[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by someone123

Halifax has a larger share of the Atlantic population than Toronto does of the total Canadian population. And that share is going to go up pretty quickly since the city's growing by 1-2% a year but the region's population is staying the same or shrinking. Soon, there will be more people in metro Halifax than in all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

But I don't think that necessarily means that Halifax is the "big city" of Newfoundland. Or at least you'd need to carefully qualify what you mean by that. Everyone in this thread seems to have a different interpretation.

Halifax is much closer to that when it comes to the Maritimes. Arguably much more dominant in the Maritimes than Toronto is in Canada as a whole. But that is no different from many other province; it's just an accident of history that the Maritimes are 3 provinces.

Another example on the previous page that doesn't seem to mean much is that hotel rooms sometimes cost a lot in Toronto. They probably cost a lot in Fort McMurray at some point too. That is a function of local supply and demand. Here in Vancouver we have the most expensive housing in Canada and it is more expensive than New York. That doesn't mean that Vancouver is more important than New York. We just have a housing bubble.

Some of the highest rents in Newfoundland and Labrador are in Labrador City and neighbouring Wabush. Some the cheapest are in far-flung rural communities that are within an hour's commute of downtown St. John's.

I definitely agree Halifax functions as the Toronto at least of the Maritimes, but I'm not sure how to describe its role for Newfoundland and Labrador. We're so isolated, and so self-sufficient in many ways, there really isn't a lot of opportunity for other cities to play a significant role here. But to the extent that they do, I think Halifax does.

Perhaps the best example is This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I don't believe they have a single cast member who isn't from Newfoundland and Labrador. It flowed from CODCO, and Wonderful Grand Band, and our own traditional and style of humour. It is, in every cultural sense, a Newfoundland and Labrador show. But it's filmed in Halifax.

So what does that say? On one hand, it's clear influence. On the other, that show could be filmed absolutely anywhere - from Moncton to Guelph to Kelowna - and nothing about it would change. Halifax isn't determining its style or content - so is that really influence?