85% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the American border. And yous claim you don't want to be part of them.
*(runs and hides)*
We stand on guard.
The average Canadian
Yes, but instead of guarding against white walkers from the north it’s pedos from the south.
And in this case winter is going, as global temperatures rise
Summer is coming. ⛱️🕶️☀️🧴
Every Canadian knows that the secret forests of magical splendour begin 101 miles from the border.
If anything, this proves how much Canadians don't want to be Americans.
Canadian weather is shitty, you can't grow crops for most of the year. During the fraction of the year where the climate is suitable for growing crops, the variety of things that grow is small compared to what's possible in the US. And, as bad as winter can be, summer's no good either. You don't want to be outside in the winter because it's -30, and you don't want to be outside in the summer because it's +35. The cost of living in Canada is high because you need to heat your home in the winter and cool it in the summer. Almost everybody drives a car because of that "being outside sucks" thing, but cars are expensive to own and operate in Canada. There's the cost of winter tires, more expensive winter fuels, antifreeze in the windshield washer, plus the constant freeze/thaw cycle wrecks the road surfaces, which results in potholes, which results in more wear and tear on cars. In addition, to make driving safe they drop a lot of salt and sand, which just rusts your car. Because the country is a thin strip, everything is far away, and everything communications-related is expensive. And, a low population relative to the US means that a lot of companies just don't offer services in Canada because it isn't worth it to comply with Canadian laws just to get the same number of customers you could get from a single American state. I could keep going on and on.
Yet, despite all that, Canadians huddle up as close as possible to the border for warmth, but refuse to go any further south because that would mean entering the US. As bad as Canada's climate is, putting up with that is an easy decision to make when the alternative is 'Murica.
One minor correction. The reason Canadians drive is not because the weather sucks, Canadians drive so much because our country refuses to build real transit or walkability. Hell half our country is going to court because a few of our provincial premiers want building bike lanes to be illegal. There are other countries with similar climates to Canada where people don't need to extensively rely on their car to live their daily life.
Id also say that the biggest factor to cost of living is cost of housing, which is largely related to our cities making it nearly impossible to build any housing that isnt detached single family homes with minimum lot sizes and set back requirements. This also reinforces the car dependancy
Seriously, half the fucking country lives in the Québec City - Windsor corridor and we don't even have a high speed train there?? It's a political issue, not a geographical one.
But Canada is "too big" for rail. Except of course all those railways 100 years ago that pretty much made this nation possible, or how nearly every city had trams in most neighborhoods.
I agree that Canadian cities aren't doing enough to build mass transit. But, I still think winter has a lot to do with that.
Mass transit means waiting outside for a bus or tram, and waiting outside when it's either +35 or -30 sucks. Many people will prefer cars for that reason. It isn't the only factor, but it is definitely a factor.
As for bike lanes, winter is a major factor. It's certainly possible to bike in the winter, I've done it for many years, but it isn't easy. In Canada as it exists now, biking in winter means biking in traffic most of the time. Bike lanes exist, but often in winter they just shove the snow to the side of the road and block the bike lanes. I don't know of anywhere in Canada where they clear bike lanes as a priority. That could be done. It is done in some places in Finland, for example. But, there's a catch 22. It's not worth it to clear the bike lanes because there aren't enough winter bikers; there aren't enough winter bikers because it's dangerous and unpleasant to bike during winter because they don't clear the bike lanes.
As for bike lanes, winter is a major factor.
But actually, even in Canada. And even with bike share programs.
So actually:
Canadian cities aren’t doing enough to build mass transit [and bike lanes]
Is all you need. End of post.
All the problems you've described are infrastructure abd policy problems We can build climate controlled mass transit stations. We can maintain separated and safe bicycle networks in the winter. We can clear pedestrian pathways of snow instead of plowing the car lane snow onto them. Its all policy and infrastructure. If you make transit the fastest while being convenient and clean, people will use it over cars because it takes less time, not everyone, but certainly enough to make it worth it.
We can't fairly use the there are no cyclists now argument because we haven't given them any real options. We need to provide safe and effecient cycling infrastructure to truly see how many people would prefer to bike. If a city had no roads you could make the argument not to build any roads because nobody drives anyway.
Canadian here, you summed it up perfectly. Everyone I know would agree with your points exactly. It’s a bit of a shit deal living here sometimes, but it’s infinitely better than being an American. Just look at the amount of disgust a Canadian tourist has when asked if they’re American when visiting overseas.
Your instance saved you 😄
America isn't any better. Depending on what statistic you are looking at, 40% to 75% of all Americans live within 100 miles of the border
Not so fun fact: if American border patrol agents stop you within the 100 mile zone, they can ignore parts of the fourth amendment and perform what would normally be illegal search and seizure
Lake Michigan isn't a border...
It is a border between wet and dry.
Ayyyy one of the 15% that doesn't live near the border checking in 😎
How's the weather up there?
#COLD
No one lives in the Maritimes and Newfies are a figment of our imagination?
Tbf, the Newfies I've met certainly feel like a figment of my imagination.
The implication of that map is skewed hard though. It's only cause of Montreal, Toronto, S & SW ontario and Vancouver. 3 small spots compared to the size of the border, with 90% of the border population.
We have, it's called Winnipeg. Also I love how it stops in the before the Quebec border.
😞 Canada
😎 French Canada
Its pretty cool city with great food and terminally bad traffic problems. Source: live there.
Legitimate question: what may be the actual reason for this concentration? Is it weather? Natural resources? Is it political? On a related note: what is the reason that Canada as a whole has so few people? It is still mindblowing for me that the entire country has less people than each of the world's top 3 metropolitan areas
Yea weather, but also the Canadian shield. There is just a thin layer of soil on top of the bedrock over a huge portion of Canada.
Also this map is kinda misleading. Edmonton and the entire 4 maritime provinces are not here, and the main reason so much of the population is close to the border is that something like 1/3 of the population is clustered around the great lakes/st Laurence, because people came here by boat.
The great lakes area was the first area extensively settled and thus has the most developed cities. The great lakes area is also rich in fresh water and farmland.
It's because the rest is all degens from upcountry.
In B.C.'s defense, imo, most of the land to its North is either too mountainous ^[1][2.1]^ or has too harsh a climate ^[2.2]^ to be realistically inhabitable. I think it's also worth noting that 15.4% of B.C.'s lands are protected ^[3]^.
::: spoiler References
Ten mountain ranges push west from the Canadian Rockies in the east to the Coast Mountains and the Vancouver Island Ranges in the west, and ancient temperate rainforests hug the coast. In between are rolling grasslands, lush valleys, tens of thousands of lakes, glacier-fed rivers, and even semi-arid desert. Mountains cover 75% of the province.
.
[…] Protected lands and waters cover 15.4% of B.C.'s land base and 3.2% of B.C.'s marine areas. […]
the rest is on fire. burning for decades. wind shifted of late
Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.
Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!
1. Be Respectful
Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.
Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.
...
2. No Illegal Content
Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.
That means:
-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals
-No CSA content or Revenge Porn
-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)
...
3. No Spam
Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.
-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.
-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.
-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers
-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.
...
4. No Porn/Explicit
Content
-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.
-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.
...
5. No Enciting Harassment,
Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts
-Do not Brigade other Communities
-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.
-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.
-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.
...
6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.
...
If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.
Also check out:
Partnered Communities:
1.Memes
10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)
Reach out to
All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker
FTFY
