The first point you made:

All of your points could easily be made for Kanata as well, except for the fact that Kanata lacks the Francophone angle.

I'm not so sure about that. Say, what are the main differences between Milan, Lyons and Munich? They're all rich Central Western European cities in the same approximate population range of a couple/a few million.

I think we'd have to say the main difference between them that in one case the people living there are mostly Italian; in another the people living there are mostly French; in the last case the people living there are mostly German.

And then if we think about what differentiates these three groups, one of the main characteristics will likely be that the first group speaks Italian, the second group speaks French, and the third group speaks German.

Ottawa is definitely a microcosm, on so many levels.

Hmmm interesting. Guess I'm not surprised by NOTL. They really try to go for that "old-timey" feel to a fault sometimes.

Honestly if I ever saw the old Canadian flag I would just assume it's the provincial flag.

OK I guess. But it's kind of hard to avoid an "angle" that's like, close to quarter of the country! :shrug:

The epicentre of Canadian "Peace, Order and good Government".

I frankly don't get any of those urges above (tears, goosebumps or fighting) for anything but my immediate family.

As for stuff that reminds me of "home" in a collective societal sense some of it is Canada-wide but the vast majority is shared within francophone Canada only.

Regarding maple syrup and that other stuff as identity markers vs. the "assembly of shareholders" country model, it's not so much that I am opposed to the latter as it's an unheard-of and even assbackward way of creating a national identity.

But who knows? Maybe Canadians are on to something?

I didn't mean it as an assembly of shareholders. Just as you get those urges when you think about your family, i get that way by both my family and the life i lead here amongst other Canadians. I genuinely like the people of this country, specifically the ones I've been exposed to and the sense of belonging and contribution I feel here. On any given day i can go anywhere and make new friends who can relate to me and who genuinely enjoy my company, life is never boring or meaningless, that's something that makes me very thankful.

Ironically, in some ways I've found Newfoundland and Labrador as a whole to be something of a microcosm of Canada - mostly in terms of geography.

We are Canada's east so that part is covered, and it completely defines what it means to be a Newfoundlander with other regions fitting in only to the extent they align with that definition. We have a more recently-settled, mountainous west coast with a city that, although not our largest, looms quite large in the province's minds. It's obsessed with outdoor activities, especially winter ones. In between is a stretch of interior with a few of our largest towns that don't really fit in with the dominant provincial narrative and have industries and lifestyles that aren't common elsewhere in the province. They're also far more obsessed with outdoor activities than the east but usually ones that require expensive vehicles or equipment. We have a disconnected, vast, and mainly aboriginal north broken up into one (and soon to be more) autonomous, self-governing "countries within a province". We have a wide variety of landscapes and climates.

Our francophone presence today, though historic, is small - but the arc of our history similarly follows the English-French conflicts of the 1500s-1700s. We have a few extra players that I don't believe were on the board in Canada (i.e. was anywhere else in Canada ever ruled by the Dutch? Were the Portuguese as influential to the local culture and place names anywhere else?) But, for the most part, it's the conflict between the English and French that determined who we are and where in the province we live. Still today we have a part of France on our doorstep in St-Pierre et Miquelon.

There are a lot of things that are similar.

While I am grateful for our standard of living, what you describe is still a very administrative view of patriotism and identity.

I tend to view this positive aspect of Canada as a western developed world thing as opposed to a uniquely Canadian thing. On this metric I probably could have as good or better a life in any of about a dozen western countries. That said I am lucky I know to be living in the Canadian division or branch of the western world.

As for the cultural stuff (widely defined) that makes me feel at "home", most of it to be frank is confined to a specific part of Canada and not widely shared or even known across the country. (Not even close to the way that non-African-Americans in the US know stuff like Motown, etc.)

It's gotta be Ottawa.

Not only is the Ottawa CMA linguistically representative of Canada (probably even down to small First Nations languages like Inuktitut), but Ottawa also has significant sprinklings of major immigrant groups to both English and French Canada.

Also, just thinking off the top of my head, about half of Canadians live in CMAs/cities that are bigger than Ottawa, and about half of Canadians live in CMAs/cities that are smaller than Ottawa. So, in a very crude way, you could say that Ottawa represents the halfway point between the bigger city experience of half of Canadians and the smaller city/town experience of the other half of Canadians.

Just because one can develop bonds with another country, doesn't mean one has those bonds. I once had a taxi driver who was in the midst of moving his stuff back to Somaliland, because he missed the sense of 'homeliness' he felt there.

Timmins has a population of 42,000 and has 9 Tim Hortons locations.

And Timmins is not located along a Trans-Canada highway like Moncton or a very busy highway like Cobourg is. Pretty much all of the customers at Tim's in Timmins are local people. Very few people from elsewhere drive through Timmins.

Some people here even call Timmins "Timmies."

That is precisely my point. His attachment to Somaliland cannot be in any way construed as a type of mutually beneficial business arrangement.

So what's it based on? Stuff like the Somali equivalent to maple syrup I guess.

I often wonder if the Canadian federation and identity could withstand some truly tough times, as so many of the world's nations have.

We both look at the same things, yet interpret them in completely different ways. The Somali equivalent of maple syrup? *facepalm* It was probably his family, the company of people he can relate to and a way of life (lifestyle) that he feels comfortable with which draws him back, imho.

Sherbrooke probably doesn't have much more than 9 Tim's... maybe 15 at first sight, for ~200k people. Moncton certainly has way more than us, for a smaller city.

The Kelowna area at around 200k has 20 Timmies.

I think it's pretty clear that a place can be a total craphole by any measure and still have people who are deeply attached to it.

There is much evidence to prove this so I don't know what's up for debate on this front.

You are not too far, based on my quick research on Google Maps Sherbrooke has 17.

Gatineau has 23 for 275,000 people.