[vitc]

What is everyones opinion on the following article our of Halifax?

"Vancouver is a city of road rage, parking lot rage, lineup rage and, in the entertainment district, good, old drunken rage." :koko:

While there are points in it - he makes it look like Vancouver is Canada's version of Armageddon - personally I think it is secretly written by the provincial government ( NS ) to prevent mass exodus from their province :haha:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/840693.html

[mr.x2]

"The mountains of British Columbia are certainly beautiful, but they’re also cold. They’re forbidding. By contrast, the barns, old farmhouses, and gentle, green, rolling hills of Antigonish County, as well as the orchards, cattle, dikeland and muddy tidal rivers of the Annapolish Valley, are friendly. They say, "Welcome home, stranger. It’s been a long time."

we don't need any hillbillies here. go back to Halifax, Nova Scotia....where nothing ever happens.




Government medical insurance is free here but, during our time in British Columbia, it cost my wife and me $96 per month. If we’d stayed a year, we’d have paid $1,152.

in other words, he wants to free load.

[j4893k]

so just to sum up... if your looking for a place to live with few roads, lots of parking lots, very inexpensive cars, no efficient forms of transit, an amazing night life (yet no energy), a high crime rate, no graphic newspapers, a very flat landscape along the coast, a very warm climate and incredibly laid back citizens move to nova scotia! i know i certainly can't wait to get a hold of my realtor.

great article harry, i'm glad you can be so insightful

[mr.x2]

so just to sum up... if your looking for a place to live with few roads, lots of parking lots, very inexpensive cars, no efficient forms of transit, an amazing night life (yet no energy), a high crime rate, no graphic newspapers, a very flat landscape along the coast, a very warm climate and incredibly laid back citizens move to nova scotia! i know i certainly can't wait to get a hold of my realtor.

great article harry, i'm glad you can be so insightful

i feel like slapping him in the face....stupid hick.

[vitc]

What pisses my off even more is when "journalists" don't list there email address with their articles...great way to hide!

We should collectively write a reply and submit it to the newspaper there to piss him off. Actually, I think I will foward that article to Vancouver Tourism to see it they will reply lol

[deasine]

The article is sickening, the author is repugnant, and the Chronicle Herald gets a thumbs down. I'm trying to find a link right now so I can DIRECTLY COMPLAIN to this guy. It's funny to see how naive authors get their articles published.

[d_jeffrey]

:haha: I've never read something so amateurish! Well pal, stay in your NS hole, while other will pursue a future!!

[mr.x2]

Halifax: Beware B.C.’s Olympic weasel
Auditor general’s report warns that huge bill awaits the taxpayers of British Columbia
HARRY BRUCE

BRITISH COLUMBIANS may one day wish Vancouver had never won the 2010 Olympics. The province has long insisted the winter games will cost B.C. taxpayers a mere $600 million, but Auditor General Arn van Iersel now predicts they’ll cough up at least $1.5 billion.

Since it was only those in and around Vancouver who participated in the referendum that led to the Olympic bid, and only they who will gain from the construction of the venues, the boonies must be boiling at having to help foot the huge bill. If I were living in Kelowna or Prince George, I would not be overjoyed that the province promised the International Olympic Committee to cover any shortfall experienced by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the games, and to pay for the losses Vancouver suffers as a host.

"I nominate the weasel as Olympic mascot," author W. P. Kinsella, who lives in Yale, said in the Vancouver Province. "Weasels are furry, stealthy, carnivorous mammals with long bodies and a pointed snout. I recommend the brown weasel, for it is sneaky and wasteful." (That would be a great symbol for HRM Commonwealth Games especially the sneaky and wasteful parts)

It looks as though the Games will cost $4.388 billion, (What was ther winning bid?) minus $1.832 billion in revenue. Of the remaining $2.506 billion, municipal governments will pay $389 million, federal taxpayers $607 million, and the province $1.5 billion. Van Iersel, however, warns that B.C.’s bill could go much higher than that. In VANOC’s capital costs estimates, he saw "risks that may result in additional costs to the province," and "risks inherent in the operating budget as well."

He blasted the province’s management and accounting with respect to the Games; it had underestimated their true cost, overestimated their economic spinoffs, and obscured the risks ahead. Its marketing campaign was "delayed and unco-ordinated with no central agency taking the lead."

