Ontario and Quebec

I will always think of these as Central Canada and think of the Atlantic provinces as "Eastern Canada" but I might be in the minority these days. I don't know if anyone west of Thunder Bay agrees with me. It seems so wrong to say that a province that borders Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (even Western/upstate NY) is "East" when there are four provinces and two time zones on the Atlantic Ocean. (Am fine with "just Ontario and Quebec", esp in the interest of geographical accuracy.)

Just "Ontario and Quebec". Or, I've never felt the need to put them under a different group term, which might be central Canadian chauvinism, putting all the provinces in groups except the ones in which I've lived.

From the US perspective, most of Ontario is central, the eastern third or so is eastern, and Quebec is eastern. Probably biased by the fact Quebec lines up with the east coast states. I also tend to forget all the other eastern Canadian provinces exist or think of them floating over there somewhere east of Quebec (this is insanely wrong when it comes to New Brunswick).

OK, dividing Ontario that way is just mentalism and I'm sure the 12 people who live west of Windsor would agree.

Seriously, I have never once felt like I was in the eastern part of the country when in Ottawa.

there's a time zone divide in ontario, isn't there?

Yes, but far more than the eastern 1/3 of the province is in the Eastern time zone (by area; nearly all of the population is in the Eastern time zone): http://www.timetemperature.com/canada/ontario_time_zone.shtml

If we're dividing Ontario into regions, everything that's in the Central time zone would be part of Northern Ontario. It's not a Central/Eastern issue.

upper and lower canada iirc

Quebec and Rest of Canada iirc

Ha, I thought of including that option, as well "the Republic of Quebec and the Anglo oppressors".
xp!

within two hours of the US border versus everywhere else

I've been confused by this since I moved to Canada. Generally Ontario is described as "Central Canada" whereas Manitoba, where - along with Nunavut - the actual longitudinal centre of Canada runs is "Western Canada". The use is obv geographically wrong but is culturally accepted. I suppose because of Ontario and Quebec's cultural, economic, and demographic - ie majority of Canadians live in those two provinces - and because loosely it makes sense to have the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador as East, and the prairies and BC as West, so by process of elimination Ontario and Quebec are central.

missed out the word "importance" somewhere

my bestfriend is from winnipeg so ontario and quebec have always been central canada to me

it's difficult to compare the provinces to the states because our provinces are much larger and fewer

but aligning everything so it conforms to a superpower is a canadian pastime i guess

abstractly i make it work (calling it central canada), but culturally, canada can be divided into smaller areas. winnipeg probably at least in the past had a bigger arts/culture scene than vancouver, which "prairies" doesn't exactly convey

Where I live they're called "Back East".

haha i say this colloquially but try not to make a habit of it

Quebec and Rest of Canada iirc

― rob, Wednesday, September 14, 2016 10:36 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

correct

I've spoken with people in the territories who refer to the rest of us as "The South".

hah -- in alaska they call everywhere else 'outside'

Quebec and Rest of Canada iirc

― rob, Wednesday, September 14, 2016 10:36 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As a person living in Quebec, I can attest that this is how a lot of people here see it. I like how in French they sometimes just call it "le ROC".

U&K for "Quebec/ROC" voters: does this mean that

i) you recognise the Atlantic provinces as "Eastern Canada" and the Prairies and BC as "Western Canada" (or something else?) but you think ON and QC are too distinct from each other to be classified together, in which case I think you would vote "They are just 'Ontario and Quebec'"

or ii) you think the distinction between Quebec and the ROC is so fundamental that all other intra-national distinctions are insignificant in comparison, to the point where Ontario's identity as a province means less than its membership to 'English Canada'/'the rest of Canada'/'Canada' (as opposed to Quebec, as per Gilles Duceppe)

or something else?

I guess people here would mentally divide the country into the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Western Canada (sometimes divided into The Prairies and BC) and the Territories.

I think most people think of Quebec as being distinct enough that it cannot really be grouped with other provinces and that if you had to make only two groups which incorporates all of Canada, the way you would divide it is Quebec/ROC. So both points i) and ii) in the above post are true.

http://www.trailcanada.com/images-maps/map-canada-regions-medium.gif

?!?

http://www.waml.org/ib/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/G-schedule-3-Canada-regions.png

http://gpss10.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11087561/9797331_orig.jpg

good one

?!?

