Actually traveling in the Maritimes is an interesting experience. The accents are quite similar to ours in Cape Breton, but the surroundings are depressing - as bad if not worse than anything here. Even Corner Brook has more going on than Sydney. And then it gradually gets less and less similar to us as you head south and west, into the traditionally Protestant or francophone regions.

As for country... I'm much kinder to Canada when traveling. But the things people know about Canada never, ever apply to me. I spend conversations complimenting Montreal and explaining bagged milk doesn't exist where I'm from; confirming Canadians are friendly, but explaining why they think my accent sounds a bit Irish; etc. It's just very pronounced because Newfoundland isn't known at all in most countries, and what's known about Canada usually aren't things that also apply here (or, sometimes, anywhere lol). It'd be like being from San Francisco and traveling a world that has never heard of it and only knows America from Dallas.
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  #63  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 11:42 AM
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I often feel the BC Coast is kind of its own thing separate from Canada, particularly Victoria and Vancouver and will give the most of my boosterism/homerism efforts to that sphere. I have a soft spot for Calgary and want to see it do well in spite of setbacks so that it can eventually join the conversation as Canada's "Big 4" cities. Toronto I often am proud/boastful of as Canada's big "Alpha world city". Montreal I just can't say I care for, there are just enough boosters/supporters as is and plenty of people seem to think it's Canada's best city.
Even if I take off my Quebec hat (where Toronto is largely seen as a non-factor), I think it's quite rare even for ROCers to be proud, boastful of or root for Toronto. The sentiment you describe is generally limited to a hard core of city and skyscraper enthusiasts (ie some SSP types). Or maybe ever 5-10 years or so when a TO-based club in a US sports league makes a title run and gets billed Canada's team.

But very few people outside of the broadcast range of the CN Tower's antennas see Canada's renown and prestige tied to Toronto. One of the reasons of course being the perception that Toronto is largely indifferent to any "Canada" that isn't principally defined by the limits of, say, the GO Transit network.

(All of this could be qualified by "rightly or wrongly" of course. But the sentiment and perceptions are definitely there.)

The relationship that francophones have with Montreal is different. It's more of a classic love-hate. There is lots of animosity but on the other hand everyone is aware that Montreal is a make-or-break for us. In terms of prestige and so many other things, we'll sink or swim with her. So even those of us who hate Montreal secretly root for it.
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  #64  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 11:58 AM
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Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
That region is definitely Canada's Perth - a large city, by our standards, off to itself on the west coast.

*****

I've covered hometown and province, regarding region and country...

Our region is Atlantic Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador isn't part of the Maritimes). I definitely feel part of the Atlantic Canada region, although it is distant. There's not really any daily interaction - a trip to Halifax might as well be a trip to anywhere else in the world, it can take about as long and cost as much to get there. It's similar to how it makes more sense for a mainland Canadian to visit Dublin and Reykjavik than St. John's. The experience is more original, less reductive, and probably will cost them less. For us, we're so isolated and our connections to mainland Canada so primitive and expensive, that it's just as well to go somewhere farther, well outside Atlantic Canada. But lots and lots of historical and family connections. I still have aunts/uncles there, and their children who were born/raised there - though in recent years most have moved farther west, and a few came home.

The Atlantic Bubble during this pandemic could change that - in both directions (for example, Marble Mountain is mounting an advertising campaign in the Maritimes since it will be the best ski hill available to them without the need to isolate upon their arrival or return home). It'll be an uphill battle, I'm sure. Some of my strongest memories from living in the Maritimes (1999-2003ish) are people thinking I would be impressed by the most basic shit (cabbies pointing out four-lane roads, "Bet ye don't have them in St. John's!", etc. Like... who THINKS like that? What the fuck is that mindset? How do you end up with a head that small? I understand not knowing anything about St. John's, but why care or ever think let alone bring up whether someone has seen four-lane roads? lol I don't understand it at all; people in Moncton straight up thinking I was lying when I said St. John's was larger, etc.). So it's not like we're besties who know each other well.

Actually traveling in the Maritimes is an interesting experience. The accents are quite similar to ours in Cape Breton, but the surroundings are depressing - as bad if not worse than anything here. Even Corner Brook has more going on than Sydney. And then it gradually gets less and less similar to us as you head south and west, into the traditionally Protestant or francophone regions.

