Canadian Twin Cities

[ssiguy]

In BC I think the best example is Courtenay/Comox.

There is also Lloydminister AB/SK, KW, Otta/Hull, Chic/Jonq, and Acton/Georgetown.

St,Catherines/Niagara is more of a blob than any kind of twin city as far as I'm concerned.

[Nathan]

There's also Battleford/North Battleford in Sask. Collectively known as the Battlefords.

[Dalreg]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

In BC I think the best example is Courtenay/Comox.

There is also Lloydminister AB/SK, KW, Otta/Hull, Chic/Jonq, and Acton/Georgetown.

St,Catherines/Niagara is more of a blob than any kind of twin city as far as I'm concerned.

Lloydminster was and always has been only one village/town/city. Twin settlements were never in existence.

[SkahHigh]

Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Dartmouth isn't really a "thing" anymore accept for people who have lived there all there lives. I would love to see Dartmouth return to be a real city with a downtown similar in size and activity to Charlottetown which I sort of admire.

Contrary to what people often say, I don't think amalgamation had much of a concrete impact on Dartmouth. It wasn't exactly a super exciting place in 1995; it probably has more going on today than it did back then. Dartmouth reminds me a lot of New Westminster. It's got more of its own stuff than you'd expect for a suburb but it still plays a secondary role within the metropolitan area. If you're looking to move to a more affordable suburb but want to live in a more walkable area it's an interesting option.

I think downtown Dartmouth already is bigger than Charlottetown in a lot of ways, but it's unlikely that it will ever have quite the same feel because it doesn't have the same history and it's so close to Halifax.

[Nouvellecosse]

I think for me its Charlottetown's retail and bars and restaurants and that there are more people on the sidewalks and patios. There are some businesses in central Dart but only maybe 1/3 that Charlottetown has, although I haven't spent a huge amount of time in PEI so it's hard to judge. I don't think Darkside's issues were necessarily caused by amalgamation (although that didn't exactly help). I think a lot of it is that downtown just isn't that central in terms of transportation corridors because of the bridges and the lakes and that Micmac and other suburban corridors became popular partly due to that geography.

[Metro-One]

Courtney-Comox is probably BC's most true example of a twin city.

They are located on the east coast of Vancouver Island between Nanaimo and Campbell River. The are located directly beside each other (each with their own core) on the ocean and are usually referred to together "Courtney-Comox."

Courtney is 24 099 in population

Comox is 13 627 in population

[Boris2k7]

This is more of a special case, but an example of multiple nearby towns fusing into a single municipality can be seen in the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, which was formed from the historical cores of Bellevue, Blairmore, Coleman, and what remains of Frank. It's a specialized municipality so it's not a great example, but nonetheless interesting.





The historical cores would all be only a short stretch of highway from one another (within a kilometre) in a chain along Highway 3... if not for the fact that the historical core of Frank remains entombed within the slide:


Frank Slide by Dave Sutherland, on Flickr


Frank Slide Site by Clashmaker, on Flickr

[White Pine]

Does Ottawa-Gatineau count?

EDIT: didn't read OP carefully enough

[eemy]

Originally Posted by Razor

Sault St. Marie Ontario and Sault Michigan would be another example except for that one little disqualifier called an international border..Same with Windsor/Detroit.

Fort Frances and International Falls as well.

Originally Posted by Beedok

I haven't been out KWC way in a long time, but from what I've seen on google maps Cambridge doesn't seem much more split off from Kitchener than Port Arthur and Fort William are separate. The Intercity zone in TBay is pretty wide and noticeable as you enter a zone of often patchy warehouses.

I definitely feel Thunder Bay has filled in the space between Fort William and Port Arthur more than Kitchener and Cambridge have. Part of that is due to the Grand River separating the two though.

[SaskScraper]

Other Saskatchewan examples besides already mentioned North Battleford & Battleford, Martensville & Warman, Lloydminster (AB&SK) are another couple binary cities I can possibly think of is Regina & Moose Jaw as well as the other border city for the Prairies Provinces.. Flin Flon, MB & Creighton, SK.

[SignalHillHiker]

St. John's and Mount Pearl used to be very commonly called the Twin Cities, in everything from development organizations to weather forecasts. I'm not sure when it changed but it's exceedingly rare to hear that term here these days. It mostly survives only in some business names. It's always a shock to see a Twin City Paving truck or whatever on the go.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

I definitely feel Thunder Bay has filled in the space between Fort William and Port Arthur more than Kitchener and Cambridge have. Part of that is due to the Grand River separating the two though.

Okay, double checking it does look like Cambridge is a bit more separate.

Of course doesn't Cambridge itself count with Galt as the second downtown?

Also want to mention Dundas (and to a lesser extent Ancaster and an even lesser extent Stoney Creek) for Hamilton, there's a fair bit of identity there.

Lastly, why do people mention Lloydminster? It's one town, just across two provinces.

[Dalreg]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

Other Saskatchewan examples besides already mentioned North Battleford & Battleford, Martensville & Warman, Lloydminster (AB&SK) are another couple binary cities I can possibly think of is Regina & Moose Jaw as well as the other border city for the Prairies Provinces.. Flin Flon, MB & Creighton, SK.

Lloyd as previously stated is only one city. It has never been separate.

As for MooseJaw/Regina 70 odd km apart with nothing but wide open spces does not make them twin cities. You would not find anyone from Moose Jaw who would agree with your statement.

[SaskScraper]

Originally Posted by Dalreg

Lloyd as previously stated is only one city. It has never been separate.

As for MooseJaw/Regina 70 odd km apart with nothing but wide open spces does not make them twin cities. You would not find anyone from Moose Jaw who would agree with your statement.

Lloyd at one time had two separate municipal administrations & were considered separate towns. They now have their City Hall on the Alberta side since 2000.

I remember a time when airlines (Air Canada) listed the Regina airport as a single designation Regina/MooseJaw.. not unlike Dallas/FortWorth (DFW)

[le calmar]

Niagara Falls CAN/US and Stanstead/Derby Line are two international twin cities IMO.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

Lloyd at one time had two separate municipal administrations & were considered separate towns. They now have their City Hall on the Alberta side since 2000.

I remember a time when airlines (Air Canada) listed the Regina airport as a single designation Regina/MooseJaw.. not unlike Dallas/FortWorth (DFW)

They were one city, just the provinces didn't let them administer like that. The provincial boundary actually ran right through the downtown.

[kwoldtimer]

To me, K-W have always been Canada's Twin City. It's use is in decline, but everyone here would recognize The Twin Cities as a reference to K-W. Twin City or Twin Cities is commonly used in corporate and organization names.

And, despite Waterloo's recent academic and high tech pretensions, I would recognize no "significant" cultural differences among K and W natives - it is seamless and crosses family and class lines.

[advance62]

The tall buidings in the background are Uptown (downtown) Waterloo, and the photo was taken from Downtown Kitchener

Midtown by Matt, on Flickr

[CanadianCentaur]

What about Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, AB, both part of Edmonton's CMA?

They cover similar areas of land to each other - 35.61 km² for Stony Plain, and 32.37 km² for Spruce Grove. But I just found that Stony Plain's population is about half that of Spruce Grove's, despite having a slightly larger area! Spruce Grove has over 32,000 residents as of this year's census. Stony Plain's last census was in the 2011 federal census, with a population of 15,051. It's probably over 16-17,000 by now (it's supposed to do a census this year, but haven't released its figures yet). It's possible that Stony Plain could rival its neighbour in population if it keeps growing fast enough.