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  #41  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 9:27 AM
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A lot of people here will use "bible belt" as a pejorative for the Pentecostal-dominated stretch of Central NL (we've even had politicians in the House of Assembly be reprimanded for dismissing from colleagues from that region with lines like, "Shouldn't you be at church?" or whatever). And you'll hear "Sun country" or "God's country" in reference to areas with west-facing coastlines, such as suburban Conception Bay South.

None of these are considered American terms. Those that are I've never heard used here. For example, we don't say or think of ourselves as part of the northeast. Even ones that easily apply like "Atlantic seaboard" are not the phrasing we use.

We're pretty self-centered. Most geographic references, such as West Coast, refer to our own. Then we use mainland for Canada, "away" for Canada and the rest of the world, or a specific name - such as United States, or the Maritimes.
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  #42  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 11:33 AM
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Canadian cities can be similar to their American counterparts, but American geographical terms should only be used for American cities. You can however say that a certain Canadian city looks midwestern, but you can’t say that they are midwestern!
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  #43  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 12:12 PM
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The closest I can think of might be that the northern parts of the province of Ontario is divided into 'Northeast' and 'Northwest', so that applies at a provincial level.

I've never heard those terms applied to Canada as a whole, though.

The 'sunbelt' one makes me chuckle. So, I guess Helsinki would be in the 'sunbelt' of Finland, huh?
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  #44  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 12:45 PM
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I've never heard those terms applied to Canadian cities. Bizarre.
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  #45  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 1:33 PM
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The only one I've heard outside of a handful of conversations on SSP is coastal BC belonging to the "Pacific Northwest", or Vancouver being one of a trio of major Pacific Northwest cities (the others being Seattle and Portland).

But even if you do a day trip from Vancouver to Bellingham, the differences are noticeable. The accents are different. Buildings from comparable eras are different. The food choices are different. And that's before people open their mouths (which in the US is very quickly). There's no mistaking that you're in a different country.

Southern Ontario being in the "Midwest" doesn't make any sense. Sure, both places were settled around the same time and both places have some vestiges of heavy industry, but the differences end there.

It would be amusing to ask a Torontonian if they're in the "midwest" of Canada. West of what? Even if the answer is a historical riddle that implies that Toronto is "west of Montreal, the formerly dominant city", Ontario itself never entered Confederation as anything but a major player.
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  #46  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 1:43 PM
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
The only one I've heard outside of a handful of conversations on SSP is coastal BC belonging to the "Pacific Northwest", or Vancouver being one of a trio of major Pacific Northwest cities (the others being Seattle and Portland).
Another one that I guess could get used on both sides of the border is to talk of the Great Lakes region, though maybe in Canada people instead just say "Ontario"...? Actually now that I'm pausing to think about it, they probably do, so scratch that. No Albertan would ever say "I'm relocating to the Great Lakes region", they'll say "I'm relocating to Ontario".

The same concept applies to the "west coast": we don't really say that here, or if we do we probably mean the U.S. west coast, because if we mean Canada's west coast we can simply call that "BC". Similarly, I expect that if the state of California included the western halves of WA and OR, Americans wouldn't use the term "west coast" much anymore, simply calling it California. Linguistically, it's usually predictable that the simpler terms will prevail.

"To go out west" means going to Prairies and/or BC.
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  #47  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 1:48 PM
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"Banana belts" are just areas that are milder or warmer than the surrounding region. It makes perfect sense to say places in Ontario like Niagara are banana belts. But it has limited significance.
Say hello to Manitoba's self-proclaimed banana belt!

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  #48  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 1:51 PM
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
It would be amusing to ask a Torontonian if they're in the "midwest" of Canada. West of what? Even if the answer is a historical riddle that implies that Toronto is "west of Montreal, the formerly dominant city", Ontario itself never entered Confederation as anything but a major player.
? Surely you're aware that what is now Ontario used to be named "Canada West"?

It's basically the same trajectory as the American West which became the Midwest - it used to be the West in practice, and then it wasn't anymore.

Canada West is now Canada's Midwest, now that there's a bunch of provinces west of it. But we don't really need those terms as Canada West / Nowadays Canada's Midwest has a single name nowadays, "Ontario".