As for country... I'm much kinder to Canada when traveling. But the things people know about Canada never, ever apply to me. I spend conversations complimenting Montreal and explaining bagged milk doesn't exist where I'm from; confirming Canadians are friendly, but explaining why they think my accent sounds a bit Irish; etc. It's just very pronounced because Newfoundland isn't known at all in most countries, and what's known about Canada usually aren't things that also apply here (or, sometimes, anywhere lol). It'd be like being from San Francisco and traveling a world that has never heard of it and only knows America from Dallas.
Bilingual Québécois visiting a Hollywood studio this week:

Tour guide: I guess you guys being Canadian, you must be soooo proud of Schitt's Creek winning all those Emmys?

Québécois tourists:

Québécois tourists' kid: Papa, pourquoi le monsieur a dit le mot pour "merde" en anglais?
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  #65  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 1:02 PM
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I have a lot of affection and feeling for Toronto and Montreal, which is maybe a little strange given their role as ostensible poles or opposites.

I was a little kid in Toronto, and doing things like taking a field trip to the CN Tower or going to see WWF at Maple Leaf Gardens was a big deal for me. My parents would get me coffee table books about Toronto and I resented our outdated, 1970s set of Funk & Wagnall encyclopedias that claimed it was the "second city of Canada". Every '80s Toronto kid knew we were #1.

We then moved to Halifax, which I never developed a lot of fellow-feeling for. I was introduced to the phrase "from away" despite being in fifth grade, and the best friends that defined my time there were a Brit and a Texan who have both since moved. I didn't gel with Halifax or the Maritimes, but looking back it was a good place to be a teenager and an interesting city. It just didn't speak my language in those years.

Then there was Montreal, and that was a big chapter. I crossed the Cartier and knew that I would give everything to this place, learn everything about it. I would learn things for it, and put down the sort of roots my family didn't have.

Long story there. Sixteen years, n'importe quoi, far too many things to get into. A good portion of it was documented on this very site in different ways. Montreal got into my head, it sparked my imagination, it was to my eyes Canada's only example of... a certain type of image I was craving very badly. But in the end I had to run.








Montreal gives me phantom pains but it is a bit heavy to be in, even still. Toronto is where I have family, where my Canadian trips are centred; it is assuming a much larger role in my "Canada", but I became a man in Montreal and will always be joined to that city and its ways and manners in the post-referendum decade and into the current boom.

I have a lot of affection and sorrow for that young guy walking among the icy ruins of Griffintown in 1997, headphones in and dreaming, nothing much to do.

So those are my cities, and that was my Canada. I liked watching the Juniors here in Sweden, and lifted a glass when Canada won, but Canadian patriotism isn't a huge part of my life. Most people assume I am American until we get to know each other, and I don't really care because the nature of my differences from people here are somehow very "American", and meeting Americans "feels like home" nearly as much as meeting Canadians. Scandinavia is probably easier to admire than to love for me, but it's comfortable, and after a few years of hard soul-searching, I now feel like I will probably wind up remaining in Europe, perhaps forever.

I have a lot of hopes and loves for Canada, but the shape of my thoughts is becoming less Canadian. This forum is the only place where I really read about the country and its affairs. I find myself drifting into a phase of heavy criticism for the English-speaking peoples and the world they have made, so many of the ideas most dominant in Canada are not among my favourites right now.

I still think it is the most glorious physical country in the world. It is so magnificent. Don't forget about those things in all the urban burrowing; there is no wilderness like the Canadian wilderness, no expanse like the Canadian expanse. I hope we do something great with all of that one day.

Last edited by kool maudit; Sep 26, 2020 at 1:17 PM.
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  #66  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 2:33 PM
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Most people assume I am American until we get to know each other, and I don't really care because the nature of my differences from people here are somehow very "American", and meeting Americans "feels like home" nearly as much as meeting Canadians.
.
This is made easier by the fact that Americans you encounter abroad are generally the ones who dovetail more with Canadian sensibilities. At least that's almost always been my experience.
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  #67  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:15 PM
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Thankfully, you're extremely unlikely to ever have that dilemma :p

And nobody had a hissy fit (yet).
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  #68  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:17 PM
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And nobody had a hissy fit (yet).
Chad is the King Midas of SSP Canada, except it's "drama", not "gold".

