How kind of you to respond - but if you had read my other post you would have seen that I apologised for not putting in the extra space between the paragraphs. My typing on boards is not the same as elsewhere as I don't usually edit here- I do it quickly and then off. But I shall try harder in future.

I thought that, a good and informative post but surely it should have been a new post and not a reply in this thread.
Welcome back Steve, where have you been? repairing pot-holes through the summer?

I have indeed been to Halifax. And I've been to the Atlantic Superstore, not just there but also in New Glasgow! You can learn a lot about a place by looking at the shelves of the local Loblaws (or equivalent) as the stock varies enormously according to the neighbourhood. It's all pretty bland in Nova Scotia, even Great Ocean offered a broader range of products. Of course, one can argue that uniformity in a population is an asset; you may not be able to get chillies in Halifax but the garbage calendar doesn't have to come in 50 languages. I find Halifax to be very provincial and very white bread but, if what you want is Aberdeen in the fifties, it may suit very well.

Incidentally, I thought the usual claim was that there are seven universities in Halifax, which ones are you counting?

Us too believe it or not! on 28th st
NS is very different - feel like we are back in the real world again!! We are finding our toes here and it looks like we are going to enjoy it in Lunenburg .Saying that it will be totally different. We had everything you could want for the kids in North Van on our doorstep. But we were beginning to see how crowded it is becomng and the real estate prices are just stupid- not entirely sure who actually is buying the properties.

I think there are only five?
Dalhousie
St Mary's
King's
Mount Saint Vincent
NSCAD

I suppose Atlantic School of Theology could also be counted, but I can't think of a seventh.

Hmm, five does sound right now. Lots anyway for a small city.

TUNS maybe before it was amalgamated with Dal.

dbd, what on earth are you talking - no chillies. Last time I was in Superstore there were at least 8 different chillies. I do my own asian cooking and having lived in foreign countries for many years it is done from scratch and everything is there on the grocery shelves of the Superstore I would go to -maybe you are referring to a suburban store but from my recollection the same products were there also. My only problem was not keeping the garlic next to the ginger.Thank goodness they stopped stocking the Scottish pies - who would buy them - maybe my family but not me because I am not a Scot.

I have been to Aberdeen and Halifax is not like that. You seem very blinkered in your vision- it is certainly more cosmopolitan- large Buddhist population- Shambhala, and a great Black Canadian population- been there over 250 years. Do only newcomers make a place cosmopolitan? Surely the integration is important. BTW having local authority instructions in a ridiculous number of languages is now apparently proving to be controversial in the UK; the feeling being that newcomers should integrate into a society and learning the language is the first thing. I don't think that sort of evidence provides us with a cosmopolitan perspective on the society. Instead it shows that there are many people not integrated.

The white bread thing- that is Canadian and it is horrible

The Buddhists in Halifax are a bit of an enigma. They arrived en masse from Boulder, Colorado in the mid-80's, most of whom had never visited before, and said they were moving to Halifax because it was friendly. Well, ok, it is, but it seems a bit of a flimsy reason to move your entire population somewhere. They were all very well-off white Americans and it isn't clear how traditionally "Buddhist" they were/are - a Vietnamese couple we were friends with arrived in Halifax and said the Boulder Buddhists weren't interested in knowing them at all. It's all a bit curious. But at any rate, they've started a lot of very successful businesses in Halifax and have an excellent middle school.

You have to understand that dbd33 gets nervous when he strays beyond the Toronto transit system....

I like Halifax, but thats in part driven by the fact that its bigger than St. John's and our nearest dose of 'mainland'. I'd prefer to be there than anywhere in the GTA any day of the week!

And Liana, Chill. Your post was very well reasoned and thought out just a little hard to read in its presentation. Not worth getting the hump over.

AX

Property hunting in Halifax on the sly?

Here, here! I also cook asian from scratch (no choice!) and I can get a better range of authentic ingredients here than most of the places I lived in the UK.

No chillies? Maybe the 50s was the last time dbd33 came over here?

Oh and the garlic is next to the ginger now...

I wasn't thinking of the UK but of our garbage flyer here.

I guess I'm flogging a dead horse with this one but Toronto is a reasonably cosmopolitan place, one can buy almost any food (including a dead horse) either raw or cooked by a native of the country of the cuisine; it's not London or New York but it does have quite a diverse population and the hubbub that comes with it. Halifax is less cosmopolitan, for example, I doubt it has Cuban or Ethiopian restaurants. The fact that we're even debating the contents of a chain supermarket tells us that; here we get Greek stuff at the Greek owned store, Jamaican at the Jamaican store, even Newf at the Newf owned store.

We are back to cod tongues aren't we?

I was there last summer. I took chillies.

Look I know that there are some green things in Loblaws but, from the store here we have : Negro Entero, Guajillo, Pasilla, Chipotle and blends, dozens of types of chili all in all. At the butcher's up the road they offer five different breeds of goats in all manner of cuts. Loblaws keeps 50 types of rice, an aisle of kosher products. A diverse population means product variety; it's one of the advantages of having a 52% immigrant population.

I only go to buy salt beef but I do boggle at all those fish parts and the huge number of meals that can be made using only lard.