Stop using "Northeastern", "Midwestern", "Sunbelt" etc. for Canadian cities?

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

I've heard the phrase Bible Belt used for parts of the BC interior, but that's about it. I think most people recognize that American terminology doesn't really fit this country very well.

I've heard Abbotsford and Mission called the Bible Belt but never here in the interior of BC. Not even sure where that would be. Rural Alberta would make sense that's for sure.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I never hear anyone saying northeastern or sunbelt to refer to Canada (what would the sunbelt even be here?), although I do hear Midwestern. That one actually seems to apply to some extent although not quite in the same way that the American version does in that country.

Same here. I've only ever heard "Great Lakes" or "Midwestern" in reference to Southern Ontario (from Toronto west). And that only rarely, when emphasizing commonalities with the U.S. side.

[Docere]

Americans are far more "guilty" of this, which makes sense.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Docere

Americans are far more "guilty" of this, which makes sense.

I feel like though its more often that Canadian cities aren't on Americans' radar or are just thought of as their own separate category. Only a few people interested in cross-border city comparisons, such as forums like this, not the general public think that much about fitting or shoehorning Canadian cities into US regions.

For example, I'd imagine if given a list of cities like say, LA, Seattle, Phoenix, Vancouver, Toronto, NYC, Philly, Atlanta, most Americans "on the street" would more likely think:

Eastern cities -- NYC, Philly, Atlanta.
Western cities -- LA, Seattle, Phoenix
Canadian cities, or "non-US" cities -- Vancouver, Toronto

rather than

Eastern cities -- NYC, Philly, Atlanta, Toronto.
Western cities -- LA, Seattle, Phoenix, Vancouver

The national border, even if weak as cultural boundary, as people might argue, still makes a difference in people's minds.

[Docere]

American posters, yes, not Americans in general. For that matter I don't think average people in Buffalo spend their time debating whether their city is "really" Midwestern either.

[Capsicum]

My experience as a Canadian living in the US, is that when I say I'm from, and grew up in Toronto, I get asked, or assumed to be knowledgeable about other Canadian cities farther away much more than American cities nearby. I get the feeling that Americans think Canadians are expected to "represent" and be familiar with other Canadian cities despite Americans themselves being more mobile cross-country than Canadians.

A Texan asked me about Alberta and if I've been there, and New Englanders have asked me about Montreal/Quebec and my experiences there, even when I've said I'm from a Great Lakes city, and while I have been to those places they've asked about, I'm not lived long term in them.

If regional affiliation overrode national identity, then I'd image the Texan and New Englander would ask me about Buffalo, Rochester, if not Detroit and Chicago and see me as being more like inhabitants of these places and not Quebecois and Albertans.

[Capsicum]

Plus, Americans can sometimes be uncertain/unfamiliar with the exact locations of Canadian cities other than having heard of them, so I doubt most Americans are heavily invested in thinking about the nearest Canadian city to their region, other than people really close like residents of Seattle, Detroit, Buffalo with lots of firsthand experience of Canadians and Canada in their immediate vicinity.

[GreaterMontréal]

I'm a weather enthusiast so to me it looks like that

CONUS
Northeast
Northwest
Southeast
Southwest

MidWest, Great Plains, Dixie Alley, Ohio Valley, TX-OK Panhandle, Central US,
etc

[Docere]

http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...=225396&page=7

https://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum...68&postcount=3

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=208

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I've heard Abbotsford and Mission called the Bible Belt but never here in the interior of BC. Not even sure where that would be.

You used to know ...

Originally Posted by Denscity

For BC yes both the Fraser Valley centred by Abbotsford, and I will add the Creston region of Southeastern BC -(see Bountiful BC/polygamists).

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Docere

Is our use of the American terms to describe Canadian cities - "Northeastern", "Midwestern", "Sunbelt"(!) etc. reflect colonial mentality at work? Does this terminology really apply to Canadian cities?

When thinking in terms of the continent, some of these terms are appropriate, but in the context of Canada alone they make little or no sense. The "Sunbelt" Toronto reference makes no sense at all in any context. We do think of Vancouver/Victoria as part of the Northwest region, but you left that one out.

[MonctonRad]

Sunbelt = Maple Creek.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I've never actually heard the three regional names in the title used for parts of Canada, or heard Canadian regions lumped into their American variants.

That said, some American-origin regional names do have cross-border evocations.

The classic example is SW BC lumped in with the Pacific Northwest. This doesn't make sense in the Canadian context.

The Prairies are sometimes lumped in with the Great Plains, and obviously the Rocky Mountain region has cross-border ramifications as well.

Southern Ontario is often lumped in with the Great Lakes states, and the Maritimes are often portrayed as a kind of Extended New England.

what he said.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Sunbelt = Maple Creek.

One sad fact about Canada is that there aren't any really sunny areas. The sunniest parts of the Prairies get around 2300-2400 hours of sunshine a year while here in Vancouver we get around 1900-2000. A place like Phoenix gets around 3800 hours.

The sun also gets lower in the sky the farther north you go, so all of Western Canada receives weak solar irradiance for a large part of the year. In late December on a sunny day in Maple Creek the sun only gets around 16 degrees above the horizon (in Windsor it gets up to 24 degrees). In Phoenix it gets up to 33 degrees, which is the same as Maple Creek in early October.

Canada doesn't really have a sunbelt.

"Banana belts" are just areas that are milder or warmer than the surrounding region. It makes perfect sense to say places in Ontario like Niagara are banana belts. But it has limited significance.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by someone123

Canada doesn't really have a sunbelt.

"Banana belts" are just areas that are milder or warmer than the surrounding region. It makes perfect sense to say places in Ontario like Niagara are banana belts. But it has limited significance.

Completely anecdotal but there's a AAA minor hockey association between Windsor and Chatham-Kent that's called Sun County - their teams are even called the Panthers.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by someone123

.Canada doesn't really have a sunbelt.

Our "sunbelts" are Florida, Arizona and Palm Springs!

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by shreddog

You used to know ...

Yes but Creston is a small town and bountiful is a village so way too small to call a belt.

[flar]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Completely anecdotal but there's a AAA minor hockey association between Windsor and Chatham-Kent that's called Sun County - their teams are even called the Panthers.

Yep, they're in the banana belt

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Acajack

"Le Canada anglais"

I wonder how many in Nunavut feel about it being called that.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Yes but Creston is a small town and bountiful is a village so way too small to call a belt.

So in November 2016 you stated that the interior around Creston was part of Canada's bible belt (thread I linked to) but today they're not. Got it!