The Great Canadian Cities that are never talked about on SSP thread

[MolsonExport]

Or at least, never talked about in the main Canada forum. Not the smallish towns and municipalities/suburbs, but rather full stand alone largish cities.

I don't recall ever seeing a post about Prince George or Campbell River (BC). Or Grande Prairie (Alberta). Or the burgeoning metropolis of Swift Current (Saskatchewan). Thompson, Manitoba, represent? Chatham, Sault St. Marie, and Cornwall (Ontario)? Granby or Victoriaville (QC)? Miramichi (NB)? Truro (NS)? Corner Brook (NL)?

Most likely as these places either lack active forumers, or forumers that do not post in the main Canada section.

What are your candidates for largish but never featured Canadian cities? Which cities deserve more exposure?

[kwoldtimer]

Guelph? Cambridge? Sudbury? Barrie? St Catharines?

[thewave46]

Some Quebec cities come to mind: Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Drummondville, Rouyn-Noranda, Trois Rivieres. Sort of obvious as to why.

[thewave46]

From the rest of Canada:

Brandon, MB
Prince Albert, SK
Lloydminster, AB/SK
Red Deer, AB
Lethbridge, AB

[SignalHillHiker]

You could fill this thread with Ontario.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

You could fill this thread with Ontario.

But we'll always have Gander to talk about.
I used to go there as a small child, and wanted to go downtown, was so disappointed. LOL.

[Djeffery]

Outside of railway threads, Kingston seems to be pretty absent.

[lio45]

Actually the Sherbrooke community here moved away because one asshole moderator here was threatened to ban me so I managed to convince everyone to move to a forum where there would be no risk of having a pillar of the community getting banned. But there used to be an active thread here.

[RoshanMcG]

Charlottetown! You can't even search the forum for "Charlottetown" for some reason to find any posts in the first place.

[Hali87]

Charlottetown and Kamloops are two of the more interesting ones that seem conspicuously absent a lot of the time. Nanaimo, Fredericton, and Sydney-Glace Bay are a bit less interesting IMO but also feel absent. Kelowna seems relatively well-represented but I rarely hear anything about nearby Vernon or Penticton. There are a bunch of the mid-sized Ontario ones that I don't see much of - in particular, St. Catherine's, Niagara Falls, Guelph, Brantford, Peterborough and Sudbury all come to mind. In Quebec - Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay. In Alberta - Banff; in Saskatchewan - the Battlefords.

[Peggerino]

I always thought it's weird there's no talk of the Ontario cities besides the big three (Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa). Even then, it seems like Toronto is not really discussed all that much considering how massive a city it is along with its high growth rate. I'd be interested to hear more about what's going on in places like Kingston, St. Catharines or Sudbury since I assume there is stuff happening.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Peggerino

I always thought it's weird there's no talk of the Ontario cities besides the big three (Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa).

Kitchener and London get a fair amount of discussion every now and again.

Originally Posted by Peggerino

Even then, it seems like Toronto is not really discussed all that much considering how massive a city it is along with its high growth rate.

Talking about Toronto is illegal unless you live outside of Toronto, in which case you're allowed to discuss it but only if you equate residents of Toronto as being unCanadian and faux American.

Originally Posted by Peggerino

I'd be interested to hear more about what's going on in places like Kingston, St. Catharines or Sudbury since I assume there is stuff happening.

I think St. Catharines is the winner of this thread, in terms of largest metro area that doesn't really get discussed at all.

[jamincan]

Originally Posted by Peggerino

I always thought it's weird there's no talk of the Ontario cities besides the big three (Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa). Even then, it seems like Toronto is not really discussed all that much considering how massive a city it is along with its high growth rate. I'd be interested to hear more about what's going on in places like Kingston, St. Catharines or Sudbury since I assume there is stuff happening.

At least for Toronto and KW, it's largely because most of the community that is interested in this sort of stuff is centred on other forums.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by jamincan

At least for Toronto and KW, it's largely because most of the community that is interested in this sort of stuff is centred on other forums.

Same thing with Montreal.