The Leafs aren't his team, so... we're fine.
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  #69  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:21 PM
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Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post
I still think it is the most glorious physical country in the world. It is so magnificent. Don't forget about those things in all the urban burrowing; there is no wilderness like the Canadian wilderness, no expanse like the Canadian expanse. I hope we do something great with all of that one day.
You mean, I hope we DON'T do anything with it - the only correct thing to do to magnificient Canadian wilderness is to leave it alone

(I think you don't disagree...... it's just interesting, the way you phrased that. By current Canadian standards, "doing something with it one day" would mean putting a few asphalt parking lots in the middle of it, a Tim's drive thru, and a big highway cutting through it to bring tourists to it.)
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  #70  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:23 PM
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Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post
I have a lot of affection and feeling for Toronto and Montreal, which is maybe a little strange given their role as ostensible poles or opposites.

I was a little kid in Toronto, and doing things like taking a field trip to the CN Tower or going to see WWF at Maple Leaf Gardens was a big deal for me. My parents would get me coffee table books about Toronto and I resented our outdated, 1970s set of Funk & Wagnall encyclopedias that claimed it was the "second city of Canada". Every '80s Toronto kid knew we were #1.

We then moved to Halifax, which I never developed a lot of fellow-feeling for. I was introduced to the phrase "from away" despite being in fifth grade, and the best friends that defined my time there were a Brit and a Texan who have both since moved. I didn't gel with Halifax or the Maritimes, but looking back it was a good place to be a teenager and an interesting city. It just didn't speak my language in those years.

Then there was Montreal, and that was a big chapter. I crossed the Cartier and knew that I would give everything to this place, learn everything about it. I would learn things for it, and put down the sort of roots my family didn't have.

Long story there. Sixteen years, n'importe quoi, far too many things to get into. A good portion of it was documented on this very site in different ways. Montreal got into my head, it sparked my imagination, it was to my eyes Canada's only example of... a certain type of image I was craving very badly. But in the end I had to run.








Montreal gives me phantom pains but it is a bit heavy to be in, even still. Toronto is where I have family, where my Canadian trips are centred; it is assuming a much larger role in my "Canada", but I became a man in Montreal and will always be joined to that city and its ways and manners in the post-referendum decade and into the current boom.

I have a lot of affection and sorrow for that young guy walking among the icy ruins of Griffintown in 1997, headphones in and dreaming, nothing much to do.

So those are my cities, and that was my Canada. I liked watching the Juniors here in Sweden, and lifted a glass when Canada won, but Canadian patriotism isn't a huge part of my life. Most people assume I am American until we get to know each other, and I don't really care because the nature of my differences from people here are somehow very "American", and meeting Americans "feels like home" nearly as much as meeting Canadians. Scandinavia is probably easier to admire than to love for me, but it's comfortable, and after a few years of hard soul-searching, I now feel like I will probably wind up remaining in Europe, perhaps forever.

I have a lot of hopes and loves for Canada, but the shape of my thoughts is becoming less Canadian. This forum is the only place where I really read about the country and its affairs. I find myself drifting into a phase of heavy criticism for the English-speaking peoples and the world they have made, so many of the ideas most dominant in Canada are not among my favourites right now.

I still think it is the most glorious physical country in the world. It is so magnificent. Don't forget about those things in all the urban burrowing; there is no wilderness like the Canadian wilderness, no expanse like the Canadian expanse. I hope we do something great with all of that one day.
This is an awesome read with great photos of the problems Montreal was facing in the wake of the second Neverendum.

I am not in the least bit insulted.
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  #71  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:25 PM
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Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
Chad is the King Midas of SSP Canada, except it's "drama", not "gold".

The Leafs aren't his team, so... we're fine.
OMG it's on this thread too. LOL you guys are hopeless.

Someone should document all the arguments in a book format for a modern day tale of Hatfields and McCoys
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  #72  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:33 PM
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Wonderful post kool.

