Quote:
Originally Posted by balletomane
Being only an hour apart from each other, Plattsburgh and Montreal are surely much more integrated than Toronto and Rochester, which are 3 hours apart.
I'm not familiar with the regional economics, but Plattsburgh being the location of "Montreal's US airport", would be reason enough for Montrealers to go to Plattsburgh, yes?
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Yes.
Montreal / Saint-Jean / Plattsburgn NY and Burlington VT are linked in many ways. The main one being the airports.
There is a lot of canadian shopping on the other side of the border in Plattsburgh or on Church St., Burlington. Students are coming here in Mtl for the party or the studies. There's economic cooperation (The Excellence Triangle between Plattsburgh, Burlington and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), trans-border tourism (Richelieu / Lake Champlain bikeways, the Lake Champlain Cyclist Circuit and the Grand Tour cycliste Desjardins - yearly sports events). The Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games were another good example of cooperation between Canada and the U.S.A. for example for sports facilities and transportation of the tourists (with the CP and the Canadian Atlantic, from Montreal). The american-side ski resorts (White Face, Smuggler's Notch, Jay Peak...) are very popular amongst Montrealers, very common destinations for a day or a weekend. The natural parks too (Green Mountains, Adirondaks, Ausable Chasm...) The 3 cities also share a common radio station, WBTZ 99.9 FM. specialized in alternative music. The Champlain Valley Wine Trail is also popular (QC's Haut-Richelieu region, VT and Upstate NY). Quebec is, today, Vermont's first commercial partner. Hydro-Quebec provides electricity to a large part of this state also. There is also a strong cooperation for the quality of Lake Champlain waters, which is menaced today however.
There's also history : the whole Lake Champlain area was settled and fortified by the French/Canadiens for the defense of Ville-Marie. Lots of these historic places became parks in today's U.S.A ; fort Sainte-Anne, Fort Saint-Frédéric (Crown Point), Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), Fort de la Bêtise (Montgomery). They are the natural counterparts to Quebec's forts Chambly, Sainte-Thèrèse, Saint-Jean and de l'île-aux-Noix (Lennox), along the Richelieu river. There were epic naval battles in this corridor : the Lake Champlain Battle (1814), the fort Saint-Jean siege (from Sept. 6 to Nov. 3, 1775), the Île-aux-Noix battles (1760, 1775, 1812)...
Canada's main trade corridor was
Montreal - Saint-Jean - Lake Champlain - Hudson Canal - Hudson river - NYC for a long time, which explains why Canada's first railroad was built between Montreal and Saint-Jean in 1836, why Saint-Jean had American customs and consulate quite early, and also the latter construction of Chambly canal.