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Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

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Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#41

Post by bryanlarsen »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #35

Saw a population map of Canada once. There's a thick line right along the US-Canada border. Its as if Canadians want to be Canadian, but really don't want to live there. They go as far south as possible while still technically being in Canada. (Not counting big coastal cities).

It's the same as every other country. All big cities and population centres are on major waterways. The major waterway in Canada is the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence, which is often the border, or else very close to it. Vancouver is on the Fraser, close to the border. Ottawa/Gatineau is on the Ottawa, close to the border.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#43

Post by colomon »

ane wrote: post #16
herge wrote: post #9

The northernmost french community (of appreciable size) in the world is the remote mining town of Fermont ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont ), in Quebec near the border with Labrador. It has ~3000 inhabitants, and is based around a large bunker/building containing housing, shops, schools, etc, which let's people live their lives in the winter without having to go outside. The second northernmost French communit…

The actual northernmost French (the Republic) community is in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, which is funnily enough just next to Quebec! it's an overseas territory and they use the Euro as their currency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon

It's just next to Newfoundland -- 25 kilometers to there, versus 500ish to get to Quebec.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#44

Post by sandworm101 »

brillenfux wrote: post #21
Ensorceled wrote: post #17

This is missing the point. People think of Canadians as tough hardy, northerners because it's -8C in Toronto and we've been having really nice February, last year it was like -20C all month. It's -12 in Montreal right now. It's still interesting to think about it but don't try to imply that it's not actually cold, bitter and rough sledding here because we're "south" of London. Because it's 8C in London right now.

That's continental vs maritime climate for you. Rain or not, at least we don't freeze our asses (so bad) over here :D

It was 13* and sunny in Vancouver today. Even though we are north of much of canada's population, snow is very rare.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#45

Post by mfoy_ »

musha68k wrote: post #25

Thanks for pointing to that, I'm always baffled at how few people fail to acknowledge the most "basic" complexities of meteorological reality. I have the suspicion that our inherent bias for linear thinking is the culprit here. Some things can't ever be grasped intuitively and as long as education doesn't at least catch up with our propensity towards boundless optimism our and many more species are essentially doomed…

Well, that escalated quickly.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#46

Post by tdsamardzhiev »

London (UK) lacks a real winter thanks to Gulfstream. So winters would be a lot warmer there.

On the other hand, the summer is warmer in Toronto than in London.

Really, though, most Canadians live either almost on the border or by the oceans. The weather there is about the same as in northern US.

The weather in Alaska (at least Anchorage) is not that bad, either - a decent jacket would easily get you through the winter.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#47

Post by mfoy_ »

Ensorceled wrote: post #17

This is missing the point. People think of Canadians as tough hardy, northerners because it's -8C in Toronto and we've been having really nice February, last year it was like -20C all month. It's -12 in Montreal right now. It's still interesting to think about it but don't try to imply that it's not actually cold, bitter and rough sledding here because we're "south" of London. Because it's 8C in London right now.

-14C in Ottawa right now, it's the wind that makes it nippy, though.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#48

Post by colomon »

a_c_s wrote: post #29
baldfat wrote: post #15

Latitude doesn't equate to temperature. The poor pilgrims thought Massachusetts' winter would be warm or warmer then London's and not to far off of Virginia's. The temperature of the Gulf Stream and its effect on the UK and Western Europe means that while London is 1000k north London UK March Avg in C High 12 Low 5 in F High 53 Low 40 London, Ontario March Avg in C High 4 Low -5 in F High 40 Low 24 Edit copy and past…

I think your second group of numbers is off: -5C is 23F

First group as well.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#49

Post by seszett »

herge wrote: post #26
ane wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual northernmost French (the Republic) community is in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, which is funnily enough just next to Quebec! it's an overseas territory and they use the Euro as their currency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon

If you click on the wikipedia links, you can quickly see that Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is ~5 degrees south of both Fermont and Dunkirk. Even Paris is north of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

By the way since we're talking about France, the article seems to separate metropolitan France and the overseas regions (it lists Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon as a "country").

Otherwise maybe the chart would show quite a bit more "latitudinal population variation" with the southernmost significant populated place being 20° south of the equator.

Re: Canadians don’t live as far north as you think

#50

Post by sandworm101 »

mikeash wrote: post #39
sandworm101 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that a large percentage of the US population lives near the canadian boarder. The line was drawn through the great lakes. So everyone in New England, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati etc can be said to be living near the canadian boarder. It's not that canadians need to be near the US, but near the water routes for trade with the rest of the world.

Chicago is over 200 miles from Canada. Lake Michigan is not part of the border with Canada, so the nearest point on the border is off in Lake Erie near Detroit.

But they are right beside the water body (the great lakes) that divides the nations. For purposes of trade, Detroit is practically on the boarder.
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