Canada's "Bible belts"

[Stingray2004]

The towns of Smithers/Houston, etc. in the Bulkley Valley in NW BC have a very strong evangelical presence. Apparently, the number of churches thereto is disproportional to most other B.C. towns.

Even the Christian Heritage Party has always done well here federally in this segment of the federal riding.

Vanderhoof, B.C. (just west of Prince George and much further east of the Bulkley Valley) also has similar religious demographics.

I would suggest that the foregoing represents the concentrated "hardcore" evangelical presence here in B.C.

[ssiguy]

In BC I would definitely say Abbotsford/Fraser Valley and the Okanagan. Even Kelowna itself is pretty red-neck although it is changing.

I tend to {probably incorrectly} find all of Sask & AB as Bible Belt save the large cities. I think less so of Manitoba with Steinbach being the obvious exception. In Ontario and East I really don't get the idea that you could pin point any areas as "bible belt". Certainly there areas that are more conservative than others but you don't seem to get the religious stratification that you do in the West.


This is similar to the US where even liberal California & Washington have hard-core bible belts and the South is a given. Other younger states ie Ariz/NV/Col/Utah etc also have big bible belts. On the other hand you have NY, Mass etc with almost none despite neither really being anymore liberal than Cal or Wash.

I just find in the West you get more hard core pockets of religious Conservativism that you just don't get in the East. This is also reflected in the politics of the West which are far more stratified.........left or right but little in between with the exception of Manitoba.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

In BC I would definitely say Abbotsford/Fraser Valley and the Okanagan. Even Kelowna itself is pretty red-neck although it is changing.

I tend to {probably incorrectly} find all of Sask & AB as Bible Belt save the large cities. I think less so of Manitoba with Steinbach being the obvious exception. In Ontario and East I really don't get the idea that you could pin point any areas as "bible belt". Certainly there areas that are more conservative than others but you don't seem to get the religious stratification that you do in the West.


This is similar to the US where even liberal California & Washington have hard-core bible belts and the South is a given. Other younger states ie Ariz/NV/Col/Utah etc also have big bible belts. On the other hand you have NY, Mass etc with almost none despite neither really being anymore liberal than Cal or Wash.

I just find in the West you get more hard core pockets of religious Conservativism that you just don't get in the East. This is also reflected in the politics of the West which are far more stratified.........left or right but little in between with the exception of Manitoba.

Although the Okanagan gets the "Bible Belt" moniker sometimes, I think that is dated. Growing up there I knew very few people who were religious, and I knew almost nobody who regularly went to church. Around 1/3 of Kelowna claims no religious affiliation, hardly Bible Belt territory and, according to Wikipedia, a larger proportion of no "religious affiliation" residents than Toronto. BC is incredibly irreligious by North American standards, with only the Fraser Valley bucking that trend (although with the influx of people moving there for low housing prices, I expect that to change).

http://vancouversun.com/news/staff-b...e-lack-thereof

[Docere]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

In BC I would definitely say Abbotsford/Fraser Valley and the Okanagan. Even Kelowna itself is pretty red-neck although it is changing.

I tend to {probably incorrectly} find all of Sask & AB as Bible Belt save the large cities. I think less so of Manitoba with Steinbach being the obvious exception. In Ontario and East I really don't get the idea that you could pin point any areas as "bible belt". Certainly there areas that are more conservative than others but you don't seem to get the religious stratification that you do in the West.


This is similar to the US where even liberal California & Washington have hard-core bible belts and the South is a given. Other younger states ie Ariz/NV/Col/Utah etc also have big bible belts. On the other hand you have NY, Mass etc with almost none despite neither really being anymore liberal than Cal or Wash.

I just find in the West you get more hard core pockets of religious Conservativism that you just don't get in the East. This is also reflected in the politics of the West which are far more stratified.........left or right but little in between with the exception of Manitoba.

Yes in the West you have more of a bifurcated pattern (high levels of non-affiliation as well as pockets of religiosity). Colorado and Washington state are good examples (pretty much all of Utah is a "Bible belt" if you're counting Mormon areas), as are BC and Alberta.

NY and New England are very Catholic and the Protestants are more mainline than evangelical.

