What cities/towns can the average Canadian name in each province?

[megadude]

What are some examples in each province that the average, but also above average, and knowledgeable, Canadians would know about?

Can also include regions instead of specific cities and towns.

In my head, I broke it down into the following categories:


Average Canadian

Tier 1 - The big major cities of the country that virtually everyone knows. Can also include capitals that aren't the biggest city.

Tier 2 - Capitals that aren't the big major cities or cities that aren't all that big but are of material significance that at least half of educated or generally informed people could name. Also includes major tourist hot spots.

Tier 3 - Important cities and towns regionally that most Canadians far away from there couldn't name, but if you said the the name, they could most likely guess which province it's in. Could include tourist destinations that are a notch below the major ones.

Above Average

Tier 4 - Places that the vast majority of Canadians from far away don't know diddly squat about. Only for the very informed, like most members here.

Tier 5 - Places that only geography nerds know about.

[Innsertnamehere]

Tier 1 for Ontario is probably:
Toronto
Ottawa
London
Kitchener/Waterloo
Hamilton
Niagara Falls

Tier two, add:
Peterborough
Thunder Bay
Kingston
Barrie
Oshawa
Brantford
Windsor
Sarnia
Sudbury
Sault ste Marie
Mississauga
Brampton
Vaughan
St. Catharines
Muskoka

Beyond that, there’s too many to name easily. You could probably move a few around

A few could probably move around Depending on the person. I imagine most Canadians could name the tier one cities as well as at least a few of the tier twos, just not as consistently for the tier twos.

[kwoldtimer]

A quibble, but I might bump Windsor up to your tier 1. Also not sure I’d put Peterborough, Barrie, or Brantford in a higher tier than Guelph or Cambridge.

[urbandreamer]

I've been to almost every town/city on Vancouver Island except Tofino, Campbell River to Port Hardy, all the major cities between Quebec City and Vancouver except Edmonton, Kelowna, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Timmins, Val-d'Or, Sherbrooke. I've been to almost every town between North Bay/Kingston/Tobermory/Windsor/Fort Erie/Bancroft except a handful in Flar's 'hood. Never been to Atlantic/Maritime Canada or Manitoulin Island. Haven't extensively explored the Okanagan yet although I've been to Kamloops.

In BC I can name at least 50 towns, in Alberta maybe a dozen, in Saskatchewan a handful, Manitoba at least 20, Ontario has hundreds (thousands?) of towns, hamlets, villages and ghost towns I've at least driven through, Quebec is going to be harder ha but certainly I know the Eastern Townships and route to Mont Tremblant; Nova Scotia and New Brunswick I can think of a few dozen, PEI and NFLD kind of sketchy ha.

Here's some Ontario towns I rather enjoyed this past year, some for their setting, others for their architecture, and some just sort of surprised me
Elora
Fergus
Grand Valley
Meaford
Owen Sound
Hanover
Walkerton
Paisley
Point Clark
Bayfield
Exeter
Seaforth
Dublin
Wingham
Teeswater
Fordwich
Moorefield
Elmira
Hawkesville
Brussels
Milverton
Millbank
Mildmay
Mitchell
Durham
St Marys
Stratford
Chatham
Port Ryerse
Woodstock
Port Dalhousie
Ancaster
Jerseyville
Harrisburg
Dundas
Amherstburg
Prairie Siding
Tara
Creemore
Erin
Alliston
Orillia
Cooper's Falls
Innisfil
Lindsay
Whitby
Minden
Rosseau
MacTier
Bracebridge

[Martin Mtl]

I don't know.

[Acajack]

Your average person in Quebec will know a ton of places in Quebec, even in some cases pretty small ones due to popular culture (St-Élie-de-Caxton, Kamouraska) or even to tragedies (Lac-Mégantic, Les Éboulements).

This even extends to some degree to a handful of small places outside the province, like Paquetville NB.

