Expand North! So much room up there.
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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
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.
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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.
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.
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John Candy tried to warn us. They're preparing for an invasion!
Us? You-S-A tarriff'd the world!
<sincerity> I know you're joking
It's legit a potential weakness actually. Trump could invade with very little resistance beyond the border, our population was too focused on trade by land and now we've had to reconsider our priorities. Also, the image neglects Edmonton's existence. </sincerity> -
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.
Isn't there an HST project's route being prospected between Calgary and Edmonton?
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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.
Canada should join the Nordic countries in a new Kalmar Union. Everything you mentioned is in common, unlike USA and EU, which both span different climates, and thus different ways of life.
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU and the former USA, but I think there's just more mutual ground in latitude than longitudes.
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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.
50% of our population is below the 49th parallel. 90% is within a half a day of the southern border
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Us? You-S-A tarriff'd the world!
<sincerity> I know you're joking
It's legit a potential weakness actually. Trump could invade with very little resistance beyond the border, our population was too focused on trade by land and now we've had to reconsider our priorities. Also, the image neglects Edmonton's existence. </sincerity>Yeah, and that whole TransCanada highway being a massive choke point
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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.
It's not just that. Trains don't run as well or brake as efficiently in cold weather, they have slippery metal rails for a reason. That's why we switched to cars and trucks too readily, and as sad as that is, I think we might need electric cars more than Americans ever needed any cars.
(That said, electric cars should be thanks to electrified smartroads, not stuffing the car itself full of computer hardware.)
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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.
Only correction is that gas is a bit cheaper in the winter
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It's not just that. Trains don't run as well or brake as efficiently in cold weather, they have slippery metal rails for a reason. That's why we switched to cars and trucks too readily, and as sad as that is, I think we might need electric cars more than Americans ever needed any cars.
(That said, electric cars should be thanks to electrified smartroads, not stuffing the car itself full of computer hardware.)
Do you have a source for this? Our cargo trains run through some pretty frigid winters. Many European countries have a similar climate and they have trains. Aren't the swiss famous for sending trains through snowy mountains?
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
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
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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
...of which border?
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The canadian shield is a rough and rugged strech of land of exposed rock intermixed with swamps. It covers most of the north/central eastern part of the country and it is very difficult and expensive to build settlements on. It also only provides a few pockets of farmland. The land closer to the border is more hospitable for settlements and farming.
The canadian shield
... is that USAins can't read maps. With any luck we'll just end up re-invading Connecticut.
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...of which border?
The American one
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...of which border?
The border with the ocean probably, humans love to live on the crust of the land
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...of which border?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Sorry. I clarified with a photo in my post.
I did a quick search online to get the percentage and I saw one result at 40% and the rest were all between 70 and 75% of the US population lives in the 100 mile zone
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Canada should join the Nordic countries in a new Kalmar Union. Everything you mentioned is in common, unlike USA and EU, which both span different climates, and thus different ways of life.
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU and the former USA, but I think there's just more mutual ground in latitude than longitudes.
Canada should really just wait until the US collapses and then move south into the wreckage.
The Nordic countries don't understand bad climate. Maybe they want to continue existing as they are, but Canadians will want to move south as soon as the US destroys itself.
Measure Oslo Stockholm Helsinki Ottawa Coldest Mean Daily Minimum -4.7 -3.2 -6.3 -14 Coldest Mean Minimum -15.9 -13.7 -20.6 -27 Coldest Record Low -26.0 -28.2 -35 -38.9 Hottest Mean Maximum 29.6 30.6 27.9 32 Hottest Record High 34.6 35.4 33.2 37.8 Ottawa is significantly colder than those country's capitals during the winter, and significantly hotter in the summer. It might be unpleasant at times to live in those European climates, but it's truly miserable to live in Ottawa for much of the year.
People in the Nordic countries might want to stay there because it's the only place where their language is spoken, or because there are thousands of years of tradition in living there. Meanwhile, Canada as a country is barely 150 years old, and speaks the same language (with roughly the same accent) as the neighbour to the south.
There's a lot in common in terms of culture too. Sure, Canada plays a bit more hockey than the southerners, but they have the NHL too. The other sports are largely shared: Toronto has NBA and MLB teams. Unlike Europe where "futbol" is big, it's pretty small in the English-speaking part of North America, but to the extent it exists, Canada is part of the same system, with teams in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The only split is that Canada plays a superior version of gridiron football with far inferior players, and the US has a mass market hugely popular version of gridiron football with worse rules but much better players.
Canadians watch the same TV shows and movies, and listen to the same music. Many of the stars of stage and screen in the US are actually Canadian, and many shows that are set in the US and air on US TV are actually filmed in Canada.
So really, there isn't a lot that Canada has in common with the Nordic countries. I like the idea of working more with the EU and less with the US, but culturally Canadians are part of the English-speaking North American culture... except when it comes to politics, guns, and healthcare.
I just hope the US hurries its collapse up so that the remnants of the fractured states can petition to join Canada and the border can be shifted down. Then Canadians can move to a more hospitable climate without having to abandon the parts of their culture that matter.
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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...
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Lake Michigan isn't a border...
It is a border between wet and dry.
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Lake Michigan isn't a border...
Due to the Straits of Mackinac, the CBP considers it to be so.
