Vibe You Felt When Visiting Canadian Cities

[Razor]

Not sure if this is a good idea, but may make for interesting discussion.

But what kind of vibe did you pick up when you visited certain Canadian cities?..Quick descriptions.

Toronto- Busy, Financial, Electric, Pulsating. Well dressed people.

Montreal- Busy, Electric..High Energy..Soul. historic in a Canadian sense. Well dressed people. A little more high fashion then Toronto I felt.

Ottawa (when first moved) - Like a large well serviced town vs city, stoic, beautiful and manicured, Institutional, mid energy.

London - Clean, Institutional in a different way then Ottawa, lots of old growth trees..College town vibe.

Hamilton - Historic in a Canadian sense..Victorian architecture was apparent, Blue collar.. Close to Toronto, but totally different in a good way. Hard to describe, but I felt that I wasn't in a city that was sucked into Toronto's orbit the few times I visited..Stand alone city vs most cities around Toronto.Mid energy, like Ottawa.

I can go on with Windsor, Kitchener etc., but I'll let others chime in.

[SignalHillHiker]

Charlottetown - Happy, relaxed, well-kept, keeping up appearances.
Halifax - Mainstream, wealthy, touristy, elements from throughout Atlantic Canada, connected nationally.
Moncton - Evolving, enthusiastic, suburban.
Saint John, New Brunswick - Grand, gritty.
Quebec City - Immaculately preserved, exceptionally beautiful, unfamiliar.
Montreal - Inward-focused, engaging, perfect blend of grand old and interesting new, familiarly culturally self-sufficient, fashionable, unfamiliar.
Toronto - Global (outward-focused), expansive, diverse, connected internationally, anonymous/transient, missing its East Enders, unfamiliar.
Winnipeg - Muted colours, extreme temperatures, socially segregated, familiarly wealth unequal, friendly to outsiders.
Calgary - Mainstream, competitive (i.e. openly being asked what I earn), keeping up with the Jonses, wealthy, blend of urban/country.
Vancouver - Unfamiliar, somewhat Australian, outdoorsy lifestyle, familiarly isolated.

[MolsonExport]

Quebec City-Charming, historic yet eclectic, sophisticated, slightly snobbish, rugged

[flipv]

I'll only do the three Canadian cities I'm intimately familiar with:

Toronto: busy, chaotic, dazzling, uptight, global, connected and powerful.

Montreal: charming, relaxed, international, sophisticated, pretentious.

Ottawa: bureaucratic, quiet, peaceful, organized, uptight.

[RWin]

Calgary - Great place to live. So so place to visit. Whenever people ask me what there is to do here, I can never think of anything except the great outdoors. It's never really felt like a big city to me (I think Edmonton actually has a bigger look and feel).

I just came back from Quebec City. I was only there for four days and stayed near the university. That part of town seemed to be like "Anywhere Canada" except that French was the language I heard most often. I found it a very friendly city. I was a little worried as a one language speaker but found that if I at least tried speaking what little French I knew, people would be happy with that and switch to English. The old part of the city had a real touristy vibe to it. In some ways it almost seemed like it exists for the tourists. I had to keep reminding myself that it's been there a lot longer than the tourists were. I don't think I was there long enough to get an overall vibe but it made me want to learn French properly and live there.

My boring (but comfortable hotel):


Then when I went through the wall, I wondered “when did I get to Europe?”


Rivière du Loup - I only spent a couple of hours here. Seemed to be a typical small town (although a lot bigger than I was expecting). Kind of had a trendy vibe from what I could tell - cool downtown coffee shops and restaurants. Like everywhere else there were churches everywhere (not sure how busy they are - I was in town on a Thursday).

[Acajack]

Ottawa: geeky, earnest, responsible, smug, sporty, happy, reserved, generous

[Acajack]

Montreal: sexy MILF, devil-may-care, boisterous, self-absorbed, loud, warm, genuine, rude, reckless, mañana, irresponsible, stylish, creative, mature

[Acajack]

Toronto: busy, diffuse, ambitious, aspirational, innovative, insecure, immature, wealthy, successful, shiny, young, burgeoning, ahistorical (), cocky, aloof

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Charlottetown - Happy, relaxed, well-kept, keeping up appearances.
Halifax - Mainstream, wealthy, touristy, elements from throughout Atlantic Canada, connected nationally.
Moncton - Evolving, enthusiastic, suburban.
Saint John, New Brunswick - Grand, gritty.
Quebec City - Immaculately preserved, exceptionally beautiful, unfamiliar.
Montreal - Inward-focused, engaging, perfect blend of grand old and interesting new, familiarly culturally self-sufficient, fashionable, unfamiliar.
Toronto - Global (outward-focused), expansive, diverse, connected internationally, anonymous/transient, missing its East Enders, unfamiliar.
Winnipeg - Muted colours, extreme temperatures, socially segregated, familiarly wealth unequal, friendly to outsiders.
Calgary - Mainstream, competitive (i.e. openly being asked what I earn), keeping up with the Jonses, wealthy, blend of urban/country.
Vancouver - Unfamiliar, somewhat Australian, outdoorsy lifestyle, familiarly isolated.

I love your descriptions Signal spot on for the most part.

Your description of Moncton is very apt - Evolving, enthusiastic and suburban

The enthusiasm and optimism of this city is confusing for a lot of other Maritimers. Many other people in the region are so used to being downtrodden that they don't get it. What is it that Moncton has to be optimistic about anyway? It just goes against the Maritime narrative!

Even Halifax, a larger city seeing more dynamic change than us seems far more cynical than we do.

