Quote:
Originally Posted by RyeJay
There are non-urban-oriented youth?
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Absolutely, and the fact that you didn't realize this says a lot about your experiences and why you have the opinions that you do. Most of the people aged 20-30 that I've met in the BC interior absolutely HATE cities (rather dogmatically, I'd say) and it would be hard to convince them to visit anywhere bigger than say Vernon (which is about the size and scale of Bedford-Sackville). The same goes for most (but not all) of that same demographic that I've met in rural Newfoundland, rural Alberta, and to a much lesser degree, rural NS (in most of rural NS I would say that there is a preference for a quieter/more outdoorsy lifestyle as well as an appreciation of cities; Cape Breton is the exception). One of the only Canadian cities that I've heard nearly universally good things about from people my age is, believe it or not, Thunder Bay. It comes down largely to where a person grew up (if they grew up in truck drivin', fishin' and huntin' lands where drunk driving is socially acceptable and things like homosexuality and cultural diversity are not, they either learned to Love it or Hate it), and it also comes down to the concept of positive vs. negative freedom: in rural areas there is a much bigger sense that you are "free to do whatever you want", while in good urban areas the sense is that you "have the options to do whatever you want", which is a subtle but very significant difference. But yes, a LOT of young people choose to live in the country, you probably just haven't met them yet.
Also, there are certainly people our age who choose the suburban lifestyle, for example, if they drive and have kids it's pretty much a no-brainer in my experience.