Shortly after VANOC gained a $110-million boost to its construction budget, federal government consultants warned, "Whether the revised, enhanced budget will be sufficient to deliver a venue package" that satisfies the International Olympic Committee "is questionable." Construction costs in Vancouver are skyrocketing.

"For the last two years, they’ve been going up one per cent per month," says the city’s Olympics manager, Dave Rudberg, "and we expect the same for the next 18 months."

Three and a half years before the lighting of the Olympic torch, surely the worst is yet to come. Remembering that the 1976 Olympics in Montreal threw Quebec into a debt it’s finally paying off only this year, NDP politician Harry Bains warns, "We’re talking about billions in taxpayers’ dollars. If we don’t do it right, if we don’t manage it right, the risks are real."

To make matters worse, the construction of Olympic venues is falling so far behind schedule there’s a growing danger Olympic organizers won’t be able to keep their promise to allow our athletes to practice on the sites, and thereby improve Canada’s chances of winning medals.

Finally, the Olympics will show the world that Vancouver suffers from what the city’s Pivot Legal Society calls "an urban epidemic of poverty." Owing to an ever-worsening shortage of low-rent and subsidized housing, and the way frozen welfare rates and rising rents are squeezing the poor, the society warns, the number of Vancouver homeless will jump from today’s 1,300 to 3,200 in 2010.

In every metropolis that seeks the Olympics, local boosters talk about proving it’s a "world-class city," but the Pivot report warns that when more than two million visitors descend on Vancouver in 2010, "Visible poverty and homelessness will be apparent throughout the city." Yes, indeed, a world-class city — where the streets crawl with drug addicts, crazies, beggars, hookers, petty criminals, the desperate, down-and-out, and downright dirty.

Board members of Tourism Vancouver recently floated the possibility that Vancouver and Seattle might make a joint bid for the 2028 Olympics, and I wondered what they’d been imbibing or inhaling. One poll asked 390 adult British Columbians what they thought of this idea. How many liked it? Oh, about 12. The rest said, "No."

British Columbians have obviously smartened up, though perhaps not in time to avoid a financial disaster on the scale of the Montreal Olympics. As Halifax promoters beat drums to bag the 2014 Commonwealth Games — and remain less than transparent about the possible cost to bluenose taxpayers — Nova Scotia at least has a chance to smarten up before the bills pour in. Pull out, Halifax. Pull out.

’I nominate the weasel as Olympic mascot. . . . (it) is sneaky and wasteful.’

Freelance writer Harry Bruce hopes Nova Scotians won’t end up on the hook for 2014 Commonwealth Games cost overruns.





Of course nobody wants to host another Olympics in the future since we're in the process of organizing one at the moment! Ask again 5 years after the Games! He also fails to mention that the poll also asked whether British Columbians wanted to host a World Cup or another Expo, and the majority of votes went to YES.

[vitc]

I just sent it to the president of Toursim Vancouver. Hope they reply and send a rebuttal.

[smasher000]

aha! seems like they wrote this article cuz too many nova scotians are moving here =D

[98fb]

Didn't Halifax drop the ball on the Commonwealth games this year. They had to dq themselves because they couldn't get their sh*t together. WAY TO PRESENT CANADA YOU CLOWNS.

[mr.x2]

Didn't Halifax drop the ball on the Commonwealth games this year. They had to dq themselves because they couldn't get their sh*t together. WAY TO PRESENT CANADA YOU CLOWNS.

Yes they did. The bid committee was VERY unorganized. Shame they weren't given a chance to win, they had a really cool bid plan.

[mr.x2]

http://www.hfxnews.ca/photos/TheDailyNews/gallery/353/CWP%20Stands.jpg

http://www.hfxnews.ca/photos/TheDailyNews/gallery/353/CWP%20View.jpg

http://www.hfxnews.ca/photos/TheDailyNews/stories/bridge.jpg








Last updated at 9:08 AM on 27/03/07


What if - 2014 Commonwealth Games in Halifax
Commonwealth games: the bid unveiled


The Daily News

A semi-open-air stadium with a sail-shaped roof would have been the showcase of Halifax's Commonwealth Games bid. "It would have been visible from the land, sea and the air," Halifax 2014 CEO Scott Logan said, adding that the stadium would have been just as iconic as the Sydney Opera House in Australia. The stadium would have temporary seating for 50,000, scaled back to a permanent seating capacity of 25,000 after the Games, with the option to increase seating for certain events. A roofed warm-up track beside the stadium was also proposed. Total cost: $121.2 million.

