Cross-border cultural/economic regions
 

Hello everybody! I'm new to the forum and figured I would start off by creating this thread. I was wondering what would be some heavily integrated cultural and economic regions between Canada and the United States. Obviously, the Great Plains could be considered a "broad cultural area", but someone living in Edmonton will likely have little familiarity with someone living in Oklahoma City other than the significant presence of agriculture.

The only ones that come to mind are the Great Lakes Basin, Red River Valley, and New England/Maritimes.

Any others?

Upstate New York... Lots of integration with Montreal and Ottawa including shopping and air travel options. Plattsburg and Ogdensburg airports target Montreal and Ottawa respectively. Plattsburg even bills itself as 'Montreal's US airport' and has French as a language option on their website. Loads of NY plates in both cities during weekends.

A no brainer would be the PNW/Cascadia.

The cross border ties in the Red River Valley are pretty marginal... I mean, the geography is the same, but culturally there are significant differences and even economically I don't think many businesses straddle both sides. "Heavily integrated" would be overstating it, IMO.

New England and the Maritimes is also more of a historical than present-day phenomenon. There isn't much right around the border; the areas where most people live in both of those regions are several hours apart. It's not particularly easy to move back and forth anymore. I'm guessing you'd find more people in the Maritimes who've been to Toronto, Calgary, or maybe Vancouver than have been to Boston, even though Boston is the closest of those cities.

A lot of tourists in the Maritimes are Americans but, well, there are a lot of Americans. I'm not sure the Maritimes are an unusually popular destination for them.

Perhaps "heavily integrated" was to far to describe cross border areas, unless its urban areas like the Vancouver-Seattle corridor or Detroit-Windsor. I guess historical perspectives should be taken into account. This is why I included the Red River Valley, from the Selkirk grant to the many, many floods shared between both countries in this region over the years.

I disagree, since Winnipeg is an outlier in the region being much larger than any city on the US size, and the rural areas are quite similar.

I was thinking that the rural parts have more in common when I wrote my comment, but still... what does that really mean? I mean, yeah, maybe some farmers truck their crops over the border to take advantage of higher prices, but in terms of meaningful integration? I'm not sure there's all that much. The fact that the border becomes more of a hassle with every passing decade isn't helping.

I agree, Winnipeg being the dominant city in the entire region certainly gives it a large area of influence. I think that westward to Brandon and southward to Grand Forks could be included in its trade area. Minot and Fargo could maybe be considered "border areas" that could be included or not. The northern and eastern "boundaries" are harder to define because they are sparsely populated.

Every Canadian region with the American one directly south of it. Plus every Canadian region with whichever affiliate it's American TV networks broadcast, though that is often one-sided.

For us, historically, with New England and the Maritimes. Massachusetts was our most notable North American population movement connection. PEI was our most notable North American economic connection (they advertised here as the bread basket of Newfoundland).

Straight south of us, Bermuda, used to be administered with us. Our Church of England shared the same Diocese for a while, etc. But no real connection survives. However, with the Caribbean their ethnic cuisine often still uses Newfoundland's salt cod and, likewise, we're strongly associated with their dark rum (Screech). An enduring trade memory.

This thread is a bit like this one : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=226656

In an urban context I would agree with you but in the agricultural field it is heavily integrated. Livestock especially in the field of genetics, research, sales and processing. This is not limited to the RRV, but from coast to coast as well.

edit: Esquire is right, the thickening border is a problem. That is why every time the US talks about agricultural issues, Canadian Ag gets very nervous.

By far the most heavily integrated economically (and probably culturally too) is SW Ont and SE Mich. Just taking into account the trade going back and forth each day in the form of automotive parts is probably more than all of the other regions combined.

Maybe a silly point but Canad Inns has locations in Manitoba (Winnipeg, Brandon and Portage la Prairie) as well as one in Grand Forks (a lot of Manitobans travel to Grand Forks for shopping).

Not sure if Canad Inns locations could be a weak point for local integration, but I guess one could say that everywhere that has a Fairmont is within Toronto's cultural sphere (joke).

There are very few regional retail or restaurant chains that exist on both sides of the border in the Red River Valley... CanadInns being perhaps the most prominent example... is there still a Royal Fork Buffet in North Dakota? I'm honestly hard pressed to think of any others. I get the weekly Menard's flyer with my Thursday Winnipeg Free Press, but they don't have any outlets on this side of the border :P

I will concur with Vanriderfan re: agriculture. I do recall from previous work experiences that there was a fair bit of cross border ag activity within the region, but at the same time it didn't strike me as a profoundly strong linkage.

The Vancouver - Seattle Area is pretty close in distance as this photo shows

http://i.imgur.com/e3SXesM.jpg

I remember when Futureshop expanded into the states they had a few stores in the seattle area and bellingham. A family friend of ours worked as a regional manager for FutureShop and lived here in Vancouver area with his territory being WA State.

My roommate worked for a Magazine that was aimed at Canadians in the Vancouver area but often worked out of the office in Lynden WA just across the border from Aldergrove.

3 women I used to work with all owned property at the same place at Mt Baker in WA state, they said it was majority of Canadian owners who had a place there.

at least 3 women I worked with at an old job dated and married guys from Seattle, they had lived both sides of the border and ended up settling in Canada. So cross border relationships are pretty common here.

There are a few businesses you will often see listing their locations as Abbotsford, Surrey, Bellingham.

There are some radio stations based out of WA state whose main audience is Canadians so all the ads are for Canadian businesses. Same with KVOS or MeTV, its home is in bellingham but its advertising market is Vancouver and Seattle. They have an office located here in Vancouver as well. Before it became MeTV they used to do some shows that were shot here in Vancouver, like on the street events going on type of show. They still do segments here in commercial breaks.

One could also look at which areas have Tim Hortons' locations -- Michigan and WNY mostly. Though I do recall a Tim's in northern Ohio too. In all cases, these areas are right outside Southern Ontario...

I agree that there's a major interconnection for auto parts in ON and MI. Probably the biggest of all, dwarfing anything agricultural.

I'm curious esquire, would you say that Winnipeg would have more in common with Regina (for example) as opposed to Grand Forks or Fargo?

I am not from MB or SK, but my sense is that Winnipeg has a gazillion times more things in common with Regina.

By far. It's not like the people in the US part of our region are totally different, but I'd say we have way more in common with Regina culturally, economically, institutionally, etc.