Yes it is a very good question, and for once, I do not have a ready answer for this. I don't think that the money location is the answer as you have to have the people there first.
I think the geography has a lot to do with it, especially in the west, of which I am far more familiar. Look at the BC coast compared to California. When the first explorers pushed their way across the country and ended up on the California coast, they were on the open ocean. You cannot do that in BC, there is nowhere on the west coast that is open ocean. The closest to that would be in the far south where the Juan de Fuca Strait cuts through the coastal mountain range. This is where Vancouver & Victoria are located. Works the same if you come from the ocean, landing somewhere on any part of the coast will invariably be an island, backed immediately by high mountains.
Sorry about that grinder- quote-
It is because they have never been out WEST, thank goodness !!! And where tonyandkaren got this is beyond me "Most coastal areas in Canada aren't good for settlements." What about Halifax, Summerside, Vancouver, Vancouver Island ???
And criuserjs -quote-
Boy - Missouri, pennsylvania and california seem to think they know a lot about Canadiana??
I didn't think that I would offend any Canadians but I looks like I did. We've spent a lot of time traveling all through Canada and it's a beautiful country with great people. We've been through countless museums and toured many historical sites so we do know some Canadian history even though we're US citizens.
The fact that people settle near water and also have to consider the climate and easy access for importing and exporting goods isn't
unique to Canada.
John,
I certainly wasn't making a political statement about US/Canada relations or inter-provincial politics. I don't presume to know much about Canadian politics and what little I do know comes from numerous cross-border friendships that have come about through my RV experience. I can say that some of my Canadian friends have a very dry sense of humor.
I have often heard my Canadian friends talk of separatism and how those from Provinces with smaller populations are not equally represented. Heck, we have the same problem in the fifty states. How do you think some people in Alaska feel with only one vote in the House of Representatives? Some Alaskans have been talking about secession for years but that doesn't make it likely. From what you say, I assume that you are one of those separatists or were you just trying to be humorous? If you really want to get political, why not talk about the Electoral College? My Canadian friends think that is a strange way of doing politics.
As for my comment, I was just trying to say, in a humorous way, that I enjoyed the fellowship around a campfire in Texas and I didn't even have to fight the cold weather.
* This post was
edited 04/19/08 04:44pm by an administrator/moderator *
Back to the topic. The history of westward expansion in North America is as simple as following the money. At first it was furs, followed by iron and gold. Now we are in the oil age. People are always looking for the next Klondike and go where the jobs are. Some stay on long after the riches run out, like in Pennsylvania. There I go, getting political again. Sorry! I'll go to my room now!
Whereas the US was settled up and down the east coast, when the french came to Canada, they went down the St Lawrence and founded Quebec City.
This was the home centre of the fur trade. From there, the canoe routes went through the great lakes; on into the northwest.
When the British took over, they established the Hudsons Bay Co. and the Northwest Co. to trap the area they called the Northwest Territories. Not the NWT we know today, but all of Manitoba,Sask, and the far north.
All of the furs returned by canoe to Quebec, and later the town of York.(Now Toronto).
Canada became a country in bits and pieces. Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia in 1867. Manitoba in 1870. British Columbia (settled from the west) in 1871. Prince Edward Island in 1873. Alberta and Sask in 1905. Newfoundland not until 1949.
It wasn't until the railroad across the country was finished in 1885, that we started to become a real country. The major cities had been established in Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto.
Immigration on the railway settled the west, but it remained sparsely populated with farms until the discovery of oil near Edmonton. The Yukon gold rush in 1898 also brought thousands to the northwest, but most returned home after the bust 2 years later.
A (very very) generalized history of our country.
For those who have visited........do come again......and again.....and again.
All of this is very interesting and most of it makes sense to me.
Tonyandkaren, I like your posts. I too prefer in areas less densely settled.
Now, as to why along the St. Lawrence and along the coasts (to a point), well, when industry came along, industry wanted to put the factories close to transportation to the market & the US has long been our market (dammit all). Once transportation from certain factories got in place, people followed jobs. If resource industries dried up, people went where they could get work and transportation followed.
Re. BC, it was easier for ships to get there than overland. SideHillS is right when he says CPR. That took care of the prairies. The trouble is too much of that population was agrarian and that didn't translate into additional big growth in the 21st century.
Frankly, I don't think this population concentration is the least bit healthy. Nor do I agree with Alberta going gung ho to develop certain resources like there will never be another opportunity. Economically speaking, there have always been problems with that over-fast industrial development.
& yes, there has always been politics in this. Still is. I can't think of a way to allude to such events, past and present without ...............
Re. rving, I'm a country person, not much of a tie myself up in population centres. Making it to various places in all provinces is very high priority. & yes, museums will be high on that list too, but not necessarily it biggies. Little museums staffed by people from that community are my cuppa.
I heard recently that ask GPS for shortest route can lead to fascinating side roads.
What is now Quebec and the eastern provinces (The Maritimes and Newfoundland) were settled first which gave them a start. The first major mass immigration occurred with the movement of American Loyalists north after the Revolution. Some moved to the Maritimes and Quebec and many to what is now Ontario (it's significant that, although Ontario is not a coastal province, it is directly north of the large US northeastern population centers. North of Boston the continent starts to jut out significantly to the east. Interestingly, many Ontarians, including myself, will often describe ourselves as coming from Eastern Canada, when in fact we are central Canadians. Perhaps a throw back to our origins). The American loyalists brought their concepts of industrialization and capitalism with them (scale wise and culturally this was a change point from the status quo). Over time, especially with the transition from a rural agrarian society to an urbanized industrialized one, the cities of Montreal and Toronto, in particular, and the immediate surrounding areas in general became significant financial, corporate and manufacturing centers. The resulting many economic opportunities attracted much immigration, including from rural areas and the more easterly coastal provinces (which to a large extent held populations in check there). As in the US, settlement of the western part of Canada to the Rocky mountains did not occur until much after the east/central Provinces were well established and, except for a few centralized urban areas in each province, remains mainly rural agricultural with low population densities. Each individual city, town, and hamlet, has it's own specific story, of course, (whether on water, a rail or old stage coach line, old fur trade post, access to markets, power, natural resources, labor force, recreational amenities, climate, political beneficiary or victim etc etc).
Lorne Ross
2003 Pleasure-Way Ford Excel TD Camped the lower 48 states and 9 provinces
Most multiple times and now on the repeat!
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