The Great Canadian Skyline thread for CMAs 1 million and under

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by advance62

Kitchener, by myself:
MSP 20190625-IMG_4263 by Matt, on Flickr

Was that photo taken before the Duke Tower crane went up, or is it just not high enough yet to see it from that vantage point? The idea of four, soon to be six or more, cranes up in DTK at the same time amazes me.

[advance62]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Was that photo taken before the Duke Tower crane went up, or is it just not high enough yet to see it from that vantage point? The idea of four, soon to be six or more, cranes up in DTK at the same time amazes me.

This was just the other night. You can't see the Duke crane from this angle yet but as it rises you will. There are already 5 in DTK and at least 3-5+ more will be up by late summer. Garment Street, Young Condos, Drewlo, etc

[Echoes]

Nice Regina shots on the previous page!

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I like how all the highrises and midrises make it look like a major city.

What is or isn't a major city is pretty subjective.

One thing I've noticed is that in Canada (with SSP Canada being at an extreme), there is a tendency to think of the N largest cities in the country as major. Calgary got "promoted" to major status sometime around the 1970's-90's. Halifax might or might not be considered major depending on who you talk to, and Saint John got demoted at one point (it was 100% major at Confederation, and borderline by the 1930's). A non-major city may be larger than a major city from 20 years ago.

In 1971 the largest municipality in Canada had 438,000 people. Halifax is going to pass this in the next few months probably.

Back in the 19th century Canadian cities maxed out at 200,000 or so. London had 6.5 million people by 1900 (!). Even the largest Canadian city was tiny in comparison, and the smaller Canadian cities were equivalent to small provincial towns in Europe, and really probably felt small in a bunch of objective ways (not much anonymity, not much large-scale infrastructure, etc.). Today it's no longer like this; Toronto would be a major city in any country and the smaller regional cities in Canada are on par with similar European cities.

(There's also Canadian snobbishness or insecurity, e.g. people from Toronto who go to Montreal or Vancouver and can't stop talking about how small and provincial everything is whereas a Londoner might visit Montreal without making similar comments.)

It seems like this view is not getting adjusted as Canadian cities continue to grow. I doubt Halifax is going to feel much like a small town in 10-20 years in any objective way (e.g. it would take you quite a while to explore the city), but I bet Canadians will still talk about it like that's how it is. And we will of course have people talking about how they are uber cosmopolitan and Shanghai has 30 million people so anything less than 25 million is a stifling village to them.

[Nouvellecosse]

I agree that the "Nth largest" as cut off is very practical since some countries and regions have very different population distribution than others. For instance, the 10th largest city in say Germany, would probably be a lot more "major" in the German context than the 10th largest city in France would be in the French context. If you start expanding to include even larger regions like continents or very large countries like the US or China and have the cut off be a small number like 10, then you're pretty much guaranteed to include all major cities but you'd probably also leave many out.

If I'm considering whether or not Halifax is major I'd be looking in at least the national context because while it's undoubtedly major in the context of NS or the Maritimes, that isn't particularly relevant either. I don't think there are much more than 10 incorporated cities in the Maritimes for that matter. Looking like a major NS city would just mean looking like Halifax, however it happened to look at that moment. In the national context I'd say we'd need to look at percentages of the largest city in terms of population and economy. I'd say 1/10 of the largest would make a good cut off. I mean, if you have a city that's not 50% larger, not double, not quadruple, but over 10x larger in the same country/region, it's pretty hard to argue that it's still a major city. Metro Montreal for example is about 1/3 the size of metro London and even that is a striking size difference. Of course it should go without saying that you don't need to be a major city to be important, interesting, attractive, prosperous, influential, or any of the other things cities might strive for. Even towns can be those things in some cases.

None-the-less, my comment was more about the aesthetics of the picture than anything. That the impression it gives isn't in keeping with the mental image derived from my daily experience.

[someone123]

I don't think the population ratios are inherently important. The 10% rule would suggest that Hamilton is a major Canadian city, which is pretty debatable. Also, Canada's a huge and somewhat decentralized country, so the national context doesn't mean the same thing that it does in say France.

