Northern Canada in March?

joe b. wrote:
Those two responses make it much clearer, ha, ha. Reminds me of going fishing with a friend from New Orleans one time and we stopped in Golden Meadows to pick up a buddy of his. The buddy happened to be a school principal there. Now Golden Meadows is south of New Orleans so during lunch the buddy was telling me he had been born in Thibodaux, also south of New Orleans, but went to college up north. When I asked him if he enjoyed going to school up north, he said it was somewhat a negative experience, the people were different, not very friendly, etc. When I asked him where up north, he had gone to college, with a straight face, he said "in Shreveport". So I guess we have a bit of here in the US as well with some people. LOL

Over the years I have also noticed a difference of where Canadians say they live, depending on the Province of residence. If you draw a line, east to west in Western Canada, from Prince Rupert to Prince George, across the hills to Edmonton, you will find they are about equal in latitude and distance from the border. Talk to people in PR and PG and they will tell you they live in northern BC or northern Canada, but I have never heard anyone in Edmonton claim to live in Northern Alberta or Northern Canada. Most Alberta residents would probably feel they had to live up in Peace River or at least in the oil patch country of AB.

We have never spent much time, other than passing through, the Prairie Provinces, on Federal Hwy 16, etc so can't comment on how the residents of those provinces self classify themselves as to location. The line where "northern" starts seems to be much farther south in BC than anywhere else. Wonder why?

As I have mentioned before, I try to stay up on Canadian culture, etc. and have seem many TV episodes of the Red Green Show and have listened to many CDs byStuart McLean, a great comedian and historian of Canadian interest items. So I work at it but still find much as confusing as putting gravy on French fries. My next trip, I am determined to try that dish at least once. Guessing I can find it on the menu at Timmy's?

Curious to see what Sue T.'s take on this would be as she was born in Yukon, then moved south to spend most of her adult years in southern BC, and now has moved back north. Of late she has been posting comments and photos mainly over on Facebook. So a person might have to "friend" her there to see the new photos or look on her web site.

Joe B,

Your question, "Why is the line where the north starts is further south in BC than Alberta?"

Alberta's Capitol and a major city is Edmonton,population 1,000,000 approximately the same latitude as the town I spent 30+ years in(Smithers, BC), population 5000. North of Edmonton are many industrial areas(oil,gas,forestry)as well as farming.

North of Smithers are mountains, moose, marshes and Mosquitos , not necessary in that order.

2/3rds of BC's population Is squished into Vancouver and surrounding area (1/100 th of the area of BC),1/2 hour from US border. It is an internationally we'll known city and they tend to gaze a lot at their navels ignoring the rest of the province. So to these people who are at the centre of money and power, anything further than a 2 hour drive out of town is the sticks so the perception is Prince George, a 9 hour drive north of Vancouver but south of Edmonton and in the central BC ,is really way up in northern BC. Make sense?

I see you have lived and travelled a lot in Alaska. When we had our motel on hwy #37, (Dease Lake),we received a lot of guests from Alaska and when asking them how was the road they would answer,"Great. Such an improvement over the last 30 years". They always said that their lives were so different from the people in the lower 48.

Next person in was someone from SoCal driving a motor home and when asked how was the road,"Terrible. Worst road I have ever been on. Got mud on my rig and 2 stone chips. Gonna sue the road maintenance company. Never coming back".

Now I am exaggerating this a little but that is what I would say to the Alaskans is that you guys are a lot like us Northern BC types, used to a little more rough and ready lifestyle.

So Joe, how do you fit in at the Wrinkle Ranch in Florida being from Alaska?

Dave