- Commonwealth Park Multi-Sport Facility: Would include diving, swimming, badminton courts, basketball courts. After the Games, the basketball courts would be available for public rentals. The aquatic centre would be the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada, with two 50-metre pools and a seating capacity of 3,000. A temporary practice pool adjacent to the aquatics centre would have been moved elsewhere in HRM after the Games. Total cost: $159.4 million.

- Commonwealth Park Athletes' Village: Within walking distance of Commonwealth Park Stadium, and would have included a number of accessible housing units and assisted living units and affordable housing units. More than 900 open market housing units would have been available after the games. A seniors' facility and a hotel were also planned for the site. Total cost: $62.5 million.

Several sites throughout HRM would have benefited from winning the Commonwealth Games bid.

- Halifax Forum: Picked as the boxing venue and would have received $6.6 million in upgrades to seating, landscaping, electrical services and reflooring.

- Halifax Metro Centre: Selected for gymnastics competitions and the basketball finals, it would have received $1.5 million in renovations before the Games.

- Wanderers Grounds: Four international competition standard lawn bowls greens would have been installed on the site of North America's oldest lawn bowls club. After the games, two of the greens would be converted to a rugby pitch. Total cost: $3.4 million.

- Halifax Common: Field hockey venue and proposed venue for track cycling. Upgrades to the Common were estimated at $9.4 million.

- Halifax downtown: Venue for road cycling and marathon running. Paving, roadwork and landscaping planned to make the route Games ready estimated at $3.9 million.

- Mainland Common: Table tennis venue which would have been transformed after the Games to an indoor soccer field. Total cost: $8.4 million.

- Dartmouth Sportsplex: Weightlifting and wrestling venue requiring construction of a new entrance, lobby and general renovations. Estimated cost: $2 million.

- Lake Banook: Triathlon venue requiring upgrades to trails, roads and landscaping to accommodate spectators. After the Games, the renovations would make Lake Banook an attractive venue for future rowing, canoeing and triathlon events. Estimated cost: $1.2 million.

- Bull Meadow (near Mount Uniacke): Venue for the shooting competitions. The outdoor range would be extensively modified to the tune of $3.9 million.

- Martock: Mountain biking venue. Course work to prepare the mountain for the games would cost $1.2 million. After the games, an enhanced and expanded mountain biking course would be available to the public and for future bike events.

- Dalhousie University: Venue for women's netball competition and aquatics training. The existing Dalplex sports facility would be refurbished costing $700,000.

- Saint Mary's University: Venue for basketball and squash competitions. Renovations here would include the construction of a new multi-sport facility including room for a new ice surface. The cost is estimated at $3 million.

In addition, Halifax 2014 had plans to construct eight practice fields in various locations around HRM, likely near schools or existing sports facilities. The committee had 22 proposed sites for the eight fields ranging from Exhibition Park to Porters Lake, including Upper and Lower Sackville, Pockwock, Eastern Passage and Dartmouth Crossing.

Total cost of the construction of the practice fields: $3.4 million.

- Metropolitan Playing Field: The Lower Sackville facility was slated for $1.4 million in upgrades, including a new 400-metre track and throwing field. After the Games, it would have been a first-rate site for high school track and field competitions, regional and provincial championships and community soccer.

- Gorsebrook Field: Training for field hockey and improvements to existing facilities, including ball fields and soccer pitches. Estimated cost: $4 million.

- Citadel High School: The replacement for Queen Elizabeth and St. Patrick's high schools would get $300,000 for improvements to its gymnasium.

- The Courtyard: The Bayers Lake indoor tennis facility would be the badminton training venue. Temporary flooring would be installed at the cost of $50,000.

Other training areas were included in the training venues plan, but didn't require capital upgrades:

- Halifax West H.S.: basketball

- Mount Saint Vincent: basketball

- University of King's College and Sexton Campus: basketball

- Bedford Lawn Bowls: lawn bowls

- Stadplex (Stadacona): wrestling

- Fleet Centre: gymnastics

- ALTA Gymnastics Club: gymnastics

- Richard Dooley

[subdude]

Pfftt whatever Harry - I used to live in Halifax and it's no shangrila, believe me. If he hates it here so much maybe it's time to move back to the beloved bluenose province. What a bitter old fool.

