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  #81  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:10 AM
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Originally Posted by freeweed View Post
I mostly apologize to visitors for what they have to go home to. Back to the land of crumbling roads, high unemployment and/or stagnant wages (both in relative terms), freezing winters, burning summers, flat vistas, crappy skiing, unchanging skylines, having to actually look for a job, not having direct flights all over the place, shitty public transit, overpriced real estate, heavy rains, multiple cloudy days in a row being normal, high crime, endless urban sprawl... it's a grab bag depending on where they're from.

I feel sorry for people who can't move here. And I get a lot of open-mouthed stares at everything that goes on here. So I find myself apologizing for how good we've got it in Calgary.

I suppose I could apologize for truck nuts, because according to the Internet they're illegal outside of Alberta.
I guess we are supposed to take this as a joke post?

I mean, where I live is not perfect but it's probably a million times better than 95% of places in the world, and yet an idea like ''don't you wish you lived here and not where you do?'' would never cross my mind with anyone.

Not every place is well-suited for every person. Preferences are rife with intangibles and so to suggest that a particular place would be ''better'' for most people is treading on thin ice.

But of course, you were joking!
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  #82  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:30 AM
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Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post

for ottawa, "sorry, but if you keep thinking along those 'capital of a g8 country' lines, you're not going to be satisfied here."

f"
Glad to see you picking up on my theme, but I think I might change it to ''G20+'' or even ''world capitals'' in general. It's not really fair to compare Ottawa to Paris and London. But compare it to Oslo or Brussels even...

And before we get reminded we're not European, well we are still Earthlings and almost anywhere in the world people in the capital who are involved in administering the country will dress reasonably well. This is true in Brasilia and Auckland BTW, both of which are not in Europe.

Now, this is not to diss Ottawa completely. Overall it is a good to very good city. But its goodness is more of an Austin, Texas goodness than a Geneva or Helsinki goodness.
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  #83  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
I guess we are supposed to take this as a joke post?

I mean, where I live is not perfect but it's probably a million times better than 95% of places in the world, and yet an idea like ''don't you wish you lived here and not where you do?'' would never cross my mind with anyone.

Not every place is well-suited for every person. Preferences are rife with intangibles and so to suggest that a particular place would be ''better'' for most people is treading on thin ice.

But of course, you were joking!
Ya, it was obviously sarcastic, but imagine the shit storm if some "thin skinned" person from Montreal, Toronto or Ottawa wrote an inverse joke post...
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  #84  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 3:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Glad to see you picking up on my theme, but I think I might change it to ''G20+'' or even ''world capitals'' in general. It's not really fair to compare Ottawa to Paris and London. But compare it to Oslo or Brussels even...

And before we get reminded we're not European, well we are still Earthlings and almost anywhere in the world people in the capital who are involved in administering the country will dress reasonably well. This is true in Brasilia and Auckland BTW, both of which are not in Europe.

Now, this is not to diss Ottawa completely. Overall it is a good to very good city. But its goodness is more of an Austin, Texas goodness than a Geneva or Helsinki goodness.
Ottawa is a very modest capital. Which is actually perfectly reflective of Canada. Not bragging, not boasting, just sitting in the corner apologizing all the time.

I haven't experienced enough of Canada to know this, but I've heard from others that Ottawa is almost a perfect microcosm of Canada as a whole.
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  #85  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 3:48 AM
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Originally Posted by ue View Post
Somewhat similar, I've been told by friends from Alberta who have moved to the GTA that their co-workers are surprised that someone from Alberta would move to Ontario, as "Alberta's where everyone's moving too, it's where the jobs are!"
Depends on the job. While most Canadians probably have the best employment prospects in Alberta, there are some sectors where Ontario still has a huge advantage.

I'm an computer science graduate, and I considered moving to Alberta after graduation for my first job (largely because I was in a very serious relationship with an Albertan at the time). I looked into job postings and even went to a few interviews in Calgary, but I actually found, to great shock, that Alberta is actually a poor place for an IT career. Most of the jobs that I did find, while decently paying, had little opportunity for advancement, and were mostly generic 'code monkey' type jobs. Whereas in southern Ontario the IT cluster is much larger and there's lots more advanced work (which is more my thing--I currently work in bioinformatics and I aspire to neurocomputing once that becomes more commercialized), and lots more opportunity for advancement.
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  #86  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 10:40 AM
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Sorry the taxes are so high.

Sorry that any outdoor winter sport is probably awful here compared to where you're from.

Sorry you can't go to those islands.