[Metro-One]

For BC Kamloops and Nanaimo are the most notable absentees, especially Kamloops which actually has a few decent sized projects on the go and is quite an interesting place and has a notably unique setting for a Canadian City.

For Alberta I would say Medicine Hat is seldom discussed.

Other notable absentees I have noticed are Sherbrooke and Trois Rivieres.

For smaller cities that play important roles would be Charlottetown and White Horse.

[905er]

Nanaimo, BC

Saguenay, QC

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by 905er

Nanaimo, BC

Saguenay, QC

Those two, I can agree with, plus St. Catharines. Possibly Sarnia and Trois-Rivieres too. They are sizeable cities but they are never part of any discussions. Like, at all. A lot of places mentioned in this thread are small, so it’s not really surprising if they are not being talked about. Other places like Sherbrooke or Chatham-Kent are mentioned once in a while.

[Denscity]

For BC I'll also vote for Nanaimo. One hundred thousand people and only have a junior b hockey team. Some newer towers and one of the most desirable places to live in the country.

[SignalHillHiker]

Sydney is very absent, but... I mean? What could you say?

Charlottetown being absent I appreciate. I've been. My impression is that it's urban but outdated. It feels at times like a real city, but 10 years ago.

That said, I've had two friends who've been there. One is from Newfoundland, and loved it - found it way too cold in winter, and way too dead after-hours, but was absolutely fully satisfied by what Charlottetown had to offer when it was open.

Another, who lived here for like five years, and only visited Charlottetown in the summer, and was left the impression it was even better than here. Pains me to even remember the conversation I think he's objectively wrong, by any measure, but the fact he had that impression speaks highly of what Charlottetown has to offer.

So I'm glad it's not here showing us up lol

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Sydney is very absent, but... I mean? What could you say?

Charlottetown being absent I appreciate. I've been. My impression is that it's urban but outdated. It feels at times like a real city, but 10 years ago.

That said, I've had two friends who've been there. One is from Newfoundland, and loved it - found it way too cold in winter, and way too dead after-hours, but was absolutely fully satisfied by what Charlottetown had to offer when it was open.

Another, who lived here for like five years, and only visited Charlottetown in the summer, and was left the impression it was even better than here. Pains me to even remember the conversation I think he's objectively wrong, by any measure, but the fact he had that impression speaks highly of what Charlottetown has to offer.

So I'm glad it's not here showing us up lol

In many ways, Charlottetown does feel like a flatter, more orderly St. John's. It's more firmly within the Halifax/Southern NB sphere of influence and feels a bit less quirky and homegrown than St. John's in some ways, its civic identity is heavily tied to confederation and the federal government (it feels more like Ottawa in this way) and there's a seasonal beach town dimension to it, kind of like the Okanagan but without the ski resorts. The food scene is above average for the country and the nightlife and music scenes are surprisingly good but less notable than St. John's. Being at the heart of a large farming region it's also a bit more culturally "country" than people tend to expect. Mainstream retail tends to be weaker in St. John's which is why it's common for people to go to NS or NB to shop at larger big box chains (like Costco or more recently Ikea).

The original town layout was based on the same principles as Philadelphia and Adelaide Aus - it's built around a 5-on-a-die pattern of parks and civic spaces, with Province House in the middle. This is sometimes seen in civic symbols as a pixelated "X" shape.

Wide photos:

Source


Source

Sydney has been pretty stagnant for the last couple decades but I think the area will start to grow significantly again as infrastructure in Cape Breton is upgraded and Halifax deals with shocks to its housing market. I would say it's completely overlooked at the national level and often even at the regional level, but it's a metro of ~100,000 with its own airport, seaport, university, college campuses, in a nice location next to the Bras D'or Lakes and Highlands National Park. The ~4 hour drive from Sydney to Halifax is incredibly scenic and rarely feels like a burden - one of the most enjoyable sections of the Trans-Can IMO. It's also an interesting case study where there's an urban reserve (Membertou) that has been driving a lot of the better developments in the area over the last couple decades.