Is Saskatoon really a "Prairie" city?

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by RTA

Sometimes I hate all of you. And sometimes I love all of you.

Lol

What's next.....Is Vancouver a costal city

[lio45]

Originally Posted by BLACK STAR

Lol

What's next.....Is Vancouver a costal city

That would quite frankly be a stupid title for a thread because I think absolutely everyone would agree that it's a coastal city.

Suggestions for a better title would be "Do you consider Vancouver to be directly on the Pacific oceanfront?" or "Do you consider Vancouver and Tofino to both be on the Pacific coast to the exact same degree?"

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by lio45

"Is Toronto on the East Coast?" is a question that was actually seriously debated here not too long ago...

Not to reopen this debate, but again the term "east coast" is fairly loaded and refers to a number of things. It can refer to the technical coast, it can also refer to a specific region, mainly in the United States, which can include cities such as Philadelphia, which is located in the land locked state of Pennsylvania. If a community of people decide to include Toronto in that regional area, they aren't wrong, they have agreed amongst themselves on a definition for a regional area.

Ironically, it is no different than the vein attempts of this forum to assign meticulous pedantic semantic meaning to each and every word typed. If this forum as a community agrees to some arbitrary (well thought out I'm sure ) language rules concerning some such words and language, that agreement is completely disconnected from the unspoken agreement in the real world regarding how language that those specific words are actually used.

[Daveography]

Originally Posted by BLACK STAR

Lol

What's next.....Is Vancouver a costal city

I'm thinking more, "Is Edmonton a landlocked city?"

Argument against: It has a river (two if you count the Sturgeon, in which case it also has a large lake - coastal!); it was once under an inland sea, and more geologically recently it was also a lake - you could argue that the Edmonton area has been under water longer than it hasn't!

Argument for: It's actually a landlocked city.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by geotag277

Not to reopen this debate, but again the term "east coast" is fairly loaded and refers to a number of things. It can refer to the technical coast, it can also refer to a specific region, mainly in the United States, which can include cities such as Philadelphia, which is located in the land locked state of Pennsylvania. If a community of people decide to include Toronto in that regional area, they aren't wrong, they have agreed amongst themselves on a definition for a regional area.

HERE WE GO!

No, it's wrong, because Canada and the US have different definitions of "east coast."

In America, "east coast" means the coastal and coastal-ish cities/states of the American northeast.

In Canada, it means the Maritimes + Newfoundland.

Any attempt to lump Toronto in with the American east coast is just an an attempt to get TO into the NYC/Philly/Boston/Washington set of cities, where it really doesn't belong anyway (it's more akin to Great Lakes cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, etc.)

And, Pennsylvania is landlocked, but Philly is less than 100 km from the ocean. Toronto is 740 kilometres from the ocean. In Canada, east coast is Atlantic Canada. In the US, it's the metropolitan sprawl of the eastern seaboard from New England through to Maryland/Delaware.

I know this is super pedantic, but calling Toronto "east coast" is geographically and culturally mistaken. Montreal MIGHT be a fit for that definition, if we're being really generous.

(EDIT: Yeah, I know I'm turning a parody thread into a real discussion of pedantic miniutiae.)

[esquire]

I'm unaware of any reasonable way in which the term "east coast" could be applied to Toronto.

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

HERE WE GO!

No, it's wrong, because Canada and the US have different definitions of "east coast."

In America, "east coast" means the coastal and coastal-ish cities/states of the American northeast.

In Canada, it means the Maritimes + Newfoundland.

Any attempt to lump Toronto in with the American east coast is just an an attempt to get TO into the NYC/Philly/Boston/Washington set of cities, where it really doesn't belong anyway (it's more akin to Great Lakes cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, etc.)

And, Pennsylvania is landlocked, but Philly is less than 100 km from the ocean. Toronto is 740 kilometres from the ocean. In Canada, east coast is Atlantic Canada. In the US, it's the metropolitan sprawl of the eastern seaboard from New England through to Maryland/Delaware.

I know this is super pedantic, but calling Toronto "east coast" is geographically and culturally mistaken. Montreal MIGHT be a fit for that definition, if we're being really generous.

(EDIT: Yeah, I know I'm turning a parody thread into a real discussion of pedantic miniutiae.)

The thing is, you do not have any authority to claim a group of people's agreed upon definition of a word is "wrong". If a group of people define a region a certain way, and agree upon that usage, and people 1000 km away come up with a different definition using the same name, it is simply a case of the same name referring to two different things in two different groups of people.

You can talk until you are blue in the face, you have no ultimate authority on language usage, and no one on this forum does.

A thing to keep in mind, is that language is very fluid and especially over great distances can evolve in independent ways. There is a tendency on this forum to assume that language constructs developed in Toronto, Montreal, and other cities on the "eastern" side of the country are "authoritative" or "correct". They may end up being authoritative down the road, especially with the mass migration of people from those regions to the Western side of the country, but that does not mean the language is being used "incorrectly".