[ckkelley]

Pretty amateurish.

I think it's clear that poor Harry's glass is half-empty.

[mr.x2]

A MUST READ ARTICLE BELOW: Vancouver NIMBYism, only multipled by 100.





To Opponents of The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Halifax: Loose Lips Sink Ships

Written by D.L. McCracken
Tuesday, 06 March 2007 | HalifaxLive.com

How many times does one have to be subjected to specific information ad nauseam before some begin to actually believe it? Thought reform is alive and well in the city of Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia. The city that is currently vying to win the honour of hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Those responsible for an onslaught of excessive verbosity have over the last 18 months or so not only created chaos in this city but in the process, have freely and frequently offered ammunition for our competition in Glasgow, Scotland.

Now, just weeks away from the Commonwealth Games Federation's deadline for submission of the final bid proposal, a Scottish reporter has written an article in which he describes the Halifax bid committee as being in disarray and worse, on the "brink of implosion". Sadly, he could very well be correct in his assumptions. Sadly, the vocal opponents of our bid to be chosen as host city in 2014 may have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams if by no other means than by long-term redundancy.

Of course many of us know the identity of the leader of the anti-Games pack so he will be referred to simply by his initials - BDV. His unwritten motto, 'anywhere but here' revolves around his personal goal to ensure that Halifax does not win our bid to host the 2014 Games. His reasoning? We're too poor and we have potholes that need fixing. He has appointed himself as Halifax's personal saviour as he works on the false belief that Halifax actually needs to be saved from itself. He has gathered a devout following of newly like-minded individuals who have fallen into his cult-like mentality which insists that perceived extreme poverty cancels out hosting an international event. At least one local radio personality has also fallen under his spell and offers BDV unlimited free airtime to espouse his thought reform on the few unsuspecting people that are still roaming freely and supporting Halifax's bid. The last of the great unwashed, so to speak.

This self-appointed saviour hasn't however restricted his prejudicial propaganda to this side of the Atlantic but has branched out all the way to one of Halifax's competitors - Glasgow, Scotland who are also in the race to be selected host city for the 2014 Games. He and a couple of his pack members have been frequenting a hugely popular website discussion board and at one point last year had for all intents and purposes taken over one popular topic - the 2014 Commonwealth Games as it pertained to the Glasgow bid process.

He and his cohorts posted so many articles from Halifax papers in an effort to support BDV's position that the regular members including the board owner threatened them with banning if they didn't stop "spamming" the boards. But did that stop them? Absolutely not. As recently as this past February, one cohort added a post under this intro: "just to update the state of the games bid for Glasgow readers" and proceeded to supply our competitors with even more fodder in which to discredit one of their rivals. This cohort added that he could not wait for the moment when [Halifax] "City Council pulls Financial support for the games bid before the May submission deadline."

It was shortly after that submission to the Glasgow website discussion board that we saw in the Scotsman newspaper an article penned by a respected reporter describing Halifax's bid as being ready to implode. The opinions expressed in that article prompted Halifax 2014 CEO Scott Logan to make the following statement - "The media frenzy here, the constant striving to find some kind of dirt or blood or something wrong here to find scandal in everything we do, has made it very difficult on the politicians and made it very challenging on the bid committee."

Logan's response reflects the views of many residents in and around the Halifax Regional Municipality including my own. The vocal opponents to Halifax's bid process and led by BDV has indeed evolved into a negative media frenzy not only practiced by our local print news but emanating from local radio talk shows and the frequently visited local website discussion boards. BDV and his ilk would travel to the ends of this earth in order to take possession of one more tiny bit of information that might support his cause and the dirtier and bloodier that info was, the better.

The general consensus of the anti-Games movement is one of arrogance. They truly believe that they possess a far better understanding of the inner workings of the Halifax 2014 CWG bid committee than anyone actually connected with it including Scott Logan, its CEO. The bid committee's every move is carefully monitored and commented upon in a negative manner. Every decision made by the committee is criticized and embellished in order for the opponents to further verify their claims of gross mismanagement, ineptitude, stupidity and wild over-spending on the part of the committee members. The committee has been accused of lining their own pockets at the expense of the taxpayers and of travelling throughout the Commomwealth for pleasure thinly disguised as business. Logan and his staff have been made out to be liars and cheats with one simple goal - to bilk as much money as possible for their own personal bank accounts and to be successful in being chosen as host city for one purpose - the prestige.

