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Hume: City Building; Vancouver vs. Toronto

So long as you live through the winter without slashing your wrists, which many don't.

Besides, living through a winter there means hearing smug little Vancouverites say "at least you don't have to shovel it" about 14,000 times a week as they rush home to sit in front of their light panels.
 
The idea that Vancouver has "nice weather" is laughable to me.

I haven't spent a lot of time in Vancouver in the winter, but man, it's brutal. At least in Toronto and Montreal, you can escape the dread with the underground malls, etc. In outdoorsy Vancouver, the constant gloomy dark, rainy, cloudy scenery is thoroughly depressing. I spent over a week there in January... the sun did not come out once, and the rain never stopped. It blew.
 
Let a smile be your umbrella, man
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I have several Vancouver stories I tell people. One day, as I was entering a building at the UBC where I was a student, I noted a patch of blue way out over the Pacific, small enough that it could have been completely obscured by a loonie held in my hand. Still, I paused and focussed on it, taking some solace from the fact that somewhere, at some time, it was sunny.

That day, three people came up to me and said, unbidden, "did you see that patch of blue sky?". I thought, This is the most miserable place and experience I've ever had in my life.

I should confess though, that my time in Vancouver taught me that I am particularly susceptible to depression caused by lack of light. If people are not so, they will likely find Vancouver's moderate but wet climate fine for them, and many do. But myself, I'd rather live almost anywhere else in Canada.
 
Nothing beats having tulips coming up in February while we still expect 6 more weeks of snow here in Toronto.

And Vancouver gets more hours of sunshine than Toronto. It's not like it pours rain, like we get here. When I walked to school as a kid, everyone wore rain coats and simply got used to the mist or drizzle. It never stopped us from playing outside in November.

And where else can you go for a dip in the ocean and skiing within 30 minutes of each other, like you sometimes can in May in Vancouver?
 
And where else can you go for a dip in the ocean and skiing within 30 minutes of each other, like you sometimes can in May in Vancouver?


Umm, like anywhere in the world that has mountains. I was in Vancouver this August and the water was freezing, maybe I went to the wrong beach.
 
And where else can you go for a dip in the ocean and skiing within 30 minutes of each other, like you sometimes can in May in Vancouver?

I can't believe you typed that without cringing. Do you work for the Vancouver Tourism Department's office of platitudes?
 
I can't believe you typed that without cringing. Do you work for the Vancouver Tourism Department's office of platitudes?

nah.... probably just a product of the vancouver educational system where two topics are seemingly ingrained in all students:
1. Why my city is > than yours
2. Top reasons why Toronto sucks the big one (Antirequisite: Living in Toronto. Visiting Toronto is also highly discouraged)

Joking aside, I love Vancouver the city, but hate the smugness of many of its inhabitants (they can easily be spotted in Vancouver, as they drive with the new license plates that read: 'BC: Best Place on Earth'). With merely an allusion to my hometown, I get inundated with generic (read: pathetic, overused and tiring) lines: "Do you like drinking clean water? Breathing clean air? Walking down the street and not being shot...etc.

Sometime recently Vancouver took over as the #1 haters of Toronto in the country. I liked it when it was Montreal. It made sense when it was Montreal. Vancouver? Seems a bit forced and pathetic.
 
And where else can you go for a dip in the ocean and skiing within 30 minutes of each other, like you sometimes can in May in Vancouver?

And Vancouver gets more hours of sunshine than Toronto


Typical Vancouver bullshit, and typical unfounded statements from Dichotomy. The Americans have a word for it when it comes to San Francisco, they call it Bayorrhea. I never saw one person "dip in the ocean" in my time in Vancouver, because the water is freezing. Toronto gets 2038 hours of sunshine, Vancouver gets 1928. The difference would be greater if not for Vancouver's more northern lattitude.
 
Given the responses above, sure seems like Torontonians are the smug ones.
We're certainly the first to proclaim our title to have the biggest, tallest, largest whatever but when another city does it, watch out.

Face it - winter in Canada sucks regardless of what coast your on. BUT I can you tell you, as an avid snowboarder, winter in Vancouver is heaven for me.
20 minutes and I'm riding down fresh powder on the local mountains.

But hey. We have underground malls and Taco Bell. Who can beat that?
 
Actually, Logan, the truth is that almost no one in Toronto really proclaims those things, not very often, and not very loudly, certainly. We're much more likely to slam the city, or at least appraise it accurately, than Vancouverites are, in my opinion. They are extremely tichy about the city, and any perceived slights to it. Which I love, because it's easy to yank their cord.
 
And where else can you go for a dip in the ocean and skiing within 30 minutes of each other, like you sometimes can in May in Vancouver?

And Vancouver gets more hours of sunshine than Toronto


Typical Vancouver bullshit, and typical unfounded statements from Dichotomy. The Americans have a word for it when it comes to San Francisco, they call it Bayorrhea. I never saw one person "dip in the ocean" in my time in Vancouver, because the water is freezing. Toronto gets 2038 hours of sunshine, Vancouver gets 1928. The difference would be greater if not for Vancouver's more northern lattitude.

Oh, puhlease - ever swim in Lake Ontario? Not only is it filthy, but you get one window in August where maybe, just maybe the water will climb up to 21 or 22 celsius. If you want nicer water, you gotta go to Wasaga, but then Geogian Bay is usually around 19 degrees.
I've lived in both cities and I'd take Vancouver's weather any day. Our 43 degree summer days (with the humidex) and the minus 10 degree days in winter are awful. Anyone who can support that is delusional. Vancouver's weather is much more temperate. My aunt in Coquitlam loves emailing us in February to brag about her tulips - just to rub it in. She's from Teeswater so she knows about shit weather.

The best thing about Toronto is the Kawarthas or the 30,000 Islands, but you're looking at a 90 minute drive - minimum. Golden Ear Provincial Park is aobut 40 minutes from downtown Vancouver. Grouse Mtn and Mt Seymour are even closer.

Oh, and like 2 hours of sunshine a week can be noticed. :rolleyes:
 
Honey, I never made the claim that people swim in Lake Ontario, so once again when confronted with your own mis-statements you respond as if I'd made some other claim that I never did. Please, please, please, please feel free to move there, don't let me or anyone else stand in your way. Please. You'll fit right in.
 

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