As I mentioned in the post above, that factor is what makes all the difference: if the U.S. Midwest was a single state, the term "Midwest" would not be relevant.
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  #49  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 1:55 PM
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Another one that I guess could get used on both sides of the border is to talk of the Great Lakes region, though maybe in Canada people instead just say "Ontario"...? Actually now that I'm pausing to think about it, they probably do, so scratch that. No Albertan would ever say "I'm relocating to the Great Lakes region", they'll say "I'm relocating to Ontario".
Yeah. Not to mention, it's almost funny how the Great Lakes themselves are ignored by Ontarians, especially since they're the most prominent natural feature of this otherwise topographically dull part of the world.

There are no big cities on 3 of the 4 Ontario Great Lakes. Most of the population outside of the GTA is concentrated on a narrow spine (the 401) that is as far away from Lake Erie and Huron as possible on the Southwestern Ontario peninsula. Most people never think of Southwestern Ontario as a peninsula (wasn't that a thread?). And, finally, most downtowns of Ontario cities on the Great Lakes - with a few exceptions - is physically removed from the lake, often a few kilometers inland (e.g. Hamilton, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Owen Sound, etc.).
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  #50  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 5:46 PM
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Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
Another one that I guess could get used on both sides of the border is to talk of the Great Lakes region, though maybe in Canada people instead just say "Ontario"...? Actually now that I'm pausing to think about it, they probably do, so scratch that. No Albertan would ever say "I'm relocating to the Great Lakes region", they'll say "I'm relocating to Ontario".
Definitely. The "Great Lakes region" sounds a bit academic, or like something a weather reporter says. Americans say midwest for Great Lakes states, and in Canada it's simply Ontario. To wit:

Quote:
When she accepted an offer to do her masters at Wilfrid Laurier University, it was in part because the program on cultural analysis and social theory sounded unique, but also because she’d get the chance to live in Ontario.
http://www.macleans.ca/lindsay-sheph...lfrid-laurier/
Yep, turns out Ontario is a dream destination for kids in BC. Heh.

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Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
The same concept applies to the "west coast": we don't really say that here, or if we do we probably mean the U.S. west coast, because if we mean Canada's west coast we can simply call that "BC".

"To go out west" means going to Prairies and/or BC.
I'm quite certain most people here would assume you meant California if you said you were going to the west coast. Otherwise, BC is BC, and out west means anything from Manitoba to BC.

Though it would produce an amusing chuckle to clarify that you meant "Ontario's west coast." Which nobody actually says, as it's a fanciful term concocted by the tourism-minded Huron county government. We just say Lake Huron. Or maybe "the lake," as it's pretty clear which one you mean when you're around here.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.31516...7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.56506...7i13312!8i6656
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  #51  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:02 PM
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
The only one I've heard outside of a handful of conversations on SSP is coastal BC belonging to the "Pacific Northwest", or Vancouver being one of a trio of major Pacific Northwest cities (the others being Seattle and Portland).
There's the natural environment and then there's the cultural environment. Vancouver is in the Pacific Northwest geographically. It has the suicide-inducing dreary winters and the big trees and mountains. But culturally it is the odd one out in the Seattle-Portland-Vancouver trio. This is pretty interesting to me since Vancouver is so young. It's probably not what I'd expect if I weren't familiar with the city. But it was always different because even in the early days of the town the settlers came from different sources and Britain and Canada exerted influence over the place.

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Buildings from comparable eras are different. The food choices are different. And that's before people open their mouths (which in the US is very quickly). There's no mistaking that you're in a different country.
Multiple times I've had the experience of driving a bit into the US, stopping at some small rural town for gas, and... completely failing to understand whatever it was that the people at the gas station said to me immediately when they saw me. The accent is somewhat different but also they jump right into talking about random things that I don't expect. There is a weird impedance mismatch. I usually just mutter something or say hello then leave.

I've also had Americans make a big deal out of my accent, although that has mostly gone away after 10 years in BC.

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Southern Ontario being in the "Midwest" doesn't make any sense. Sure, both places were settled around the same time and both places have some vestiges of heavy industry, but the differences end there.
I think the concept of Canadian regions (minus apparently Quebec) all being extensions of US regions to the south is more of a SSP meme than a real phenomenon. Ontario isn't the Midwest, Cascadia isn't a real thing and it's not going to happen, and Atlantic Canada never was an outgrowth of New England even before the two regions started diverging around, erm, 1776 or so.
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  #52  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:13 PM
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Yeah. Not to mention, it's almost funny how the Great Lakes themselves are ignored by Ontarians, especially since they're the most prominent natural feature of this otherwise topographically dull part of the world.

