The meaning and importance of city size

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

..I'm not saying Saskatchewan is like Mongolia or is superior to anywhere else in Canada, just that there is more than what meets the eye (and that Saskatchewan would probably surprise the pants off of some forumers on here)

since my first post on this thread yesterday, I've gotten nothing but down-playing of my statements and belittling my posts, whether it be about food or music or sports, and only because I'm from Saskatchewan.

I think that makes another thing that is completely counter culture to the rest of the country is that other Canadians feel the need to trivialize Saskatchewan like no other province.

thanks again for proving my point of Saskatchewan's counter culture to Canada

The fact that you think that somehow Saskatchewan is victimized is further evidence of narcissism.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by wave46

This is like the hipster thing of "I know more indie bands than you", but at a provincial level.

I'm sure that despite being an Ontario boy, I would not struggle or be utterly lost if I had to move to Saskatchewan. In fact, I'd bet I'd live somewhere similar, have a reasonably similar climate, speak a similar language, like similar things and hold a similar job. It's not like Saskatchewan is as foreign as inner Mongolia.

Like I said, narcissism of small differences, with a hint of cultural superiority.

We're into Indian sitar music as a distinguishing characteristic now.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

..I'm not saying Saskatchewan is superior to anywhere else in Canada, just that there is more than what meets the eye (and that Saskatchewan would probably surprise the pants off of some forumers on here)

since my first post on this thread yesterday, I've gotten nothing but down-playing of my statements and belittling my posts, whether it be about food or music or sports, and only because I'm from Saskatchewan.

I think that makes another thing that is completely counter culture to the rest of the country is that other Canadians feel the need to trivialize Saskatchewan like no other province.

thanks again for proving my point of Saskatchewan's counter culture to Canada

I've not made fun of Saskatchewan at all. If you can point out where I've insulted your province, I will gladly retract my statement. What I'm pointing out is that people are making mountains out of molehills, to the extent that I start to wonder.

I see it all the time where I live. (Northern Ontario, FWIW)

[lio45]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Am I the only one who thinks that a knit cap in Canadian English is a "tuque" (or, at a stretch, a "touque")? To me, a "toque" is pronounced "toke" and is the name of a chef's hat.

I was going to point this out myself... tuque in English, sure, that's a direct loan word, but I could never bring myself to call it a toque, which is a very different type of hat (for us at least).

I like your "knit cap", very specific and elegant, why doesn't everyone call it that? Seems to me it's exactly the proper English translation of "tuque" I was seeking earlier.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

other Canadians feel the need to trivialize Saskatchewan like no other province.

Didn't JT even forget it in an enumeration not that long ago?

(Having said that now I think it was instead Alberta.)

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The fact that you think that somehow Saskatchewan is victimized is further evidence of narcissism.

There might be a specific cultural subset of Canada that is "The Southern Prairies", but there's definitely no Saskatchewan subculture.

(i.e. I can't think of a single Saskatchewan "thing" that would feel shockingly alien to people in Medicine Hat and Brandon.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

I was going to point this out myself... tuque in English, sure, that's a direct loan word, but I could never bring myself to call it a toque, which is a very different type of hat (for us at least).

I like your "knit cap", very specific and elegant, why doesn't everyone call it that? Seems to me it's exactly the proper English translation of "tuque" I was seeking earlier.

Rhymes with "cook" as in a bizarre person. Not someone who makes food.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

There might be a specific cultural subset of Canada that is "The Southern Prairies", but there's definitely no Saskatchewan subculture.

(i.e. I can't think of a single Saskatchewan "thing" that would feel shockingly alien to people in Medicine Hat and Brandon.)

I think everyone knows which parts of Canada can be said to be the most foreign or semi-foreign to each other... it's only in places like SSP Canada where any of this is up for debate.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Acajack

... it's only in places like SSP Canada where any of this is up for debate.

I can easily imagine there's at least one Nebraskan out there trying to hammer home to strangers that he's from a completely different culture than Kansans and South Dakotans. On a forum like city-data, from what I've seen, I actually wouldn't even be surprised.

That's the nature of the beast, for online discussions.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by lio45

I can easily imagine there's at least one Nebraskan out there trying to hammer home to strangers that he's from a completely different culture than Kansans and South Dakotans. On a forum like city-data, from what I've seen, I actually wouldn't even be surprised.

That's the nature of the beast, for online discussions.

I dunno.

I am thinking of my region, which is fairly unique in Quebec. We get married "officially" more than other regions, and I think we probably smoke less and drink a bit less. We generally say that apartments are 2 and 3 bedrooms, like in Ontario. As opposed to 3 1/2, etc. We've got a large segment of our student population that is in the Ontario post-secondary system (uOttawa and La Cité collégiale) and our health care, education and law enforcement, etc. sectors have to adjust accordingly. We have a number of unique expressions, some of which are obviously loans from English, but some are French but just unique to here ("lutter" for getting hit by a car). Ontario and the rest of Canada are different places for sure but they aren't some faraway foreign places for us like they are for many Québécois.

And yet, I don't think that Gatineau kids who go off to university in Montreal or Quebec City endlessly harangue their fellow students about the unique character of Gatineau and the Outaouais. And beg for recognition of that. We just fit in with everyone else, generally speaking. Just like other regions have their particularities: La Bitt à Tibi, les bleuets du Lac-St-Jean, làlàlàlà, Jarrets Noirs, etc.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by lio45

I can easily imagine there's at least one Nebraskan out there trying to hammer home to strangers that he's from a completely different culture than Kansans and South Dakotans. On a forum like city-data, from what I've seen, I actually wouldn't even be surprised.