I think "major city" is arbitrary, like "world class". It only has meaning to the extent that people invent subjective standards. In Canada, the term has a lot of baggage and connotations that don't hold anymore or might not hold in the future.

Population sort of matters in that it correlates with the phenomenon of big cities siphoning economic and cultural vibrancy off of nearby smaller cities. In some countries (particularly highly centralized dictatorships and the like), the effect is incredibly strong, and if you're not connected very directly to the government in the capital you are part of a backwater. In Canada this is tempered by general economic freedoms (somewhat; not as far as a bunch of heavily regulated industries go), language, and federalism. This is actually a good thing and I hope it doesn't disappear.

Population also correlates with urban vibrancy and street life but this is just something that is or was roughly true in a North American context in around the late 20th century. A city like Halifax could easily have 4x as much street life as it does if it were designed differently. We tend to associate big crowds, vibrant storefront shopping districts, etc. with larger cities but that's just because these became boutique phenomena in the postwar era. That is changing pretty quickly. Much much faster than current metropolitan growth rates in Canada.

[Nouvellecosse]

The term "major" is certainly nebulous in the sense that there isn't a singular definition on how it should apply to for cities (size, fame, history, economy, power, impressiveness etc.) so it entirely depends on the meaning you're assigning to the term. In the way i was using it, the characteristics of the city aren't relevant since as I mentioned, you don't need to be a major city to be important, interesting, attractive, prosperous, influential, or any of the other things cities might strive for. In other words, a major city may or may not be vibrant or have good street life etc. I tend to use "major" as denoting relative size in a specific setting (a major city in Canada is not necessarily a major city on the continent or the world) while I'd use large as being universal (many globally small or medium size cities are major within their regions). Therefore I would definitely include Hamilton as major in the context of Canada. There's nothing really wrong with using it in your way; it's just a lot more complicated since you need to decide on including or excluding a lot of stats and decide where to make the cut-off for all of them rather than just the one.

[someone123]

If it's just about population, "major" sounds needlessly vague though. Why not just say largest city or most populous city if those are synonyms? They have a clearer meaning.

[Nouvellecosse]

The way i was using it may not be in reference to a city whose exact ranking you're aware of. For instance, you may recognize that Hamilton must be at least a tenth the size of Toronto and big enough to be a major city without knowing if it's the 5th biggest or the 15th biggest in the country or whatever.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

More KW, please.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

More KW, please.

http://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/

[vid]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

More KW, please.

I'm trying, photo editing is time consuming I'm not even finished Galt yet.

[advance62]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

More KW, please.

Some K
MSP 20190216-IMG_9465 by Matt, on Flickr

and some W
Ion Uptown by Matt, on Flickr

and a little Cambridge
Galt by Matt, on Flickr

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Ahhhh feel better now, thanks!

[905er]

and a little Cambridge
Galt by Matt, on Flickr[/QUOTE]

blessed day. ...under his eye.

[ssiguy]

Cambridge still has that charm of the 3 original cities: Galt, Preston, and Hespler which I have always found endearing.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Cambridge still has that charm of the 3 original cities: Galt, Preston, and Hespler which I have always found endearing.

Hespeler.

[SaskScraper]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Been a while since Regina's made an appearance around here, so here are a few courtesy of the Tourism Regina Instagram

Originally Posted by Echoes

Saskatoon, the old and the new:

quite rare to see Saskatchewan posters on the national SSP threads, nice to see some representation on here.

It'll be interesting to see the province's new tallest building break the glass ceiling... with a glass top-floor Winter Garden no less, on the new Nutrien tower at Riverlanding in Saskatoon next year (where white crane is standing last two pics)...

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

quite rare to see Saskatchewan posters on the national SSP threads, nice to see some representation on here.

I used to participate a lot more in national threads, but it started to get a bit too toxic and I stopped caring as much. I read them, but don't often feel the need to contribute.

[Chadillaccc]

Looove me some Regina (shocking I know ) I regret that I've been neglecting the city with my mass under-1 million skyline photodumps. Great post!



Some more Yellowknife lovin...


https://www.investcanada.ca/locations/yellowknife

Yellowknife Skyline Pano5-2_1 by Ronald Bonnetrouge, on Flickr

https://www.immigratenwt.ca/start-a-...usiness-stream