What is Canada Actually Like?
Jan 31st 2007, 3:49 pm
#16
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Jan 31st 2007, 3:50 pm
#17
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
I can't let this pass. If you are in the suburbs or exurbs there really is no difference between one Canadian city and the next and no difference between those Canadian cities and American suburbs/exurbs.
If, for example, you are the manager of a Best Buy or a Boston Pizza or a Home Depot and are transferred from suburban Toronto to suburban Dallas to suburban Calgary the noticeable difference would be that, in the case of Home Depot, you'd adjust the stock between lawn mowers and snow blowers.
If you moved around the UK differences would be noticeable because the buildings in different towns were built of different materials at different times and there are products, notably beer, that do not come from a central warehouse. In the UK people also have regional accents. There's diversity in Canada but it's diversity between immigrants, some areas have more Brits, some more Chinese, some more Indians, there's very little diversity in infra-structure across the continent; even suburban Montreal looks like suburban Cleveland.
If, for example, you are the manager of a Best Buy or a Boston Pizza or a Home Depot and are transferred from suburban Toronto to suburban Dallas to suburban Calgary the noticeable difference would be that, in the case of Home Depot, you'd adjust the stock between lawn mowers and snow blowers.
If you moved around the UK differences would be noticeable because the buildings in different towns were built of different materials at different times and there are products, notably beer, that do not come from a central warehouse. In the UK people also have regional accents. There's diversity in Canada but it's diversity between immigrants, some areas have more Brits, some more Chinese, some more Indians, there's very little diversity in infra-structure across the continent; even suburban Montreal looks like suburban Cleveland.
Im not going to let that pass either.
Just because you dont recognise regional canadian accents, does not make them absent, just the same way that canadians cant tell scouse from scottish from australian. Newfie vs Arcadian VS Quebec Vs Alberta Vs BC stoner...all the same to you I expect.
You gonna argue that life in Calgary or Vancouver with mountains an hour away and a very different climate to here is the same as Toronto or out in St Johns? You've spent too much time in suburban TO, time to get out and see some of the rest of the country again. Montreal is the same as Halifax or Vancouver in your world too I expect.
Suburbia is suburbia, and modern glass towers are modern glass towers, even in the UK they all look the same, but there are distinct archetectural elements across canada and the US that are quite obvious to me, just as in the UK. I expect there are even noticable differences on the local microbrewery products too.
Last edited by iaink; Jan 31st 2007 at 3:54 pm.
Jan 31st 2007, 4:08 pm
#18
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
Yes. The built environment in suburban Halifax is very much like that in suburban Vancouver or suburban Montreal or suburban Atlanta. It's a wasteland of malls containing chain stores, Outback Steakhouses and East Side Mario's. The houses are the same and the subdivisions were built by the same conglomerates. You may as well be in Mississauga.
The good thing is that moving to such places allows one to have a lot of stuff; a big screen TV, an SUV, and so on, but the defining feature is the homogeneity. Most people in north America live pretty standard lives, affluent lives but not distinctive ones. I say this is in contrast to the UK and greatly in contrast to Europe as a whole.
The good thing is that moving to such places allows one to have a lot of stuff; a big screen TV, an SUV, and so on, but the defining feature is the homogeneity. Most people in north America live pretty standard lives, affluent lives but not distinctive ones. I say this is in contrast to the UK and greatly in contrast to Europe as a whole.
Jan 31st 2007, 4:10 pm
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Jan 31st 2007, 4:13 pm
#20
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
Jan 31st 2007, 4:20 pm
#21
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
What's distinctive about spending all your life in an English pub or watching the telly?
Downtown Montreal is definitely different than downtown Toronto. The languages that you hear for a start and the people on the street in the summertime especially when the girls are out.
Last edited by flashman; Jan 31st 2007 at 4:23 pm.
Jan 31st 2007, 4:31 pm
#24
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
There are regional differences across the UK but, to be comparable to north America, we should look at the EU as a whole. Amsterdam is quite different from London whereas Toronto is marginally different from Chicago.
Jan 31st 2007, 4:32 pm
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Jan 31st 2007, 4:38 pm
#26
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
That 5% being the proportion of the population there on work permits who dont want to risk summary expulsion from the elysian fields of BC for getting caught?
Jan 31st 2007, 4:40 pm
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Jan 31st 2007, 4:40 pm
#28
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Re: What is Canada Actually Like?
"cruikshank - 04:54pm Jan 31, 2007 GMT (#500 of 514)
I don't understand those Americans who vacation in Toronto. I see them on the streetcar sometimes. It must be like vacationing in Scranton."
Jan 31st 2007, 4:44 pm
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