Quote:
Originally Posted by bikegypsy
In sync, to me means 'working together and completing each other'. I think that we can exclude the 2 'real' big cities as they are their own islands, if not planets. Montreal looks favourably to Quebec City as a place for an interesting getaway... but not more. Quaint and charming, but that's it. Lord knows Toronto doesn't need anybody else. As for Ottawa and Kingston, the larger city in any given region always acts as magnet for various things... Education, employment, etc... How many people from Ottawa do you meet in Kingston? Not many save for weekend day trippers. Besides, Kingston is kind of too small to be considered seriously. So no, not in my opinion.
The obvious 2 cities are Calgary and Edmonton. Almost identical in size and quite different (but complimenting) in activity. Corporate types vs engineers and civil servants, business vs the arts, office vs playground, etc. They both treat the other like a red headed step child (as all close/rival cities do) but are basically non-identical twins forever in need of each other.
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Although Kingston is geographically closer to Ottawa than to Toronto, I think it's more connected with Toronto than Ottawa. In my years living in Kingston, I met a lot of Queens students as well as people who had relocated there from other cities. There were definitely a few from Ottawa, the Upper Ottawa Valley and the Seaway Valley, but they were outnumbered by people from the GTA and other places along the 401 between Toronto and Kingston.
Another thing I noticed - far more Leafs fans than Senators fans in Kingston.
That said, Ottawa Bluesfest and the Canal seem to be popular day trips for Kingston residents, as I recall. Kingston is also more within Ottawa's media influence than Toronto's, as CBC Radio there comes from Ottawa and both the CTV and CBC TV channels are from Ottawa.
Ottawa's airport is also arguably much easier to get to than Toronto's. Ottawa's is in the south end close enough to Highway 416 while Toronto's is on the west side, more convenient for someone from London or K-W.
In some ways Kingston is also quite connected with Watertown, New York. There is media influence from TV and radio from Watertown, and there's quite a bit of cross-border traffic. New York license plates are a common site in Kingston, and Ontario license plates are a common site in Watertown. When the dollar was more favourable, at least half the plates in the parking lot at Watertown's main mall were from Ontario.