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Burnaby appears to have been snubbed by its sister city of Gatineau, Que.
In a letter to Mayor Derek Corrigan, staff in Gatineau's mayor's office say the city can't keep up a relationship with Burnaby for now.
Corrigan had written to Gatineau Mayor Marc Bureau in June, asking him to confirm that the two cities will remain sisters.
The response letter states Gatineau has undergone big changes since it joined with four neighbouring cities in 2002.
"Given these new circumstances, we are unable, for the time being, to devote the efforts that would be necessary to sustain any type of twinning process," the letter says.
Burnaby and Gatineau have been sister cities for several years, but the cities have had little contact since Gatineau joined with Hull, Aylmer, Buckingham and Masson-Angers.
"This has been a relationship that was going hot and heavy and then died off," Corrigan said in an interview.
Previously the cities hosted several exchanges, including several based on Gatineau's horticulture and parks programs.
In fact, a trip to Gatineau during its annual Hot Air Balloon Festival inspired the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival.
Gatineau Place, a street near Lougheed Town Centre, was named in honour of the friendship, as was Gatineau's Rue de Burnaby.
Corrigan stressed that he's not offended by the letter, saying its brusqueness may be due to a language barrier.
"The translation to English from what they're thinking in French may seem a little less cordial than it might be," Corrigan said.
He also noted that each of the cities that joined Gatineau had its own sister cities, leaving council to decide which ones to keep.
Now that Gatineau is a city of 250,000 people, it may decide Edmonton - formerly the sister city of Hull - would make a better sister, he said.
Burnaby wants a sister city in Quebec, Corrigan said, and if things don't work out with Gatineau, it will try to find another.
"I understand their problem," he said, "but in their desperate attempt to try and avoid hurting any feelings, they're going to hurt somebody's feelings."
Bah, who cares! I know a street in Quebec City that's called "X'ian", probably because the two cities are sisters. Pierrefonds is now part of Montreal by the way.
Burnaby Population (2007): - Total 216,336 (Ranked 22nd)
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Now that Gatineau is a city of 250,000 people, it may decide Edmonton - formerly the sister city of Hull - would make a better sister, he said.
Getting upity over a middling 33, 664 people.
Ed's pop is 1,081,300. What do you think is the better match?
__________________ There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know. -Donald Rumsfeld Didn't you notice on the plane when you started talking, eventually I started reading the vomit bag?
Thunder Bay has a good relationship with its sister cities. Our sister city Keeling, Taiwan (the port east of Taipei, 450,000 people) sent 19 students to our aviation school to learn to fly planes (they graduated a couple weeks ago), and our sister city Gifu, Japan (500,000) has done lots of things with the city regarding the forestry industry and cultural events (Our city council went there to learn about some Japanese festival one spring, and later that year they came here to experience Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving.)
We're sisters with Little Canada, Minnesota (a Minneapolis suburb) because it was founded by a Thunder Bayer, with Duluth, Minnesota because of it's similarities (both large ports on western Lake Superior, declining populations, lots of health and educational institutions, etc.) and Seinajoki, Finland because lots of Finns live here and I guess Helsinki wasn't available?
We used to be a sister city with Bukit Timah, Singapore and had cultural exchanges with them similar to what we do with Gifu and Keelung; we were sister cities with Bungperugu, Ghana for a while and sent a lot of aid there (mostly old equipment from the hospital and school board to help them develop health and education services; I think we also built a school for them? They came here for cultural events like the Japanese.) Siderno, Italy was a sister city until last summer, many people here are immigrants from the Siderno region, in southern Italy.
I guess being as isolated as we are, we have put more effort into fostering our sister city relationships. We're really close to Gifu and Keelung now, which is great for local businesses. It gives businesses in Thunder Bay greater opportunities to expand to Japan and Taiwan, and it gives businesses from Gifu and Keelung and opportunity to expand into Canada.
The point of sister cities was to connect cities in far away places or cities that have things in common to work together and share their cultures, solve problems together and build opportunities for their citizens. Some are somewhat meaningless though. Most national capitals are sisters to other national capitals and I don't think they do much together like Thunder Bay does with its sister cities. That's part of what I never understood having a sister city in the same country, though Duluth is pretty much Canadian and Quebec is quite different from BC so who knows? It's neat having them, anyway.
Campeche, Mexico (i do not know why we are twinned with this city)
Hakodate, Japan (port city, star-shaped citadel, northern climate, ect)
Norfolk, Virginia (military historical city)
Halifax, England (probably for the name).
As Vid said sister cities are to connect distance cities for cultural, business and other reasons. Despite the incredible distances in Canada there is no point in having sister cities within our own country. Even having them with the U.S. is debatable since we are similar in many ways.
Campeche, Mexico (i do not know why we are twinned with this city)
I've actually been to Campeche. It's an old colonial port on the Gulf of Mexico. It feels much smaller than Halifax but has an interesting old core that is slowly being rehabilitated as well as some preserved forts nearby. Here's one photo I took in the city:
Actually, I have it on good authority that Gatineau is pregnant with Hamilton's newest suburb and plans to flee the fatherly arms of Ottawa to be with her true love ... a trans-sexual, two-spirited, midget goat named Bubbles the Love Monkey. But all is not lost because Bubbles lives in Coquitlam and Burnaby will probably make a good father. God help that poor suburb if Burnaby finds out who the real father is. Hopefully Burnaby doesn't watch Jerry Springer.
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The only time where I saw the benefits of being a sister city was when a certain PM came into power and Hamilton is a sister city to Shawinigan, QC lol.
Well, she shares a bed with Ottawa. So its to be expected I guess.
I just hope for Fredericton's sake he double wrapped.
But it's no sexual fantasy.
I knew her as a teenager and I couldn't believe it when she settled down with Ottawa...
Basicly, I think he's just a fallback in case she & Freddy doesn't work out.
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This is an excellent time to give a damn
Actually, I have it on good authority that Gatineau is pregnant with Hamilton's newest suburb and plans to flee the fatherly arms of Ottawa to be with her true love ... a trans-sexual, two-spirited, midget goat named Bubbles the Love Monkey. But all is not lost because Bubbles lives in Coquitlam and Burnaby will probably make a good father. God help that poor suburb if Burnaby finds out who the real father is. Hopefully Burnaby doesn't watch Jerry Springer.
That's messed up.
Here Laval and Longueuil are lucky to have the ultra classy and good-looking Montreal to satisfy all their needs.
As the Ottawa that's being cheated on, first of all I want to know whose face to break... Hamilton for knocking her up, Fredericton for sleeping with her, or Bubbles for corrupting her? My sweet little Gatineau, what have they done to you?
Ah what the hell, maybe I'll just settle for quickies with Montreal, she's always reliable. I'll settle this mess with Gatineau when she comes home broke and broken hearted.
That's messed up.
Here Laval and Longueuil are lucky to have the ultra classy and good-looking Montreal to satisfy all their needs.
Well Moncton, and Saint John are two sisters constantly fighting over the love of Hali. Hali is a paranoid, shy, unreliable girl who can never get a date with the big guys like Toronto or Ottawa. She only get "one-night stands" with St. John's and Freddy.
Oh i forgot to mention Hali's really likes the Keith's
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I'll settle this mess with Gatineau when she comes home broke and broken hearted.
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