I think what it boils down to is the "resurgo" thing. Moncton has been kicked in the nuts a few times and has gotten up each time and bounced back more strongly than before. This ability to bounce back is, I think, the source of the city's optimism.

In other words; "things may be bad now, but they will get better". If you say this often enough, then the phrase becomes self fulfilling.

Sadly a lot of Maritime communities believe that things will only get worse. That prophesy can also be self fulfilling too........

[Acajack]

Vancouver: cool, distant, exceptionalist, materialistic, quirky, satisfied, granola, privileged

[Acajack]

Calgary: optimistic, shiny, free, ambitious, open, aggressive, preachy, friendly, valiant, cocksure

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by RWin

Calgary - Great place to live. So so place to visit. Whenever people ask me what there is to do here, I can never think of anything except the great outdoors. It's never really felt like a big city to me (I think Edmonton actually has a bigger look and feel).

Edmonton feels bigger than Calgary? They do have the Legislature and WEM. Also more museums I guess, but overall they feel similar with the DT being the major distinguishing difference in Calgary's favour.

My grandma visited this summer from Montreal and I had a list of places I wanted to take her. She was so busy though (went to Drumheller, the mountains, the Stampede, shopping in the Core, Heritage Park) that I was only able to take her to the zoo. She loved it. Had there been more time I would have shown her St. Patrick's island, the East Village and the NMC. She also really liked Devonian Gardens.

[O-tacular]

I visited over a decade ago but Saskatoon surprised me.

I'd describe it as highly under-rated, more historic than I'd expect and beautiful. The bridges were very nice as was the University campus and the small DT.

[Acajack]

Quebec City: established, healthy, authentic, sanctimonious, insular, sophisticated, curious, comfortable, impenetrable

[Beedok]

Hope this thread goes better than my efforts to get this discussed.

[RWin]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Edmonton feels bigger than Calgary?

To me it does. Because:

Bigger river. Bigger bridges. Trolly buses (although I don't remember seeing them last time I was there - are they gone?). The University seems more integrated with the city. More main streets.

Just the whole vibe thing I guess. Or maybe it's just because I'm use to Calgary and Edmonton is different.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Edmonton feels bigger than Calgary? They do have the Legislature and WEM. Also more museums I guess, but overall they feel similar with the DT being the major distinguishing difference in Calgary's favour.

My grandma visited this summer from Montreal and I had a list of places I wanted to take her. She was so busy though (went to Drumheller, the mountains, the Stampede, shopping in the Core, Heritage Park) that I was only able to take her to the zoo. She loved it. Had there been more time I would have shown her St. Patrick's island, the East Village and the NMC. She also really liked Devonian Gardens.

The new sterile 'dentist office' Devonion Gardens.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by RWin

To me it does. Because:

Bigger river. Bigger bridges. Trolly buses (although I don't remember seeing them last time I was there - are they gone?). The University seems more integrated with the city. More main streets.

Just the whole vibe thing I guess. Or maybe it's just because I'm use to Calgary and Edmonton is different.

If pressed, I'd say I find Calgary has fewer "gaps" in its urban environment. Streetscapes are denser and have more continuity, there are fewer surface parking areas downtown, etc. Just my impression. Of course, both cities are extremely close in how big they feel.

[hipster duck]

Are we looking for "first impressions" or "current impression"? I'll try to do first impressions of these cities based on my most recent adult visit, rather than the impression I formed visiting a few of these as a child or teenager.

Victoria: mellow, young white people; touristy; strange resemblance to what I imagine an Australian or New Zealand city would look like.

Vancouver: live here so I can't easily do "first impressions". Consciousness of everything Asian; various bubbles - social, cultural, real estate, bubble tea; fancy bikes with panniers; contradictions everywhere (pipeline protests next to tear downs and shark fin soup; DTES junkies dying in own filth beside posters proclaiming world's best livability); cyberpunk; Americans and Germans fawning over it.

Calgary: weather-beaten 60s bungalows; Muslims wearing Hijabs waving conservative Texas oilmen through airport security; expensive restaurants; big Filipino community; corporate downtown.

Edmonton: three block downtown; Fringe festival; CBC listeners living alongside river valleys reminds me a bit of upper middle class liberal Toronto; endless streets of sort-of-but-not-quite-there postwar urbanism; West Edmonton Mall.

- huge gap in my knowledge of Canada -

Toronto: former home, so I'm completely biased; fun to watch grow; increasingly unequal and full of cultural solitudes; noticeably more black every time I return (although maybe that's because I'm used to Vancouver now); if not attention seeking anymore, Torontonians still go nuts if they receive attention from outside; inadequate transit; a city where subcultural tribe counts for a lot of your identity.

Ottawa: t-shirt and cargo shorts white parents living in the suburbs; where bilingualism cancels out, rather than adds to one another like Montreal; well-sculpted City Beautiful monuments; friends of mine have lived here but don't really put down roots.

Montreal: where bilingualism adds to the city's flavour; Sugar Sammy-type allophone trilingual immigrants; a bit of a cocky sense of exceptionalism that may come from living on an island; Middle Eastern consciousness; immigrants from the exact places that Vancouver lacks (and vice versa); a devil-may-care attitude.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by RWin

I just came back from Quebec City. I was only there for four days and stayed near the university.

Arg! That part of the city is horrible.

Then when I went through the wall, I wondered “when did I get to Europe?”

I almost bought that building with the green bay window a couple years ago! (Had a surprisingly decent cap rate for the area.) This is rue Ste-Ursule in the west part of the upper walled town, I recognized it immediately! Small world...