Vancouver is a city of road rage, parking lot rage, lineup rage and...

[204]

Everything he wrote is true. Maritimers please stay home.

[someone123]

It is just an opinion piece. I don't know why it is so upsetting to some of you.

I've lived in both Vancouver and Halifax and most of what he says is completely true. Housing prices in Vancouver are very high relative to incomes. I know people there who make a decent amount of money and yet live in tiny houses. That is a serious issue for most people. Issues like auto insurance and medical costs are also important.

Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison. I think some people who move to the West also have a psychological need to denigrate wherever it was they came from in order to cope with leaving.

Of course, similar articles have been written about Halifax and I'm sure many angry letters were sent in response to those too.

[vanman]

^ I have never seen an article that negative about Halifax before.

[vitc]

Ok, so I got a reply from Tourism Vancouver - might be boiler plate but at least they are aware of it.

=====================
Thank you for taking the time to share this article, and we will follow up on your suggestion.

Best,

Rick Antonson
President & CEO
Tourism Vancouver

[Rusty Gull]

Well, to be fair, this is an opinion piece -- and he's entitled to his opinion. And at times, I have been witness to parking lot rage, road rage, line-up rage and drunken rage in our fair city of Vancouver.

While I'd happily argue the merits of the Lower Mainland with him, I don't think we should necessarily be attacking him, simply because he's expressing how he feels about a subject.

[SpongeG]

i never understood the medical thing - all i know is BC apparently opted out of something decades ago

i know ontario never paid monthly but apparently do so now

so i expect the maritimes will be paying monthly medical within the next few years

[deasine]

"Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison."

Well I think part of it to blame is Western alienation by the Federal Government in the past, and kind of in the present. I'm not trying to point the finger or anything...

His article is true to a certain degree, but his opinion is really like a stab in the back for BC.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by deasine

"Unfortunately, I also find that many British Columbians have a pretty limited view of the rest of the country and as a result they have an inflated sense of how well their province fares in comparison."

Well I think part of it to blame is Western alienation by the Federal Government in the past, and kind of in the present. I'm not trying to point the finger or anything...

His article is true to a certain degree, but his opinion is really like a stab in the back for BC.

It has to do more with geography (though regarding politics, it's both geography and the feds).

If anything, I'd say he's the one that's alienated out there on the East Coast.

[someone123]

BC is geographically isolated. Travel there is difficult compared to the East and much of the province is undeveloped. People also tend to make their way Westward and once there do not necessarily continue to tavel much.

Most people in the rest of Canada have a very unfair view of what the Maritimes are like that is based on assumptions and bigotry rather than real knowledge. First of all, not all of the region is the same. Would it be fair to assume that Vancouver is some kind of run-down mill town because that is what much of the rest of BC is like? The fact is that most of the towns in the Maritimes are nicer and much more interesting than similar towns in BC because of their age and history.

Another false assumption that people in the West make is that the Maritimes are somehow horribly isolated and essentially undeveloped. That is untrue. The Maritimes are the most densely populated provinces in Canada and are adjacent to the most densely populated area of the US. Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York.

[ilford]

BC is geographically isolated

Are the Maritimes the centre of the universe now or something?

[Lead]

But we are isolated...though I never saw that as a bad thing.

[ilford]

Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York...

Seriously, that's a helluva long way away. I don't know anybody from the coast who'd think Calgary is nearby. That's a whole other part of the country. It's an altogether different region.

There are more people in Greater Vancouver & the Fraser Valley than there are in Calgary and Edmonton put together anyway. Meanwhile there are also 3/4 of a million people on the island right next door, a few hundred thousand in the Okanagan, and many millions right south of the border.

Fact is, there are a lot of people in this corner of the continent and there are also very tight interconnections between the various cities.

What would the population comparison be between these two pics of the same scale? Almost 7 million in the Seattle-Vancouver area as versus maybe 1 million in the Maritimes?

[vanman]

^Excellent point. Vancouver may not be that connected to the rest of Canada but that certainly does not mean that it is completely isolated.

[SpongeG]

the mountains do act perhaps as a "cut off" feeling but most feel more of a north south connection aka the cascadia thing

and BC is pretty diverse and usually viewed wrongly from outside of the province - people even people in vancouver really don't know much about how different BC is - people think BC they think the tourist images of mountains and whales - which relaly irks people from the interior and especially the NE section of BC which would gladly pull away from BC and join alberta

[jonjacob]

Originally Posted by someone123

Vancouver is roughly the same distance from Calgary and Edmonton as Halifax is from Boston and New York.

Interesting comment. Vancouver is just under 1000 kms away from Calgary. That's not what I would consider close.

[SpongeG]

the maritimes is also serviced well by Via - lots of people can catch the train to montreal or toronto etc and can use the train as a viable option

the train in BC is more of a novelty and a thing used by tourists

[someone123]

You are mostly missing my point, which is that the Maritimes are not as isolated as people think. Halifax is not some hick town, as many have bitterly suggested in this thread in response to the original opinion piece. People travel around the region a lot and those living in the city in particular tend to travel a lot to Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York, London, etc. They typically have family living all over. This is actually a pretty well-connected, urbane, cosmopolitan city despite being quite small.

Some parts of the Maritimes feel remote but even those are a lot more "settled" than just about anywhere in BC. There's very little true wilderness here. This was the first part of Canada to be permanently settled, over four hundred years ago, and there are layers of history and culture here than don't exist in some other parts of the country.

[renthefinn]

^So then BC is the land of hicks!

IIRC the Appalacian mountains have been settled far longer than many places, that isn't a good argument to try to use for the point you're trying to make.

[SpongeG]

i've never thought of the maritimes as isolated or undense just a lot of smaller communities very spread out with no major metropolitan centre in the million people range

but considering it is the oldest part of the country and most historically rich its kind of odd that there isn't more perhaps which i think gives it the feeling of being a little backward and like it fell behind while the rest of the country surged ahead