But lio is from that western town and it's time to air this:

Vancouverites are so jealous of… and hate Toronto, they sent 2 of their covert operatives to destroy the city south of Front Street. Concord Sh!ttyPlace and the massive green litter of Pinnacle (pre-1 Yonge). But we’ll get even. gOD is on our side and she is sending the soggy view-cone city unparalleled new levels of precipitation (check the future projections… we asked her to do that).

600 million views
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Last edited by Maldive; Sep 26, 2020 at 6:38 PM.
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  #73  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:33 PM
PortaPetee PortaPetee is offline
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Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
That region is definitely Canada's Perth - a large city, by our standards, off to itself on the west coast.

*****

I've covered hometown and province, regarding region and country...

Our region is Atlantic Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador isn't part of the Maritimes). I definitely feel part of the Atlantic Canada region, although it is distant. There's not really any daily interaction - a trip to Halifax might as well be a trip to anywhere else in the world, it can take about as long and cost as much to get there. It's similar to how it makes more sense for a mainland Canadian to visit Dublin and Reykjavik than St. John's. The experience is more original, less reductive, and probably will cost them less. For us, we're so isolated and our connections to mainland Canada so primitive and expensive, that it's just as well to go somewhere farther, well outside Atlantic Canada. But lots and lots of historical and family connections. I still have aunts/uncles there, and their children who were born/raised there - though in recent years most have moved farther west, and a few came home.

The Atlantic Bubble during this pandemic could change that - in both directions (for example, Marble Mountain is mounting an advertising campaign in the Maritimes since it will be the best ski hill available to them without the need to isolate upon their arrival or return home). It'll be an uphill battle, I'm sure. Some of my strongest memories from living in the Maritimes (1999-2003ish) are people thinking I would be impressed by the most basic shit (cabbies pointing out four-lane roads, "Bet ye don't have them in St. John's!", etc. Like... who THINKS like that? What the fuck is that mindset? How do you end up with a head that small? I understand not knowing anything about St. John's, but why care or ever think let alone bring up whether someone has seen four-lane roads? lol I don't understand it at all; people in Moncton straight up thinking I was lying when I said St. John's was larger, etc.). So it's not like we're besties who know each other well.

Actually traveling in the Maritimes is an interesting experience. The accents are quite similar to ours in Cape Breton, but the surroundings are depressing - as bad if not worse than anything here. Even Corner Brook has more going on than Sydney. And then it gradually gets less and less similar to us as you head south and west, into the traditionally Protestant or francophone regions.

As for country... I'm much kinder to Canada when traveling. But the things people know about Canada never, ever apply to me. I spend conversations complimenting Montreal and explaining bagged milk doesn't exist where I'm from; confirming Canadians are friendly, but explaining why they think my accent sounds a bit Irish; etc. It's just very pronounced because Newfoundland isn't known at all in most countries, and what's known about Canada usually aren't things that also apply here (or, sometimes, anywhere lol). It'd be like being from San Francisco and traveling a world that has never heard of it and only knows America from Dallas.

It's funny - I assume others see Atlantic Canada as a fairly homogenous area where everything is kind of close together.

But in Halifax I'm about as far from St. John's as I am from Ottawa. I've only been to NL once - to Gros Morne (WHICH IS PHENOMENAL.) And I've touched down there a couple of times on the way to Ireland.

I confess right up into my early 20s I pictured Newfoundland as this sort of sub-Arctic place with no trees and St. John's as something you'd see in a period piece about a grungy Northern England industrial town.

I know better now, I promise :-) But you know we have a similar issue in Nova Scotia. For a long time anything you saw on TV and such about both NL and NS was lighthouses, quaint colourful wooden houses, boats and wharves, lobsters, cod, etc. I guess people could be forgiven for thinking there are no actual cities on the east coast.

On accents, I don't sound like a Newfoundlander at all, but I guess I have enough Atlantic Canada in me that I did get asked once in Vancouver if I was from Ireland or Scotland!

Last edited by PortaPetee; Sep 26, 2020 at 3:48 PM.
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  #74  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:49 PM
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Wonderful post Export. Stockholm is lucky to have you.
That would be kool maudit, not MolsonExport. The latter got exported from Mtl too, but only to London (and not the overseas one).