There are no big cities on 3 of the 4 Ontario Great Lakes. Most of the population outside of the GTA is concentrated on a narrow spine (the 401) that is as far away from Lake Erie and Huron as possible on the Southwestern Ontario peninsula. Most people never think of Southwestern Ontario as a peninsula (wasn't that a thread?). And, finally, most downtowns of Ontario cities on the Great Lakes - with a few exceptions - is physically removed from the lake, often a few kilometers inland (e.g. Hamilton, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Owen Sound, etc.).
Well, obviously that's due to history, relative population sizes and the construction of the Erie Canal, but I know what you mean. It would be really cool to have our own Cleveland and Detroit (erm..not literally) on Lakes Erie and Huron, but that would presuppose a scenario where there was a population of two or three million people in Upper Canada 150 years ago, plus maybe a million farmers/industrialists in Rupert's Land.

It's a shame history wasn't different. I sometimes fantasize about having big, major cities on Lake Erie and Lake Huron. There would be major rail connections between them, commercial and sporting rivalries, a richer culture, etc.

Going from Toronto to the city of Erie on Lake Erie would be like travelling from London to Manchester. Tantalizing!
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  #53  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:13 PM
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The Pacific Northwest to refer to southwestern BC is really the only one I hear with any regularity in real life, and it bugs me to no end. Makes me feel like BC is an appendage to the American hegemony, rather than a Canadian region. I don't mind being grouped together with Seattle and Portland, but a neutral term like Cascadia is much more palatable to me.

I've heard conversations about Manitoba in the Midwest and Ontario in the Great Lakes or whatever, but this has been entirely on SSP.
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  #54  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:16 PM
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Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
But even if you do a day trip from Vancouver to Bellingham, the differences are noticeable. The accents are different. Buildings from comparable eras are different. The food choices are different.
Well, Vancouver is a much larger city than Bellingham, so I wouldn't be surprised if the food choices are different, not only because of Canada-US differences but big-city vs. small-city differences.
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  #55  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:23 PM
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I think the concept of Canadian regions (minus apparently Quebec) all being extensions of US regions to the south is more of a SSP meme than a real phenomenon. Ontario isn't the Midwest, Cascadia isn't a real thing and it's not going to happen, and Atlantic Canada never was an outgrowth of New England even before the two regions started diverging around, erm, 1776 or so.
It's also the popularity of maps like these, lumping US and Canadian regions together, which some posters either love or hate.


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  #56  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:26 PM
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Well, Vancouver is a much larger city than Bellingham, so I wouldn't be surprised if the food choices are different, not only because of Canada-US differences but big-city vs. small-city differences.
There's clearly more to it than that though. There's a big difference between Bellingham and Nanaimo as well.

More US-type food which is mostly Southern in origin, more Mexican food, and somehow even less appealing fast food. I get the impression that at home Americans tend to consume more processed food as a whole. This isn't true everywhere but the exceptions are rarer and more upmarket south of the border. I suspect you'd get different answers in "have you ever consumed cheese or a whole chicken that came out of can?" type polls.
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  #57  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:29 PM
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Also home to Northwestern University.
That can be explained at least

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territory
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  #58  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:30 PM
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Not meaning to veer the thread down a course that has been run countless times before, but those maps are just bizarre.

Michigan, Minnesota and even parts of North Dakota are "Yankeedom"? Ontario linked to northern Texas as part of the "Midlands"? New Orleans is "New France"?

Utterly bizzare.
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  #59  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:37 PM
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Not meaning to veer the thread down a course that has been run countless times before, but those maps are just bizarre.

Michigan, Minnesota and even parts of North Dakota are "Yankeedom"? Ontario linked to northern Texas as part of the "Midlands"? New Orleans is "New France"?

Utterly bizzare.
I don't think I've seen many Canadians say they agree with the maps.
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  #60  
Old Posted Apr 12, 2018, 6:39 PM
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Woodward = garbage.
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