Canadian Maps and Graphics

[MonctonRad]

You know how Canada has been compared to a "horizontal Chile".........

Here's a to scale map showing Chile horizontally superimposed over the USA.

[Loco101]

I can drive just a bit over an hour to the West and there is no light pollution. I have some great photos of the night sky and northern lights that I've taken just West of Foleyet, ON.

Some people today have never seen what the sky looks like without human-made lights.

[hoathienduy]

It was wonderful when I came here

[Airboy]

It would be interesting to see an updated overlay. That one looks to be a 2006 map. With changes to the lighting in Edmonton and the push for dark sky reserves in the last few years it might have changed somewhat.

It has been easier to head out and get night shots closer to the city.

[vid]

I think it's actually gotten worse, since cheaper lighting means more lighting. The amount of lighting in my neighbourhood has increased substantially since a solar powered LED can be stuck anywhere for almost free, and they reflect off the ground quite a bit.

[GreaterMontréal]

I can't see the Big Dipper anymore.

[ainvan]

The (future) North American Federation



Long live Cascadia!

[isaidso]

That's the first one that splits north America up in a way that makes sense.

[MolsonExport]

Interesting, but the nations in central america and the caribbean are often much more different from each other (languages spoken, ethnic heritage, history, climate, geography) than are differences that are being emphasized within countries. Probably drawn up by an American or Canadian, I mean, are Puerto Rico, Haiti and Trinidad/Tobago more similar to each other than the (middling) differences between Alaska-Yukon and Cascadia?

Nunavut is mostly Inuit, whereas the other parts of Norther Canada are Non-Inuit First Nations.

[someone123]

Also NYC suburbs go into a separate political entity that includes Newfoundland for some reason.

Farther south, a bunch of majority American areas end up with more of Mexico. The Great Plains get Churchill but the Mississippi watershed gets broken up.

[Acajack]

Sonora seems like a purely geographic creation as opposed to a cultural one. What do Phoenix and Las Vegas have in common with places like Chihuahua and Hermosillo?

There are cultural differences between Acadiens and Québécois for sure, but given what we see in the other new countries being proposed, if something like this were to happen a decent chunk of New Brunswick would likely be part of Quebec. While not a perfect fit, that makes way more sense than many of these other assemblages.

[Acajack]

I am sure there is a geological explanation for it, but Laurentia seems an odd name for southern Ontario + much of the midwestern US rust belt. Which itself is an odd pairing to begin with.

But Laurentia evokes the Laurentian mountains and is of course associated with Quebec by most people. On a secondary level it could evoke the Canadian (Laurentian) Shield, which also lies outside this proposed nation.

[Laceoflight]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I am sure there is a geological explanation for it, but Laurentia seems an odd name for southern Ontario + much of the midwestern US rust belt. Which itself is an odd pairing to begin with.

But Laurentia evokes the Laurentian mountains and is of course associated with Quebec by most people. On a secondary level it could evoke the Canadian (Laurentian) Shield, which also lies outside this proposed nation.

This part should simply have been called "Great Lakes". Plus, it seems ironic that the feuilles d'érable du Canada (in reference of the French canadians) would be on their flag...

I also totally agree that Québec & Acadie would be together in that logic, and I would even add the Cochrane-Hearst corridor and Prescott & Russell, ON, into the "french blob".

[GlassCity]

These kinds of maps/ideas are fun, but in practice, I still think the differences between Canada and the US are more significant than regional differences between the countries. And Mexico especially.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

These kinds of maps/ideas are fun, but in practice, I still think the differences between Canada and the US are more significant than regional differences between the countries.

Maritimes would have almost zero issue being merged with New England, outside of the previously mentioned Acadien areas of NB being slotted in with Quebec. It leaves Newfoundland out of the picture, but there's not much difference between the Canadian Maritimes and the more historic Greater Maritimes which included Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont/Massachusetts. As mentioned pretty frequently on this forum, trade and relationships in the region were extensive prior to Confederation.

[esquire]

Much of Manitoba would benefit from an arrangement like that in the sense that we'd be lumped in with areas that have a huge amount of oil and gas production which is something that we're missing now. Interestingly, just enough of the current Northern Manitoba is included in Great Plains to ensure that it would still have the North's hydroelectric generating capacity.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

These kinds of maps/ideas are fun, but in practice, I still think the differences between Canada and the US are more significant than regional differences between the countries. .

I think there is probably a tremendous amount of regional variability on that one. In some parts of Canada that's starkly true, but in others not so much.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by someone123

Also NYC suburbs go into a separate political entity that includes Newfoundland for some reason.

Farther south, a bunch of majority American areas end up with more of Mexico. The Great Plains get Churchill but the Mississippi watershed gets broken up.

Yeah, putting a border between the NYC-and-Thunder Bay region and the SW Connecticut-and-Newfoundland region is quite strange.

If I had to place borders within the northeastern quarter of North America, that's not where I'd put them for sure...

At least the creator managed to put modern-day Louisiana in the "Dixie" region - congrats for resisting the temptation of politically uniting it with Quebec; this map could've been even worse

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There are cultural differences between Acadiens and Québécois for sure, but given what we see in the other new countries being proposed, if something like this were to happen a decent chunk of New Brunswick would likely be part of Quebec. While not a perfect fit, that makes way more sense than many of these other assemblages.

Yeah, that's a very good test for such maps.

If Saint John NB goes to New England while Edmundston goes to Quebec, it passes the first test.

If both go to New England, the map creator immediately fails the basic test of knowing what he's talking about.

Usually, the creator goes to great lengths to create trans-border areas, especially Maritimes-New England, Cascadia, Great Plains-Prairies, and Michigan-Ontario-WNY, but for some reason respects the territorial integrity of Texas, while nearly always putting Southeastern Florida in some foreign Latinoamerican entity.

Contrary to them, I find it makes much more sense to give the Nueces Strip to Mexico than Southern Ontario to Michigan, if you really really really must alter the current borders (which, BTW, are where they are, and not somewhere else, for a reason).

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by esquire

Much of Manitoba would benefit from an arrangement like that in the sense that we'd be lumped in with areas that have a huge amount of oil and gas production which is something that we're missing now. Interestingly, just enough of the current Northern Manitoba is included in Great Plains to ensure that it would still have the North's hydroelectric generating capacity.

Does Manitoba not already have this with Alberta? They're both in Canada. I get what you're saying, but there's no guarantee that say Winnipeg wouldn't be in a separate province from the North Dakota oil patch.

In general, different places would be better or worse off with these new arrangements, but economics are not really a sufficient reason for any geopolitical changes this significant.