And every time a new accusation is uttered, it gets picked up by one media source or another thanks in large part to BDV. All this information, much of it based on nothing more than rumour, conjecture and innuendo is read voraciously by our competitors' press. And it results in articles by Scottish reporters accusing our bid committee and our bid process as being in complete disarray. The people of Scotland who are in any way interested in the 2014 Commonwealth Games are being supplied with a plethora of information surrounding Halifax's bid process. Way more information than would be considered healthy from a Halifax perspective. Conversely, how much does the average Canadian know about the Glasgow bid process? Not much. Glasgow and its citizens got it right. Loose lips sink ships.

So here we are today. Scotland officials believe they have been given an edge in the competition. Most likely they have and they are delighted. The opponents here in Halifax have managed to decimate the purpose of this prestigious international sporting event by replacing the spirit of the Games with the almighty buck as the only aspect that is important. The damage done by BDV and his pack reaches far beyond jeopardizing Halifax's chanches of hosting the event. The damage done has the potential of creating a false sense by the international community that Canada and specifically eastern Canada wants nothing to do with progress or competition in the 21st century. If that happens, the next time an international event rolls around, we won't even be asked if we want to take part in the first place. It will be assumed that not only are we not interested, we are too impoverished to even consider it. Afterall, we do have those nasty potholes to take care of.

And finally, I'll end this piece by offering another quote, this time by Mr. Bruce DeVenne himself, a man so successful in his mandate of deliberate interference he was voted CJCH's Hotline Show Person of The Year in 2006, a man who has managed to take on the role of the 21st century version of the pied piper, and I quote:

"Congratulations to Glasgow. I and a growing number of people in Halifax Nova Scotia not only offer our congratulations on being chosen to bid in hosting the 2014 games but we are pulling for you (or somebody else) to win."

What a guy...


Care to comment? newsroom@halifaxlive.com

[Smooth]

I wish Halifax could keep their populace from leaving. I believe a bunch of the APC clowns are from there. Maybe if they won the 2014 bid then we could convince some of the APC to go home.

[mr.x2]

I wish Halifax could keep their populace from leaving. I believe a bunch of the APC clowns are from there. Maybe if they won the 2014 bid then we could convince some of the APC to go home.

Just for starters, APC leader David Cunningham is an Ontarian who came to B.C. because "the crack is better here".

[Phil McAvity]

I didn't get some of the guy's points. Vancouver is 6X larger than Halifax so we have alot more crime and our houses are alot more expensive? Sounds pretty newsworthy to me. :shrug:

His point about auto insurance is valid though, a buddy of mine moved here from Nova Scotia about 20 years ago and the same problem existed then-insurance here is WAY more and there's no reason for it since the weather out there is WAY worse.

[The_Henry_Man]

Isn't Halifax the city where Sunday shopping (or retail shops opening on Sun) is disallowed by law?

[204]

Everything he wrote is true. Maritimers please stay home. ;)

[someone123]

It is just an opinion piece. I don't know why it is so upsetting to some of you.

I've lived in both Vancouver and Halifax and most of what he says is completely true. Housing prices in Vancouver are very high relative to incomes. I know people there who make a decent amount of money and yet live in tiny houses. That is a serious issue for most people. Issues like auto insurance and medical costs are also important.

Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison. I think some people who move to the West also have a psychological need to denigrate wherever it was they came from in order to cope with leaving.

Of course, similar articles have been written about Halifax and I'm sure many angry letters were sent in response to those too.

[vanman]

^ I have never seen an article that negative about Halifax before.

[vitc]

Ok, so I got a reply from Tourism Vancouver - might be boiler plate but at least they are aware of it. :cool:

=====================
Thank you for taking the time to share this article, and we will follow up on your suggestion.

Best,

Rick Antonson
President & CEO
Tourism Vancouver

[Rusty Gull]

Well, to be fair, this is an opinion piece -- and he's entitled to his opinion. And at times, I have been witness to parking lot rage, road rage, line-up rage and drunken rage in our fair city of Vancouver.

While I'd happily argue the merits of the Lower Mainland with him, I don't think we should necessarily be attacking him, simply because he's expressing how he feels about a subject.