That's the nature of the beast, for online discussions.

It's more the pot-shots at different places that get me, whether it is a small place taking one at a big place or vice versa.

For instance, when someone from a small place espouses how great whatever place is and then fires a sneering shot a bigger place (where I live, Toronto is the most popular target), it just galls me. Like a salesman talking down a competing brand, or something along those lines.

Second, I think there's a lot of overstatement to how different places are in this country. To me, counterculture means Ward Cleaver vs. the hippies or a Japanese salaryman vs. Shinjuku station kids. Excluding the language thing, I'm sure most Canadians could quite easily move between urban or semi-urban areas of the country and not really feel much different in terms of lifestyle. I'll make an exception for the more remote areas, of course.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

We have to be really really careful about how much we water down country/rock music so that we can say that a square peg fits a round hole. The 3 Toronto's bands you mentioned, as close to Bluegrass/Appalachia as it gets in that city, really aren't Bluegrass/Appalachia at all.

here's a Finnish group that fits the genre slightly better than your examples.

https://youtu.be/e4Ao-iNPPUc?t=13

Again, as I said, music that i'm talking about is completely counter culture to what is media approved from the Canadian music establishment based in Toronto.
When music artists from Saskatchewan want to get signed, they go straight to where their music will get objectively viewed and approved, they go to a foreign country & straight to Nashville.

I didn't mean they were bluegrass/appalachia specifically (though the Sadies can get close). They were just three country-ish/roots bands that came to mind.

Anyway, you can find lots of straight-up bluegrass in TO. Here's
One, two, three and there are lots more.

Here's a list of popular bars where you can hear bluegrass. That doesn't even include a few I know in the far west end.

I'm not trying to be needlessly argumentative, but the idea that stuffy ol' Toronto wouldn't know what to do with bluegrass, or that playing and enjoying it is some act of rebellion against the cultural elites in big bad Toronto, is false. Six Shooter Records and Southern Souls are both record labels based in Toronto, to which some of the country's best roots musicians are signed, including performers from Saskatchewan and Alberta. This kind of music is common across the country, including Ontario and the east coast. There's nothing particularly western about this music at all, whatever the perception in the west may be. (Even historically; I mean, bluegrass comes from Appalachia, not the west.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I dunno.

I am thinking of my region, which is fairly unique in Quebec. We get married "officially" more than other regions, and I think we probably smoke less and drink a bit less. We generally say that apartments are 2 and 3 bedrooms, like in Ontario. As opposed to 3 1/2, etc. We've got a large segment of our student population that is in the Ontario post-secondary system (uOttawa and La Cité collégiale) and our health care, education and law enforcement, etc. sectors have to adjust accordingly. We have a number of unique expressions, some of which are obviously loans from English, but some are French but just unique to here ("lutter" for getting hit by a car). Ontario and the rest of Canada are different places for sure but they aren't some faraway foreign places for us like they are for many Québécois.

And yet, I don't think that Gatineau kids who go off to university in Montreal or Quebec City endlessly harangue their fellow students about the unique character of Gatineau and the Outaouais. And beg for recognition of that. We just fit in with everyone else, generally speaking. Just like other regions have their particularities: La Bitt à Tibi, les bleuets du Lac-St-Jean, làlàlàlà, Jarrets Noirs, etc.

I'm also pretty sure we're chunkier than the Quebec average. And while it's impossible to check this statistically we're also more likely to wear white sneakers in non-sports settings, than anywhere else in Quebec.

[Acajack]

If you want subversive, counter-culture stuff from Saskatchewan that music industry folks in Toronto would not know what to do with and would scratch their heads at, here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdNsQVBPkSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q1Y7IrBZLk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEfMvazrsE0

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The fact that you think that somehow Saskatchewan is victimized is further evidence of narcissism.

I know we see this sort of thing a lot in the SSP forums... as lio says, it's just one of those online discussion forum things. But it's reaching new heights of absurdity in this thread.

"My province is special to me, so god damn it I will not stop until you recognize just how special it is!"

[Acajack]

Canadian music industry exec in Toronto meeting with a bluegrass musician from Saskatchewan last month:

[ue]

Originally Posted by ciudad_del_norte

Interestingly, I was in Portland last week and once of the places I stopped at sold said hats, which were indeed labelled as "touques". Dunno if they purposely being exotic or what, but I was kind of surprised.

Weird. I have American friends in that area and they've never heard of "toque" before I introduced the term to them.

Also yes, as Acajack said, toque rhymes with cook, and sounds basically exactly like tuque. Why we have an "o" in there, I have no idea.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I'm also pretty sure we're chunkier than the Quebec average. And while it's impossible to check this statistically we're also more likely to wear white sneakers in non-sports settings, than anywhere else in Quebec.

That's the women, right? The men are more likely to wear Cuban heels.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That's the women, right? The men are more likely to wear Cuban heels.

Cuban heels on men doesn't really make a city stand out in Quebec.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by ue

Weird. I have American friends in that area and they've never heard of "toque" before I introduced the term to them.

Also yes, as Acajack said, toque rhymes with cook, and sounds basically exactly like tuque. Why we have an "o" in there, I have no idea.

Toque rhymes with cook?? Either you guys are all really mispronouncing toque, or cook! Toque rhymes with duke.