As an aside I think we are being uncharacteristically on topic as this parody thread strikes at the very heart of the utility and usage of language itself.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by geotag277

.

As an aside I think we are being uncharacteristically on topic as this parody thread strikes at the very heart of the utility and usage of language itself.

This is true.

However, though language if fluid, it is not so fluid that any word or phrase can mean anything that we want it to just because a small group of people (or an individual) says it does. There has to be some societal agreement or language is useless.

I also don't think "east coast" is an example of an oppressive Laurentian consensus language construct telling westerners to talk right (if that's the implication). People in western provinces often refer to Ontario and Quebec as "eastern," but I never, in 16 years of living in Alberta, heard anyone ever refer to Toronto as "east coast." Never ever heard that. East Coast is widely understood, across Canada, to mean the Atlantic provinces.

[Chadillaccc]

LMAO! I love the facetiousness of this thread. Tickles me right in the funny spot

The funniest part is that it is actually a less ridiculous thread than the Vancouver/Coastal thread

[HomeInMyShoes]

Saskatoon is probably a half-Prairie half-aspen-parkland city.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Any attempt to lump Toronto in with the American east coast is just an an attempt to get TO into the NYC/Philly/Boston/Washington set of cities, where it really doesn't belong anyway (it's more akin to Great Lakes cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, etc.)

It doesn't really belong in either of the groups. Aesthetics-wise it slightly resembles American midwest cities, but it's still distinctive enough that you'd never mistake it for any of them. Analogy-wise its role in the country is essentially the same as the cities in the American east coast. I'd call it a wash.

Why are people not prepared to call Toronto unique? I honestly don't know where this "generic" characterization started. It isn't, and never was. It's a stumper to me, though my best guess is that it got tossed in with insults related to its perceived blandness.

Originally Posted by geotag277

The thing is, you do not have any authority to claim a group of people's agreed upon definition of a word is "wrong". If a group of people define a region a certain way...

Yeah, we've been through this on this forum before. No one's claiming any "authority" here. That a tiny group of people use a particular term in contradistinction to how the majority in a society use it simply means that the tiny group's usage is unconventional.

That means it's fine to use it when you're in the tiny place, but you'll get raised eyebrows when you go out into the wider world. Kind of like how "SCTV is Toronto's CODCO" makes no sense to anyone outside of St. John's.

Originally Posted by Drybrain

This is true.

However, though language if fluid, it is not so fluid that any word or phrase can mean anything that we want it to just because a small group of people (or an individual) says it does. There has to be some societal agreement or language is useless.

I also don't think "east coast" is an example of an oppressive Laurentian consensus language construct telling westerners to talk right (if that's the implication). People in western provinces often refer to Ontario and Quebec as "eastern," but I never, in 16 years of living in Alberta, heard anyone ever refer to Toronto as "east coast." Never ever heard that. East Coast is widely understood, across Canada, to mean the Atlantic provinces.

Sounds about right to me. I lived in Winnipeg for six years and never heard Toronto referred to as east coast. Granted, the topic hardly ever came up, but the only thing I recall people saying was "out east."

Um...I've never been to Saskatoon.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm unaware of any reasonable way in which the term "east coast" could be applied to Toronto.

Because Toronto is a million miles from here we sometimes use the "east coast" term for T.O. but I haven't heard it in years and we do know full well its a Great Lakes city and not an Atlantic one.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by geotag277

Ironically, it is no different than the vein attempts of this forum to assign meticulous pedantic semantic meaning to each and every word typed. If this forum as a community agrees to some arbitrary (well thought out I'm sure ) language rules concerning some such words and language, that agreement is completely disconnected from the unspoken agreement in the real world regarding how language that those specific words are actually used.

Exhibit A: rapid transit.

[Mikemike]

This question hinges primarily on whether Saskatoon is a city, not on whether it is prairie.

Sure, it's legally a city according to Saskatchewan statute, but since when was Saskatchewan an authority on thing urban? Saskatchewan lacks several of the important criteria of city-dom, including sufficient weighted and unweighted population density, major professional sports franchises, neighbourhoods that can be compared to brooklyn, 24-hour breakfast restaurants and building height not including spires because they don't really count.

[Echoes]

I've been living a lie as an urbanist. This whole time, I've actually been living in a Prairie Village.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Saskatoon is probably a half-Prairie half-aspen-parkland city.

Too many hills, too deep of a river valley. Now Winnipeg, that is a prairie city.

[Wentworth]

Apparently, it's a moist, mixed grassland city:

[SignalHillHiker]

Gross.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm unaware of any reasonable way in which the term "east coast" could be applied to Toronto.

Is Toronto a Mid-Western city? If it isn't "East Coast", or Mid-West, where is it?

[Razor]

Borders aside, is Ottawa considered Western Quebecish in culture or is Gatineau more of an extension of Eastern Ontario? I heard Quebec people call Gatineau "Ontario" before in jest.
Is Calgary really a prairie city, or can we call it a rocky mountain city.
Too far from the mountains I suppose.

Toronto is a Great Lakes city.