Purely geographic maps can be misleading. You have to consider where the population is actually distributed:

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-550/vignettes/img/map-2006-pop-density-canada-sz01-en.gif

that was mock confusion, sorry for the ambiguity

For me the Quebec/ROC division is partially because I moved here from the US, so the ROC does actually feel like one big other place due to my geographic ignorance of the country and the fact that when I have gone to ROC Ontario it feels once again different from QC. But, there are also so many major and minor ways, especially legally and not even getting into the language, in which Quebec is unique. Everything from the fact that Quebec had to approve our immigration and app for permanent residency to Cegep to stupid shit like a free trial of amazon prime being shorter here than ROC.

winnipeg probably at least in the past had a bigger arts/culture scene than vancouver, which "prairies" doesn't exactly convey

― F♯ A♯ (∞), Wednesday, September 14, 2016 11:41 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is, as an american, genuinely surprising to me

but as a former resident of minneapolis/st paul (another small-ish conurbation on the prairie often overlooked by coastal elites and which arguably punches above its weight in the arts/culture), i guess it isn't?

to answer the thread q: they are "ontario" and "quebec". but i guess i tend to break canada down into: mountains -- plains -- ontario -- quebec -- atlantic provinces -- northern territories

I guess people here would mentally divide the country into the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Western Canada (sometimes divided into The Prairies and BC) and the Territories.

as an american with a 'certificate' in canadian studies (!) this seems right to me. i'd definitely separate BC out, and these days probably alberta too, so i guess i'm only combining the maritimes, manitoba/saskatchewan, and the north

The use is obv geographically wrong but is culturally accepted.

My American ex-gf had her mind blown when I tried to explain why Sudbury is in Northern Ontario and the University of Western Ontario is in London.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

gbx's categories are the ones I would use.

Politically, there is a division between Prairies and Ontario/Quebec along the lines of PC vs Liberals, but it's rendered more complex by conservatives in suburban Toronto and white nationalists in Quebec.

Quebeckers insistance on this myth of a politically and culturally united ROC is ridiculous. Always felt I have more in common with a vancouverite who listens to hip-hop than a Saguenayan that believes that muslims are ruining their belle province. Cultural lines have shifted since the 80s.

Politically, there is a division between Prairies and Ontario/Quebec along the lines of PC vs Liberals, but it's rendered more complex by conservatives in suburban Toronto and white nationalists in Quebec.

Not sure about this. In the last federal election, MB also elected more Liberals like ON and QC. And, between 84 and 2015, QC didn't elect even a plurality of Liberals since the first Trudeau, favouring the NDP in 2011, the BQ from 93 until 2011, and the PCs from 84 until 93. If we're going back that far, or looking at provincial politics, we'd also have to also take into account the NDP in MB and SK. (They obv govern AB atm!)

"And, since the first Trudeau, between 84 and 2015, ..."

Didn't realize Manitoba leaned Liberal so much in the last federal election! I stand corrected, I was thinking of a more historical trends but it sure is isn't as simple as I described.

from alberta, ontario, quebec and the maritimes is "eastern canada" -- "let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark" -- and somewhere east of winnipeg is the dividing line. "western canada" is everything west of winnipeg, up to canmore on the #1 and hinton on the #16. beyond the mountains, it's western canada but not really. in alberta, north of fort mcmurray is the north and in saskatchewan north of nipawain is the north. in bc, it would be everything north of prince george or prince rupert.

Yep, I know that's the Western perspective, and one I even started to hear people use in (what I'd call) Central Canada. It either means that you need to lump the Atlantic provinces in with Ontario and Quebec as part of one big region, or that you'd have to say that there's a part of Canada that's further east than "Eastern Canada", both of which seem crazy to me. (Presumably, lumping Vancouver in with Regina also seems crazy to some people.)

what dylan said is what i grew up "intuitively" thinking but as i got older and thought to rationalize it, it felt wrong to me. but i understand it's a pretty common perspective

Is there a common name for the ... land protrusion of Ontario that London, Brantford, Tornoto et. al sit on?

I guess it's a peninsula since you have to cross water on three sides to get anywhere else, but it doesn't look like one.

― pplains, Thursday, August 7, 2014 11:16 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink