Geographic Misconceptions

[Skygazer]

Originally Posted by lio45

Another good example would be whether Windsor, Ontario is closer to Detroit than it is to London/Hamilton/Toronto. I think the only right answer is "it depends".

Windsor is most definitely closer to Detroit than London/Hamilton/Toronto by any objective standard - right across the river from Detroit vs hundreds of km away from the other cities.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Wait...what? I've always thought Winnipeg was smack dab in the middle between Toronto and Vancouver. I've done the drive between southern Ontario and Winnipeg a dozen times all three ways, and it was always verging on 24 hours.

Just checked on Google Maps:

Via northern Ontario: 2,079 km
Via northern Michigan-Wisconsin: 2,032 km
Via Detroit-Chicago-Minneapolis: 2,236 km (though that's the fastest way due to the interstate highways)

Winnipeg to Vancouver: 2,294 km

Yeah, I used "as the crow flies" numbers to be as objective as possible. I would think that driving makes Winnipeg closer or farther to Toronto than Vancouver...I have done the drive numerous times to Vancouver, and while driving through most of Saskaberta is swift (especially in Sask...the road is as straight as an arrow), the BC part is very winding and up-and-down. On the other hand, that part along the North Shore of Lake Superior is extremely winding.

[CivicBlues]

"Digging to China."

If you were to dig straight down from most of Canada you'd end up in the Indian Ocean.

The only countries that could lay claim to digging to China would be Argentina and Chile.

https://www.antipodesmap.com/

[ghYHZ]

Originally Posted by le calmar

They still do those?

These is actually an Emirates A380 at Gander right now (May 3)

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...430Z/OMDB/CYQX

[Denscity]

Well the most obvious one is that you have to travel north to get from Windsor to Detroit
In Vancouver Granville Island is not an island, and False Creek is not a creek. And this gets the tourists fooled often with Vancouver not being located on Vancouver Island.
And more locally when i tell Vancouverites that im from Castlegar, they ask how it is "up there", when were no farther north than North Vancouver.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Misonception: That Winnipeg is categorically a Western City, when in fact it is closer (1518 kilometres) to Toronto than to Vancouver (1871 kilometres)

Except you should be comparing Winnipeg's distance to Halifax, not Toronto. Toronto isn't eastern Canada to a Maritimer. It's central Canada.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by someone123

I'm not sure how true this is but someone working in tourism in Vancouver once claimed that visitors to the city sometimes point at Vancouver Island off in the distance and ask "is that Japan?"

And if you get US tourists on the Halifax waterfront to squint east to see France, most of them will try really hard to see it. Maybe you should use the zoom on your camera!

[ghYHZ]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Except you should be comparing Winnipeg's distance to Halifax, not Toronto. Toronto isn't eastern Canada to a Maritimer. It's central Canada.

Exactly! Using the great circle mapper distances:

Winnipeg to Victoria is 1181 miles
Winnipeg to St. John's is 2008 miles

So Winnipeg is certainly west of centre!

[lubicon]

1. that Saskatchewan is not flat and wide open. Half or more of the province is heavily forested. Okay, I suppose even that part is fairly flat.

2. Based on tourism ads you would think Alberta consists mainly of the Rocky Mountains. In fact they are only a narrow strip along about half the western border of the province. Prairie, parkland, and boreal forest make up the huge majority of the landscape.

[koops65]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

"Digging to China."

If you were to dig straight down from most of Canada you'd end up in the Indian Ocean.

The only countries that could lay claim to digging to China would be Argentina and Chile.

https://www.antipodesmap.com/

If you dig straight down, you'd end up at the center of the Earth. After that point, you're digging UP!

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by ghYHZ

Exactly! Using the great circle mapper distances:

Winnipeg to Victoria is 1181 miles
Winnipeg to St. John's is 2008 miles

So Winnipeg is certainly west of centre!

It's true, but Winnipeg is near the centre of Canada's westernmost (way up in the Yukon) and easternmost (Cape Spear) points. People just don't think of Canada's north when they see the sign near Winnipeg saying you're standing at the centre of the country.

Winnipeg is near the centre of the horizontal red line, but nowhere near the centre of southern Canada.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by lubicon

1. that Saskatchewan is not flat and wide open. Half or more of the province is heavily forested. Okay, I suppose even that part is fairly flat.

2. Based on tourism ads you would think Alberta consists mainly of the Rocky Mountains. In fact they are only a narrow strip along about half the western border of the province. Prairie, parkland, and boreal forest make up the huge majority of the landscape.

Absolutely. One thing I quite like about AB is that you can experience mountain ranges, foothills, arid badlands, and prairie all within a few hours, at least in the western half of the province.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

We do something similar. Cardinal directions are rarely used in daily conversation or street names here, but to the extent they are, they're wrong. In our minds St. John's faces east, but if you're standing on the harbourfront you're actually facing southeast. So lots of our East End is northwest of the West End, etc.

As for Canada, it's all "up". American border seems to be the dividing line. You go up to Halifax, down to Boston. Up to Toronto, down to New York. Older people would just say "up along" for all of them, though.

The only explanation I have for St. John's messed up east-west orientation is that someone had their back to the harbour at one point and pointed to their right and called it east and we've gone with it ever since.

I've yet to figure out how up and down got messed up. Travelling south always gets called "going up" and travelling north always gets called "going down" but I literally have no idea how that started, or how it's continued.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It's true, but Winnipeg is near the centre of Canada's westernmost (way up in the Yukon) and easternmost (Cape Spear) points. People just don't think of Canada's north when they see the sign near Winnipeg saying you're standing at the centre of the country.

Winnipeg is near the centre of the horizontal red line, but nowhere near the centre of southern Canada.

You missed that whole top bit of the country. Baker Lake is the closest to the geographic centre. If you run a line straight down. it comes in about 1/2 way between Winnipeg and Kenora.

[Airboy]

Whitehorse Yukon is actually Canada's most western capital city not Victoria.
135 W ................................................................................ 123.3656 W

[Airboy]

And one more. I once traveled further north from Ottawa (3463 km) than I traveled from Edmonton to Ottawa (2836 kms) and I was still 1000 km from the most northerly point in the country.

[kwoldtimer]

Re how far north/south the Maritimes are perceived to be:
Back in the 1980's, Canada and the USA went to the the World Court for an adjudication of their maritime boundary in the Gulf of Maine. As part of their case, the USA argued that Canada's claim would extend its EEZ much too far south to be reasonable (ie. Canada is "north", USA is "south", right?). To counter this, Canada showed the Court a map that extended the latitudinal line of Canada's southernmost point (in Lake Erie, south of Pelee Island) across the continent and into the Gulf of Maine. That line passed just to the south of the furthest point claimed by Canada (iirc). As I heard the story, both the Court and the USA side were gobsmacked by the image and Canada's case benefitted greatly.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Re how far north/south the Maritimes are perceived to be:
Back in the 1980's, Canada and the USA went to the the World Court for an adjudication of their maritime boundary in the Gulf of Maine. As part of their case, the USA argued that Canada's claim would extend its EEZ much too far south to be reasonable (ie. Canada is "north", USA is "south", right?). To counter this, Canada showed the Court a map that extended the latitudinal line of Canada's southernmost point (in Lake Erie, south of Pelee Island) across the continent and into the Gulf of Maine. That line passed just to the south of the furthest point claimed by Canada (iirc). As I heard the story, both the Court and the USA side were gobsmacked by the image and Canada's case benefitted greatly.

This makes very little sense. Does Russia bring up its land around the Caspian Sea in disputes with Korea or Japan?

The more immediate geographic reality in this case is that Nova Scotia is east of Maine, not north of it. The marine borders drawn up look pretty reasonable on a map. For the most part points belong to the closest country.

Of Americans who are aware that Nova Scotia exists, an alarming number think that to get to NS you start around Portland or Bangor then drive more or less due north (while New Brunswick is somewhere in New Jersey). They also usually think NS is much colder than anywhere in New England.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Re how far north/south the Maritimes are perceived to be:
Back in the 1980's, Canada and the USA went to the the World Court for an adjudication of their maritime boundary in the Gulf of Maine. As part of their case, the USA argued that Canada's claim would extend its EEZ much too far south to be reasonable (ie. Canada is "north", USA is "south", right?). To counter this, Canada showed the Court a map that extended the latitudinal line of Canada's southernmost point (in Lake Erie, south of Pelee Island) across the continent and into the Gulf of Maine. That line passed just to the south of the furthest point claimed by Canada (iirc). As I heard the story, both the Court and the USA side were gobsmacked by the image and Canada's case benefitted greatly.

Cool!

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by someone123

This makes very little sense. Does Russia bring up its land around the Caspian Sea in disputes with Korea or Japan?

The more immediate geographic reality in this case is that Nova Scotia is east of Maine, not north of it. The marine borders drawn up look pretty reasonable on a map. For the most part points belong to the closest country.

Of Americans who are aware that Nova Scotia exists, an alarming number think that to get to NS you start around Portland or Bangor then drive more or less due north (while New Brunswick is somewhere in New Jersey). They also usually think NS is much colder than anywhere in New England.

Makes sense? The anecdote is about effective advocacy!