Did you know that....?

[CoffeeBreak]

Originally Posted by lio45

Not the case for me. Arizona is in the middle of the mountains, which I equate to the BC interior. For the same reason, Denver I equate with Calgary, and Saskatchewan with flat Great Plains states.

Yeah - same here, I've always associated Arizona, Utah, Idaho with the interior of BC.

Also, I've always thought Calgary more closely resembled Denver than any other US city, and has a similar vibe to Calgary (at least I find that to be so).
Denver is basically an oil city (oil companies headquarter themselves there) and like Calgary, it is also close to the mountains with a high and dry climate throughout much of the year.
The people I've met in both Calgary and Denver also seem to have a similar approach to life.

Topographically, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are similar to Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, in that order.

Moving further south, one could compare Alberta to Colorado, Sask to Nebraska and Manitoba to Iowa... the topographical similarities tend to run in a southeast to northwesterly direction.

[Denscity]

Ya I agree. The continent does not run perfectly north south.

Another one related: Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) are as far west of Vancouver as Banff is east of Vancouver.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Laceoflight

The urban area of Red Deer, AB (population : 99 718) could barely fit into Paris intra-muros (population : 2 206 488).


Source : MapFrappe.com

This fucked me up.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I imagine the consensus is that people think SK and AZ are similarly "west" in their own countries. In my experience there is a similar dynamic between AZ and California as BC and AB/SK in Canada - that is, people in BC and CA tend to think of themselves as the "real west" and not associated with these other "Western" places. In fact, a more appropriate regional grouping for NM/AZ in the USA is "Southwest".

People in BC and CA may be the most west geographically, but it seems like arid places like Arizona and other southwestern states, are strongly associated with "the West" in terms of things like the frontier, cowboys, the "wild west". Even Calgary with the Stampede. While places on the west coast itself may also have this western association in the imagination (for example, the Gold Rush and San Francisco), modern day places like Vancouver, Seattle, the Bay Area don't seem to evoke exactly a "wild west" vibe.

So, maybe this is just one of those things where cultural perceptions don't always follow geographical lines (just like how despite being more south, Miami, FL or the Florida Keys and south Florida overall isn't seen as "southern" from the point of view of the US and Americans, as say northern Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and how Ohio, Michigan, Illinois etc. are midwestern despite geographically being on the eastern side of the continent and not really in the "middle").

[SignalHillHiker]

A genuine one - sorry, it is local.

During our independence, 1855-1933, Newfoundland was basically the Balkans. That's barely an exaggeration. Prior to that we had the strictest penal laws in the British Empire - Protestants couldn't even give a Christmas gift to a Catholic. With independence, suddenly the wealthy, Protestant minority found itself at the mercy of the Catholic masses. Newfoundland was still pretty evenly split between the two, but Catholics were the majority in urban areas. There were SO MANY RIOTS. Parliament prohibited an entire town from voting in a national election because it had too many Catholics. There was a shooting on Water Street in St. John's on election day. Neighbouring towns burned each other to the ground (most famously Elliston and Mayberly, which is recorded here as an actual war). It was chaos, especially in the 1860s. We sacked our own Parliament - every window broken, everything not nailed down looted, the Prime Minister almost lynched.

All of this was lessened somewhat by WWI (it gave Newfoundlanders a sense of national identity. Fighting in Gallipoli and Africa did for us what it did for Australia and New Zealand. The British used us as cannon fodder, and it made us realize hey we're not just English and Irish, we're not each other's enemy, we're Newfoundlanders). But the chaos continued in many ways until the 1930s - it just wasn't as deadly. But it was as entertaining. Franks shared this with me from some French TV show:



And that's just one from thousands of similar incidents, most of them much worse, and it's an example from a relatively peaceful time in our history. So you probably didn't know it was literally chaos here for centuries.

[FrAnKs]

^ I Caught this from Infoman. It's a Quebec Satiric TV show with Jean-René Dufort.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by Laceoflight

The urban area of Red Deer, AB (population : 99 718) could barely fit into Paris intra-muros (population : 2 206 488).


Source : MapFrappe.com

Non ??? JAMAIS j'aurais cru ! Ça met vraiment les choses en perspective concernant l'incroyable gaspillage d'espace en Amérique du Nord...

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Non ??? JAMAIS j'aurais cru ! Ça met vraiment les choses en perspective concernant l'incroyable gaspillage d'espace en Amérique du Nord...

On ne gaspille rien, on a de la place en masse.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by GreaterMontréal

On ne gaspille rien, on a de la place en masse.

Toi et moi on a clairement pas la même définition de l'urbanisme. J'espère que tu n'a pas la même mentalité avec l'eau
Je pense qu'on peux avoir un pays à la fois immense mais en l'occupant de façon intelligente!

[lio45]

I can't believe such a golden opportunity to make a dead serious, apples-to-apples Paris-Okotoks comparison was missed! Surely the Toks is not that much smaller in footprint than Red Deer?

[GreaterMontréal]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Toi et moi on a clairement pas la même définition de l'urbanisme. J'espère que tu n'a pas la même mentalité avec l'eau
Je pense qu'on peux avoir un pays à la fois immense mais en l'occupant de façon intelligente!

Au Québec l'eau va toujours en avoir. Le fleuve est à son maximum, les rivières et les Grands Lacs sont au-dessus de la moyenne. Faut pas paniquer.

[Acajack]

There are a number of things that Okotoks and Paris have in common.

[Denscity]

Miami is just 2 degrees further north than Mazatlan Mexico on the Pacific. With basically the same ocean temperature.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There are a number of things that Okotoks and Paris have in common.

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Okotoks has that big rock...

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by lio45

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Okotoks has that big rock...

But are there as many things to do in Paris as in Okotoks????

[Laceoflight]

Originally Posted by lio45

I can't believe such a golden opportunity to make a dead serious, apples-to-apples Paris-Okotoks comparison was missed! Surely the Toks is not that much smaller in footprint than Red Deer?

Just for you, Lio, "The Toks" VS "Paname" on a map

[Architype]

Did you know Newfoundland is closer to Africa than any other place in North America (including the West Indies). Are we done with the Newfoundland ones yet?

[lio45]

OMG! That's actually a super interesting comparison too (no kidding!)

Okotoks' footprint in Paris is crazy! On the Toks map you can easily see the individual streets at that scale... meanwhile the same surface in the heart of Paris contains an insane amount of people and buildings in comparison, and is a pretty big chunk of city. I mean, the difference in density from right pic to left pic, wow!

[geotag277]

That doesn't seem accurate. The D'arcy Ranch Golf Club is in Okotoks.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Architype

Did you know Newfoundland is closer to Africa than any other place in North America. Are we done with the Newfoundland ones yet?

Newfoundland used to be a lot closer to Africa......