[SpongeG]

i never understood the medical thing - all i know is BC apparently opted out of something decades ago

i know ontario never paid monthly but apparently do so now

so i expect the maritimes will be paying monthly medical within the next few years

[deasine]

"Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison."

Well I think part of it to blame is Western alienation by the Federal Government in the past, and kind of in the present. I'm not trying to point the finger or anything...

His article is true to a certain degree, but his opinion is really like a stab in the back for BC.

[mr.x2]

"Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison."

Well I think part of it to blame is Western alienation by the Federal Government in the past, and kind of in the present. I'm not trying to point the finger or anything...

His article is true to a certain degree, but his opinion is really like a stab in the back for BC.

It has to do more with geography (though regarding politics, it's both geography and the feds).

If anything, I'd say he's the one that's alienated out there on the East Coast.

[someone123]

BC is geographically isolated. Travel there is difficult compared to the East and much of the province is undeveloped. People also tend to make their way Westward and once there do not necessarily continue to tavel much.

Most people in the rest of Canada have a very unfair view of what the Maritimes are like that is based on assumptions and bigotry rather than real knowledge. First of all, not all of the region is the same. Would it be fair to assume that Vancouver is some kind of run-down mill town because that is what much of the rest of BC is like? The fact is that most of the towns in the Maritimes are nicer and much more interesting than similar towns in BC because of their age and history.

Another false assumption that people in the West make is that the Maritimes are somehow horribly isolated and essentially undeveloped. That is untrue. The Maritimes are the most densely populated provinces in Canada and are adjacent to the most densely populated area of the US. Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York.

[ilford]

BC is geographically isolated

Are the Maritimes the centre of the universe now or something?

[Lead]

But we are isolated...though I never saw that as a bad thing.

[ilford]

Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York...

Seriously, that's a helluva long way away. I don't know anybody from the coast who'd think Calgary is nearby. That's a whole other part of the country. It's an altogether different region.

There are more people in Greater Vancouver & the Fraser Valley than there are in Calgary and Edmonton put together anyway. Meanwhile there are also 3/4 of a million people on the island right next door, a few hundred thousand in the Okanagan, and many millions right south of the border.

Fact is, there are a lot of people in this corner of the continent and there are also very tight interconnections between the various cities.

What would the population comparison be between these two pics of the same scale? Almost 7 million in the Seattle-Vancouver area as versus maybe 1 million in the Maritimes?

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/9269/bcwashingtongu8.gif

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7484/bayoffundytd5.gif

[vanman]

^Excellent point. Vancouver may not be that connected to the rest of Canada but that certainly does not mean that it is completely isolated.

[SpongeG]

the mountains do act perhaps as a "cut off" feeling but most feel more of a north south connection aka the cascadia thing

and BC is pretty diverse and usually viewed wrongly from outside of the province - people even people in vancouver really don't know much about how different BC is - people think BC they think the tourist images of mountains and whales - which relaly irks people from the interior and especially the NE section of BC which would gladly pull away from BC and join alberta

[jonjacob]

Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York.

Interesting comment. Vancouver is just under 1000 kms away from Calgary. That's not what I would consider close.

[SpongeG]

the maritimes is also serviced well by Via - lots of people can catch the train to montreal or toronto etc and can use the train as a viable option

the train in BC is more of a novelty and a thing used by tourists

[someone123]

You are mostly missing my point, which is that the Maritimes are not as isolated as people think. Halifax is not some hick town, as many have bitterly suggested in this thread in response to the original opinion piece. People travel around the region a lot and those living in the city in particular tend to travel a lot to Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York, London, etc. They typically have family living all over. This is actually a pretty well-connected, urbane, cosmopolitan city despite being quite small.

Some parts of the Maritimes feel remote but even those are a lot more "settled" than just about anywhere in BC. There's very little true wilderness here. This was the first part of Canada to be permanently settled, over four hundred years ago, and there are layers of history and culture here than don't exist in some other parts of the country.

[renthefinn]

^So then BC is the land of hicks!

IIRC the Appalacian mountains have been settled far longer than many places, that isn't a good argument to try to use for the point you're trying to make.

[SpongeG]

i've never thought of the maritimes as isolated or undense just a lot of smaller communities very spread out with no major metropolitan centre in the million people range

but considering it is the oldest part of the country and most historically rich its kind of odd that there isn't more perhaps which i think gives it the feeling of being a little backward and like it fell behind while the rest of the country surged ahead