[Docere]

For BC:

Census divisions:

Fraser Valley 28.6%
Bulkley-Nechako 24.7%
Peace River 24.2%
North Okanagan 22%
Kootenay-Boundary 21.3%

Federal ridings:

Abbotsford 34.9%
Chilliwack-Hope 28.8%
Langley-Aldergrove 25%
North Okanagan-Shuswap 21.7%
Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies 21.2%
Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon 20.6%

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

I knew the rural southwest was quite socially conservative

I have direct experience of the Dutton-West Lorne-Rodney-Iona megalopolis from the 80's as being quite religious (although not in an evangelical way but having the church as a major gathering place in an otherwise rather sparsely populated area of large farms). In that area there were literally only 2 types of churches...RC which attracted mainly Dutch Canadians and some scattered Portuguese and the Presbyterian churches which attracted the majority of the people with their long standing scottish roots.

With the scottish subset only really crucial farm work was done on a sunday.

In southern Ontario, areas with a lot of dutch immigrants (although the emigration from the Netherlands was a 1940's-1960's phenomenom) tend to be strongly church going if they are part of the Christian Reformed Church.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

The most religious areas in the province (and by far!) are all 'ethnic' Montreal neighborhoods.

Definitely.

Those areas of the province (Quebec City south shore, Beauce, etc.) that vote for more conservative parties are economically conservative.

They're not religiously or socially conservative at all, and in terms of "values" are exactly the same as all the other areas of Quebec where the predominant religious group/affiliation could be best described as "lapsed Catholic".

[Taeolas]

Growing up, my area was on the edge of a bible belt. The central to north Saint John River valley tends to be quite religious in my experience; from Woodstock up to Grand Falls basically if not beyond. (I'm not sure how religious the Acadian portions of the provinces might count for Bible Beltedness).

Woodstock itself is still quite religious, but seems to slowly be growing out of it. Fredericton itself still has a lot of churches and a lot of pull from said churches, but for the most part it is agnostic? (not sure what the proper term might be). Basically, the more urban it is, the less impact the churches tend to have on the area as far as I can tell.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by someone123

In Canada there isn't much correlation between people's declared religion and where they fall on social issues. Some of the places with the highest prevalence of declared religion in the census are the most liberal on social issues. I think the stances on concrete issues are more important whereas declared religion is a murky mix of true adherence, cultural identity, and guilt.

.

Very true.

Quebec is the classic example of this, with its high rate of reporting as "Roman Catholic" but very low levels of religious practice and observance.

Quebec in this way is quite similar to a number of other older Latin Catholic societies around the world.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

. (I'm not sure how religious the Acadian portions of the provinces might count for Bible Beltedness).

.

Acadians are not big bible thumpers but they do tend to be slightly more religious than the Québécois. This is also quite typical of all francophones outside Quebec, who did not go through the Quiet Revolution which included a rebellion against the institutional and political power of the Catholic church in that province.

In the other 9 provinces, the "power to be fought" wasn't so much the Church as it was the anglophone majority, and the Church was in fact often an ally of minority francophones. Which probably explains why more of them are still loyal to it.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Acadians are not big bible thumpers but they do tend to be slightly more religious than the Québécois. This is also quite typical of all francophones outside Quebec, who did not go through the Quiet Revolution which included a rebellion against the institutional and political power of the Catholic church in that province.

In the other 9 provinces, the "power to be fought" wasn't so much the Church as it was the anglophone majority, and the Church was in fact often an ally of minority francophones. Which probably explains why more of them are still loyal to it.

I would say that New-Brunswick anglos are a lot more religious than Acadians.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

In southern Ontario, areas with a lot of dutch immigrants (although the emigration from the Netherlands was a 1940's-1960's phenomenom) tend to be strongly church going if they are part of the Christian Reformed Church.

Yup. Also it seems to be largely people with Dutch names running for the Christian Heritage Party.

[1overcosc]

It should be noted that the "Other Christian" category in the census data doesn't necessarily mean evangelicals.

There is a group of progressive-minded millenials who believe in God and Jesus but don't identify with any specific denomination, instead coming up with their own personal belief system. These people generally identify solely as "Christian" and will write that in on the census. This population is growing rapidly and is likely the root cause of the large increase in the "Other Christian" category in the 2011 census.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Yes, it absolutely does have of a bit of a bible belt feeling to it outside the First Nations! Manitoulin Island is definitely part of Northern Ontario. I meant to mention it with parts of the North Shore of Lake Huron but I forgot. I'm pretty sure that Manitoulin is one of the few areas where the Protestant population is larger than the Catholic population in Northern Ontario.