Sorry you have to walk back up this hill at the end of the night.

Sorry that the public realm might not always be appropriate for young children.

Sorry, that's gotta be like the fifth time that guy's asked you for change.

Sorry, there is no Chinatown. Well there is, but it's a restaurant.

Sorry, this house isn't insulated. Well it is, but with horse hair and seaweed.

Sorry, we don't have ___________ (7/11, IKEA, any number of restaurant chains)

Sorry, it's hard to explain how to get there.

Sorry, that bagpiper's just learning.

Watch out for the Sea Kings! Sorry!

Last edited by Hali87; May 27, 2014 at 10:58 AM.
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  #87  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 11:01 AM
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This thread represents everything I hate about the Canadian section of SSP

Montreal / Quebec backhanded comments about the ROC (usually comparing us to Europe)

Calgary / Alberta unleashed boosterism

Toronto / Ontario bashing or super boosterism

Vancouver / British Columbian self hating nonsense (seriously, it is really starting to piss me off).

In reality the only area of Canada that isn't annoying in these types of discussions is the Maritimes and Newfoundland.
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  #88  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 11:04 AM
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Originally Posted by 1overcosc View Post
Ottawa is a very modest capital. Which is actually perfectly reflective of Canada. Not bragging, not boasting, just sitting in the corner apologizing all the time.

I haven't experienced enough of Canada to know this, but I've heard from others that Ottawa is almost a perfect microcosm of Canada as a whole.
There is a lot of truth in this.
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  #89  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 11:34 AM
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Sorry about the cold
You better be sorry!!! Last time I was in Riki (June 30th... I think the year was 2010?) it was freezing :p

(You might recall we discussed it on this forum )
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  #90  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 11:36 AM
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Sorry you can't go to those islands.

Sorry, this house isn't insulated. Well it is, but with horse hair and seaweed.

Sorry, that bagpiper's just learning.
Oh Jesus... fantastic.
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  #91  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 12:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Metro-One View Post
This thread represents everything I hate about the Canadian section of SSP

Montreal / Quebec backhanded comments about the ROC (usually comparing us to Europe)

Calgary / Alberta unleashed boosterism

Toronto / Ontario bashing or super boosterism

Vancouver / British Columbian self hating nonsense (seriously, it is really starting to piss me off).

In reality the only area of Canada that isn't annoying in these types of discussions is the Maritimes and Newfoundland.
Why does it matter what people think about other provinces or their own?

I agree though, SSP: Canada is notoriously thin-skinned and petty when it comes to this, and I don't understand why. Maybe it's my extended absence from the country that has left me completely indifferent on what Canadians or outsiders think of where I'm from. If I like it, and I'm happy in Vancouver or Kelowna or wherever I may be, who cares what others think.

But the same can be said if someone hates on their own hometown (which I do from time to time). Why get worked up if someone like me or Bcasey thinks Kelowna sucks. A lot of people like it, a lot of people hate it. It really shouldn't matter to others what I think of where I'm from.

Last edited by giallo; May 27, 2014 at 12:22 PM.
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  #92  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 12:25 PM
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i think it's a post-colonial thing. canadians want very, very badly — to the point of interpersonal unpleasantness — to be perceived as coming from a very central, very renowned and enviable place. the reality is that many canadian places are very nice and enviable in their own ways, but the fear is that we are all on the margins somehow, or from a place that is of no real concern. this reflects canada's history.
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  #93  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 12:37 PM
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i think it's a post-colonial thing.
I think it's more a symptom of chronic regionalism. We behave more like randomly selected contestants on Big Brother than a family sharing a table.

I see it in myself, for example, when I need to indicate if something described as Canadian doesn't apply here. I can't just let it be. And I get nothing from pointing it out - one person might think, "That's cool!" - but 9/10 couldn't care less. It just feels wrong to let the impression stand that this thing, whatever it is, applies to my home.

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Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post
canadians want very, very badly — to the point of interpersonal unpleasantness — to be perceived as coming from a very central, very renowned and enviable place. the reality is that many canadian places are very nice and enviable in their own ways, but the fear is that we are all on the margins somehow, or from a place that is of no real concern. this reflects canada's history.
I don't understand that at all - and we're going to be sorely disappointed if that's the case. This really is a very plain, very bland, very "windswept and grey-souled" federation. There's very little in it that's truly, deeply engaging and invigorating.

As much as I love my colourful little city, it's still a sleepy town by world standards. And so what? It's mine and I love it, just as it is.