But generally speaking, once outside Quebec it drops like a stone. Of course people will know the main ones like Toronto, Vancouver, places with NHL teams like Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, the capital of the country (Ottawa) and a famed tourist place like Niagara Falls. Moncton is also on the radar due to having a substantial francophone university and being the de facto Acadian capital. Maybe Hamilton too (CFL team that plays the Alouettes) and Halifax (combination of LHJMQ team + decently large historic city).

[EpicPonyTime]

Saskatchewan I imagine it is just Saskatoon and Regina. MAYBE Prince Albert, assuming people were once immature high schoolers who thought the name was funny.

I would be very interested in knowing how many places in northern Canada the average Canadian could name. And, of course, how many of them get Whitehorse and Yellowknife mixed up (the key: the city and territory don't share the same first letter )

I imagine it would be very few. But everyone should know of the great Tuktoyaktuk.

[Architype]

I think for most people it's just the large cities, plus any place where they actually know someone or have been to themselves. I think I can name more cities in each state of the US than most Canadians can name in faraway Canadian provinces.

For Quebec, you can just put "St." in front of any name you've ever heard of, and it will be a place in Quebec.

For BC I suspect it's just Vancouver and Victoria for most people in the east.

For Newfoundland it would just be St. John's (or is it Saint John?), maybe Gander and Dildo.

For Ontario, everybody knows where downtown Canada is.

[urbandreamer]

Downtown Canada is where the girls are pretty, the cars are fast and the buildings are old. Saint Catherine and Saint Denis for me!

[Architype]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Downtown Canada is where the girls are pretty, the cars are fast and the buildings are old. Saint Catherine and Saint Denis for me!

That should be a song!
Paradise City?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Downtown Canada is where the girls are pretty, the cars are fast and the buildings are old. Saint Catherine and Saint Denis for me!

You mean the girls are fast ....

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Here's some Ontario towns I rather enjoyed this past year, some for their setting, others for their architecture, and some just sort of surprised me
Elora
Fergus
Grand Valley
Meaford
Owen Sound
Hanover
Walkerton
Paisley
Point Clark
Bayfield
Exeter
Seaforth
Dublin
Wingham
Teeswater
Fordwich
Moorefield
Elmira
Hawkesville
Brussels
Milverton
Millbank
Mildmay
Mitchell
Durham
St Marys
Stratford
Chatham
Port Ryerse
Woodstock
Port Dalhousie
Ancaster
Jerseyville
Harrisburg
Dundas
Amherstburg
Prairie Siding
Tara
Creemore
Erin
Alliston
Orillia
Cooper's Falls
Innisfil
Lindsay
Whitby
Minden
Rosseau
MacTier
Bracebridge

That’s a pretty extensive list. I’d say I know half the names you listed but I wouldn’t be able to locate some of them on a map.

Personally, I have good idea of the communities located between let’s say Lac-Megantic to Toronto, or put differently, along A-10, A-30 from Brossard to Vaudreuil-Dorion, A-20 from Montreal to the QC/ON border, the 417, 416, and then 401 from the QC border to downtown Toronto.

I know and have been to most of the towns within that corridor, but my comfort zone quickly takes a nose dive if I were to guess the towns located just 10 km away from a given freeway. With the exception of the Eastern Townships and the parts of Eastern Ontario located within an hour of Ottawa, which I know pretty much all over. My capacity to navigate anywhere west of Toronto is pretty bad and I am pretty much constantly on GPS mode at that point.

[MolsonExport]

Okotoks

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Downtown Canada is where the girls are pretty, the cars are fast and the buildings are old. Saint Catherine and Saint Denis for me!

Ste. Catherines on a hot summer night...only gets hotter with all the hot babes out flaunting what they got.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Okotoks

LOL.You get me every time.

[lio45]

I'd limit Tier 1 to Toronto, Montreal, Maple Creek, Vancouver, Ottawa because it's the capital, Quebec because it's also a province, and maybe Calgary.