Quote:
But lio is from that western town and it's time to air this:

Vancouverites are so jealous of… and hate Toronto, they sent 2 of their covert operatives to destroy the city south of Front Street. Concord Sh!ttyPlace and the massive green litter of Pinnacle (pre-1 Yonge). But we’ll get even. gOD is on our side and she is sending the soggy view-cone city unparalleled new levels of precipitation (check the future projections… we asked her to do that).
I had good memories of Vancouver from having previously spent time there ~10 years ago, but I was disappointed by the city this year. I am not a Vancouverite at all, just had to live there for some ~6 months to oversee a project I couldn't pass up (and which may have other phases in the following years, requiring me again to spend time in that city that definitely wouldn't be my choice of place to live).

So... if you want to diss the place, fire away, and I might even join you!
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  #75  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 3:54 PM
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I confess right up into my early 20s I pictured Newfoundland as this sort of sub-Arctic place with no trees and St. John's as something you'd see in a period piece about a grungy Northern England industrial town.
That's a better stereotype than most. One aside this brings to mind: in my opinion, Newfoundlanders don't really have a comparable blind spot left anymore. It used to be Western Canada (when I moved to Winnipeg, family and friends were genuinely worried for me: you'll have to go back in the closet. They're practically Amish out there, colonies and everything!), but thanks to the oil patch, everyone here is at least aware of Calgary and Edmonton now, even if they have no idea the size/appearance of Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, etc. So there's not really anywhere left in Canada where a majority of locals have completely false expectations. That's progress, I suppose.

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Originally Posted by PortaPetee View Post
On accents, I don't sound like a Newfoundlander at all, but I guess I have enough Atlantic Canada in me that I did get asked once in Vancouver if I was from Ireland or Scotland!
That's one of the fun things about being in mainland Canada - it's easy for us to pick each other out and we never assume the other is Irish or Scottish. We usually just get and/or ask, "What part of Newfoundland are you from?" - sometimes the answer is Ireland, or Cape Breton, but most of the time you've found a compatriot. It's always a lovely experience - and the conversation that follows is always so... hyperlocal. Standing in line at a grocery checkout in Kenora, Ontario, with some old woman asking if you're the Trout River Crockers or Georgetown ones? ("Are you Salvation Army, that's a Salvation Army name. Catholic? How's that?"; "Oh! Your aunt taught my two kids in school. Your cousin Greg who married the Cooper girl from Bauline East? That's my niece!" etc. lol)
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  #76  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 4:00 PM
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That's a better stereotype than most. One aside this brings to mind: in my opinion, Newfoundlanders don't really have a comparable blind spot left anymore. It used to be Western Canada (when I moved to Winnipeg, family and friends were genuinely worried for me: you'll have to go back in the closet. They're practically Amish out there, colonies and everything!), but thanks to the oil patch, everyone here is at least aware of Calgary and Edmonton now, even if they have no idea the size/appearance of Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, etc. So there's not really anywhere left in Canada where a majority of locals have completely false expectations. That's progress, I suppose.
'What are your province's Canadian blind spots' would make for an interesting off-topic Canada subforum thread...

I have to say, in Manitoba we are totally aware of Alberta, and there is a decent degree of familiarity with BC (Lower Mainland), Saskatchewan, southern (but not SW) Ontario and Montreal. But the rest of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces (other than maybe the Halifax area) are a bit of a blind spot for sure. My friends and family are fairly well travelled but hardly anyone I know has spent much time in New Brunswick, for example. It's practically terra incognita.
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  #77  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 4:14 PM
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Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker View Post
That's a better stereotype than most. One aside this brings to mind: in my opinion, Newfoundlanders don't really have a comparable blind spot left anymore. It used to be Western Canada (when I moved to Winnipeg, family and friends were genuinely worried for me: you'll have to go back in the closet. They're practically Amish out there, colonies and everything!), but thanks to the oil patch, everyone here is at least aware of Calgary and Edmonton now, even if they have no idea the size/appearance of Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, etc. So there's not really anywhere left in Canada where a majority of locals have completely false expectations. That's progress, I suppose.