Our federation has its charms, and many of them are enviable, but being a very central, renowned and important place isn't one of them.
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  #94  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
I guess we are supposed to take this as a joke post?
Why? It's a joke to recognize the positive qualities of one's city?

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I mean, where I live is not perfect but it's probably a million times better than 95% of places in the world, and yet an idea like ''don't you wish you lived here and not where you do?'' would never cross my mind with anyone.
Good, because that ain't what I said. I am apologizing to my visitors, who pretty much universally express the wish to live here, but cannot (for various reasons). I am dead fucking serious. It might help that 90% of the people who come to visit me come for the skiing and camping. But there's a vibe in this city that my friends just find irresistible, every time they experience it. Maybe I just hang with a lot of people with wanderlust.

I am not saying that *I* think everyone would love to live here. It just so happens that the majority of people I meet, think that way. The question was "what do you apologize to your visitors for", not "what do you wish your visitors thought".


Wow, are Canadians that cynical that demonstrations of outright pride have to be jokes now?
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  #95  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:13 PM
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Originally Posted by kool maudit View Post
i think it's a post-colonial thing. canadians want very, very badly — to the point of interpersonal unpleasantness — to be perceived as coming from a very central, very renowned and enviable place. the reality is that many canadian places are very nice and enviable in their own ways, but the fear is that we are all on the margins somehow, or from a place that is of no real concern. this reflects canada's history.
Which is true to a point, but it's also really what I love about Canada. We're NOT the centre of the universe. We're really nothing more than a gnat on the back of the juggernaut to the south. America Jr. to much of the world.

I *like* being on the margin. It helps keep us under people's radar, and makes this country feel a bit like an undiscovered gem. If I wanted to live somewhere "important", immigrating to the US is pretty easy when you have the right education. But I'd just feel consumed by the behemoth that is America.
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  #96  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:23 PM
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Why? It's a joke to recognize the positive qualities of one's city?
Actually, it kind've read like you were taking a dump on everywhere else.

And not to start a flame war, but someone from Calgary shouldn't take other cities to task for "freezing winters, shitty public transit, overpriced real estate, or endless urban sprawl."
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  #97  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:25 PM
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Originally Posted by freeweed View Post
Why? It's a joke to recognize the positive qualities of one's city?



Good, because that ain't what I said. I am apologizing to my visitors, who pretty much universally express the wish to live here, but cannot (for various reasons). I am dead fucking serious. It might help that 90% of the people who come to visit me come for the skiing and camping. But there's a vibe in this city that my friends just find irresistible, every time they experience it. Maybe I just hang with a lot of people with wanderlust.

I am not saying that *I* think everyone would love to live here. It just so happens that the majority of people I meet, think that way. The question was "what do you apologize to your visitors for", not "what do you wish your visitors thought".


Wow, are Canadians that cynical that demonstrations of outright pride have to be jokes now?
I went back and reread your posts. If in *your* mind the worst thing about Calgary for visitors is the fact they have to go back to where they were from, then we are not on the same page at all.

But sure, visitors to a given city will tell locals they wish they could live there all the time. They say this in Montreal, Toronto, Dallas, Paris and Charlottetown PEI all the time. Sometimes it's sincere, sometimes it's just a way to be polite and endear themselves to you.
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  #98  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:26 PM
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Calgary is perfect, you assholes!
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  #99  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:31 PM
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I don't apologize for anything about my city. You don't like it? Why are you here then?

Go home.
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  #100  
Old Posted May 27, 2014, 2:32 PM
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I went back and reread your posts. If in *your* mind the worst thing about Calgary for visitors is the fact they have to go back to where they were from, then we are not on the same page at all.

But sure, visitors to a given city will tell locals they wish they could live there all the time. They say this in Montreal, Toronto, Dallas, Paris and Charlottetown PEI all the time. Sometimes it's sincere, sometimes it's just a way to be polite and endear themselves to you.
We very rarely get that from mainland Canadians, even those who are completely enamoured with every aspect of their visit here. Just about all of the Canadians I know who have uttered those words here have been young, trendy, qualified only for menial jobs, living in a hostel, and would obviously be just as excited by any place outside of the norm of wherever they came from.

International visitors seem a little more willing, but still... we're definitely a place that most outsiders would prefer to visit and not live. I can count on one hand the number of times it's been said to me.

That said, in my experience we don't often visit a place and say we'd want to live there, either. "I could live here" is more common as a compliment, but it's generally more of a backhanded compliment and doesn't convey the same sentiment as "I want to live here."
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