[Andy6]

It obviously depends where you're from, and the assumption would have to be that you had never lived anywhere else. If you were from Manitoba, probably 75% would name:

Kenora
Thunder Bay
Toronto
Ottawa
Hamilton
Niagara Falls

probably nothing else would be close to those

For Quebec:

Montreal
Quebec City
That place across from Ottawa where we saw the strippers

For New Brunswick:

Uhhhh...

For PEI:

Sorry

For Nova Scotia:

Halifax

For Newfoundland:

Uh ... i KNEW it... it's got lobsters... sorry

Going west everyone would know the larger cities.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

You mean the girls are fast ....

I think you mean the girls are loose.

[SignalHillHiker]

Average Canadian?

Tier 1 for Newfoundland:

Halifax
Saint John
Dildo

[Chadillaccc]

For me, probably most/all of city status in Every province and territory. Obviously the numerous suburbs of each core city are implicit knowledge... at least for a nerdy fuck like me... but here's the rest.

NL:
St. John's
Grand Fall-Windsor
Cornerbrook
Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Wabush
Labrador City
Bonavista
St. Anthony


NS:
Halifax
Sydney
New Glasgow
Antigonish
Yarmouth
Wolfville


PEI:
Charlottetown
Stratford
Summerside


NB:
Fredericton
Moncton
Saint John
Miramichi
Campbellton
Woodstock
Bathurst


QC:
Quebec
Montreal (and the various suburbs)
Trois Rivières
Rimouski
Gatineau
Gaspe
Sherbrooke
Sept Isles
Drummondville
St. Jean Sur Richeleiu
Ouje-Bougamou
Mistasini
Chibougamou
Val'Dor
Rouyn Noranda
Saguenay
Kuujuak


ON (southern):
Toronto
Ottawa
Hamilton
Niagara Falls
St. Catharines
London
Goderich
Windsor
Paris
Brantford
Kitchener
Waterloo
Cambridge
New Hanover
Woodstock
Ingersoll
Tilsonburg
St. Thomas
Turkey Point
Simcoe
Kingston
Leamington
Chatham
Barrie
Peterborough
Lindsay
Kawartha
Orillia
Parry Sound
Owen Sound

ON (northern):
Little Current
North Bay
Timmins
Petawawa
Sudbury
Sault Ste. Marie
Wawa
Marathon
Attawapiskat
Sioux Lookout
Thunder Bay
Rainy River
Kenora
Morrison
Geraldton
Nipigon
Red Rock
Dryden
Dorian


MB:
Winnipeg
Brandon
Thompson
Portage La Prairie
Flin Flon
The Pas
Emerson
Selkirk


SK:
Regina
Saskatoon
Moose Jaw
Yorkton
Swift Current
Warman
Estevan
The Battlefords


AB:
Edmonton
Calgary
Canmore
Camrose
Red Deer
Lethbridge
Nanton
Medicine Hat
Creston
Crowsnest Pass
Banff
Jasper
Fort McMurray
Grande Prairie
High Level
High Prairie
Slave Lake
Lac La Biche
Strathmore
Hinton
Wetaskewin
Olds
Lacombe
Blackfalds
Sylvan Lake
Hanna
Drumheller
Fort McKay
Fort Macleod
Rocky Mountain House
Grande Cache
Vulcan


BC:
Victoria
Vancouver
Kelowna
Kamloops
Abbotsford
Nanaimo
Chilliwack
Quesnel
Prince Rupert
Prince George
Port Alberni
Comox
Courtenay
Bella Bella
Bella Coolla
Whistler
Pemberton
Vernon
Penticton
Osoyoos
Merrit
Fort St. John
Ucluelet
Tofino
Parksville
Duncan
Salmon Arm


YK:
Whitehorse
Dawson


NWT:
Yellowknife
Hay River
Rae-Edzo
Inuvik
Tuktoyaktuk


NT:
Iqaluit
Arviat
Rankin Inlet
Pangnirtung
Cambridge Bay
Arctic Bay
Cape Dorset
Alert



Can't believe I just spent all this time writing this when I have a research paper I need to start Fucking ADHD!