That's one of the fun things about being in mainland Canada - it's easy for us to pick each other out and we never assume the other is Irish or Scottish. We usually just get and/or ask, "What part of Newfoundland are you from?" - sometimes the answer is Ireland, or Cape Breton, but most of the time you've found a compatriot. It's always a lovely experience - and the conversation that follows is always so... hyperlocal. Standing in line at a grocery checkout in Kenora, Ontario, with some old woman asking if you're the Trout River Crockers or Georgetown ones? ("Are you Salvation Army, that's a Salvation Army name. Catholic? How's that?"; "Oh! Your aunt taught my two kids in school. Your cousin Greg who married the Cooper girl from Bauline East? That's my niece!" etc. lol)
You just reminded me that the first time I ever saw a clip from Mrs. Brown's Boys I legitimately thought it was in Newfoundland.

Three of my great grandparents were from Newfoundland so I get the locality thing. Butt? West Coast Butt? Grand Falls? Matthews? St. John's or Burgeo? Benoit? Gotta be St. George's Bay.
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  #78  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 4:18 PM
PortaPetee PortaPetee is offline
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Originally Posted by esquire View Post
'What are your province's Canadian blind spots' would make for an interesting off-topic Canada subforum thread...

I have to say, in Manitoba we are totally aware of Alberta, and there is a decent degree of familiarity with BC (Lower Mainland), Saskatchewan, southern (but not SW) Ontario and Montreal. But the rest of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces (other than maybe the Halifax area) are a bit of a blind spot for sure. My friends and family are fairly well travelled but hardly anyone I know has spent much time in New Brunswick, for example. It's practically terra incognita.
New Brunswick has some gorgeous scenery, but it's often referred to as a drive-through province because people are usually on the way from Ontario or Quebec to PEI or Nova Scotia. The cities of NB don't seem to be a very big draw, although Fredericton is a nice, lively little city, and Saint John has a very well-preserved historical core. Moncton is the more commercial of the three main cities as it's very central in the Maritimes. I honestly can't believe the ever-growing stretches of business parks for a city of its size.
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  #79  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 4:20 PM
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SignalHillHiker SignalHillHiker is offline
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Originally Posted by PortaPetee View Post
Three of my great grandparents were from Newfoundland so I get the locality thing. Butt? West Coast Butt? Grand Falls? Matthews? St. John's or Burgeo? Benoit? Gotta be St. George's Bay.
Mrs. Brown's Boys is awesome. It's a sitcom, so... you know, all the usual caveats... but I love it.

Yeah, it makes me a little sad how much it's faded in just one generation. My father can often guess someone's surname and where they're from just from looking at them, and if he hears them talk he can always pin them down to a very specific part of the province. It's fascinating to me because I can't do it. But, for example, we'll go out for lunch and his conversation with the waitress might go something like, "You're the face and eyes of a Squires!" ("My mother's maiden name.") "You sounds like you're from the bottom of Placentia Bay!" ("Grew up in Southern Harbour!") etc.

I can't do ANY of that. I can tell the most sing-songy Irish accents from the Southern Shore instantly (very different from mine and most NL accents). And I can recognize some things... a tall, tan girl with black hair and blue eyes, I'll guess and often be right that she's from somewhere on the Burin Peninsula. That sort of thing. But it's like... 2-5% of the time I can tell enough to guess, and not even close to always being right. Dad's like the opposite, can almost always guess, almost always correct.
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  #80  
Old Posted Sep 26, 2020, 4:22 PM
PortaPetee PortaPetee is offline
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Originally Posted by esquire View Post
'What are your province's Canadian blind spots' would make for an interesting off-topic Canada subforum thread...

I have to say, in Manitoba we are totally aware of Alberta, and there is a decent degree of familiarity with BC (Lower Mainland), Saskatchewan, southern (but not SW) Ontario and Montreal. But the rest of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces (other than maybe the Halifax area) are a bit of a blind spot for sure. My friends and family are fairly well travelled but hardly anyone I know has spent much time in New Brunswick, for example. It's practically terra incognita.
I mostly know Manitoba as the place with the second flattest land and the #1 flattest vowels in the country

Actually I liked Winnipeg the one time I was there.

I know there are huge racial issues but it was very nice for me to see Indigenous people all over town, in the malls and restaurants. They are sort of an invisible population on the east coast.
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