Manitoulin is very anglophone and has many people from British background with the exception of the Indigenous populations. Many Haweaters (what the residents are known as) are quite conservative politically by Northern Ontario standards.

Here are some stats that I took from Wikipedia but come from the 2006 census:

Ethnic groups

61.1% White (European-Canadian)
38.9% Aboriginal (First Nations)

Religious groups

42.3% Protestant
37.3% Roman Catholic
2.7% other Christian
17.7% other/none

The most common first languages on Manitoulin Island in 2011 were English (85.8%), Ojibwe (8.8%), French (3.0%), German (0.6%), and Dutch (0.3%).

The fact that the North Shore is split between three ridings (out of necessity due to population centres being separated) dilutes them greatly.

Regarding the "Other Christian", that is indeed true - especially in the big cities. In the rural areas, it can probably be used as a good proxy though.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Docere

For BC:

Census divisions:

Fraser Valley 28.6%
Bulkley-Nechako 24.7%
Peace River 24.2%
North Okanagan 22%
Kootenay-Boundary 21.3%

Federal ridings:

Abbotsford 34.9%
Chilliwack-Hope 28.8%
Langley-Aldergrove 25%
North Okanagan-Shuswap 21.7%
Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies 21.2%
Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon 20.6%

I'm quite surprised Abbotsford is still so high, since there has surely been a lot of suburban growth from those priced out of Vancouver there. Unless it was much higher in the past?

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yes in the West you have more of a bifurcated pattern (high levels of non-affiliation as well as pockets of religiosity). Colorado and Washington state are good examples (pretty much all of Utah is a "Bible belt" if you're counting Mormon areas), as are BC and Alberta.

NY and New England are very Catholic and the Protestants are more mainline than evangelical.

Those patterns seem to apply in anglophone parts of Atlantic Canada as well, which have higher church attendance but are much less evangelical for the most part. The mainline Protestant (United+Anglican+Presbyterian) is likely highest in Atlantic Canada.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

It should be noted that the "Other Christian" category in the census data doesn't necessarily mean evangelicals.

There is a group of progressive-minded millenials who believe in God and Jesus but don't identify with any specific denomination, instead coming up with their own personal belief system. These people generally identify solely as "Christian" and will write that in on the census. This population is growing rapidly and is likely the root cause of the large increase in the "Other Christian" category in the 2011 census.

Yeah, this is a noticeable trend. There are some people I know through mutual friends who go to a kind of "non-demominational" or "interfaith" religious services in their suburban Ottawa neighbourhood.

I was surprised when I learned of this as this family is of an ethnic origin where there is a very close relationship between the religion and the ethnicity. As in... everyone of this ethnicity is generally assumed to be of a single religion.

[Docere]

"Other Christian" is a proxy. It seems pretty clear the majority in that group are evangelical or conservative Protestant of some sort.

[whatnext]

Lest "old line" Canadian areas be the only ones tarred with being extremely religious:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is getting support from an unusual source – Chinese evangelicals in Canada.

Social media in Canada is ablaze with Chinese Christians coming out in support of the bombastic would-be strongman. Trump’s Chinese supporters see him as a beacon of authoritarian stability in a world that could be headed towards apocalypse.

The Chinese Christians also think Trump could ensure their ongoing prosperity.

“Trump … is (seen as) a dose of strong law-and-order medicine on the world stage,” says Assistant Prof Justin Tse, who studied Metro Vancouver’s more than 400,000 ethnic Chinese while obtaining his PhD in geography at the University of B.C.

Some Chinese evangelicals in Canada are supporting Trump to “ensure the stability of global markets through authoritarian law-and-order regimes.."

http://vancouversun.com/news/staff-b...ians-for-trump

[FFX-ME]

Bible beltedness has nothing to do with the degree of belief but the tendency of people to push those beliefs on others or deny scientific thinking. In those lines, by far Alberta is Canada's bible belt. Across the country 20% of people are creationists and that number is 35% in Alberta. Québec is by far the most secular with only 13% creationist:

http://angusreidglobal.com/wp-conten....05_CreEvo.pdf