Toronto, Ontario, and the Midwest

[allabootmatt]

The rest of Toronto has more in common with a medium-sized mid-western city than anything in Europe.

I have never understood the whole Toronto-as-Midwestern thing. Clearly TO is not of exactly the same urban form as, say, Boston, but I fail to see how it has more in common with a "medium sized mid-western city." Not many such cities have areas like Cabbagetown, for example.

 

[Hydrogen]

I've never understood Toronto as anything other than Toronto. Why do so many people want this place to be some place else?

 

[b13]

^ because half the population is from some where else!!!

 

[Tewder]

I have never understood the whole Toronto-as-Midwestern thing. Clearly TO is not of exactly the same urban form as, say, Boston, but I fail to see how it has more in common with a "medium sized mid-western city." Not many such cities have areas like Cabbagetown, for example.

I agree, there is nothing about the cities, towns or landscapes of Ontario that feels midwestern. Kingston? NOTL? Ottawa? Hamilton? Toronto? etc? Nope, Ontario is more Victorian/colonial in feel and more in line with up-state New York/western Mass. than say Illinois or Nebraska.

 

[interchange42]

Southwestern Ontario's landscape is very Midwestern, with little to distinguish it from much of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, for example.

There's a film coming out shortly called Lars and the Real Girl that is set in Wisconsin, but was filmed around Uxbridge, and no one will ever suspect.

We may not have Midwestern town squares here, but the landscape we've got.

42

 

[Tewder]

Southwestern Ontario's landscape is very Midwestern, with little to distinguish it from much of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, for example.
42

One could argue that those states aren't truly indicative of the 'midwest' which by and large is flat and covered in corn. Rather, they are central or transitional states. To me, although there are parts that do feel like the states you mention, Ontario has too much woodland, rolling hills and shoreline to feel very midwestern.

 

[Edward Skira]

Depends how you define Southwestern Ontario.The area near Windsor is very flat and prairie like.

 

[interchange42]

Tewder, all of those states that I listed consider themselves to be Midwestern states. They may not be very far west on this continent, but that's how they are classified nevertheless, and they are very similar to Ontario. They have cornfields, forests, hills, prairies, maples, trilliums in spring; just like we do.

The Great Plains states, like Nebraska - now those are flaaaaaaaaat - they're just a subset of the Midwest.

42

PS - It's worth noting that when Frank Lloyd Wright was hired by Darwin Martin to build in Buffalo, Wright commented that he was bringing his Prairie Style to the edge of the Prairie. Americans pretty much see anything beyond the Appalachians as the Prairie, and by extension, the Midwest.

 

[Tewder]

I agree, Interchange. 'Midwest' seems to be fairly loosely defined. I have family in Colorado and friends in Minnesota who all consider themselves midwest too! I've also been to Wisconsin several times and find the green rolling hills and dairy farms there to be more reminiscent of Vermont than say Iowa.

Ontario is indeed also varied and vast and very difficult to characterize in a general way but I find the land-holding patterns (at least the traditional ones that still exist), the small-scale farming and the rolling landscapes of large parts of southwest Ontario (Niagara peninsula, Hamilton/Wentworth, Halton Hills, Hills of Headwater/Caledon, Prince Edward County and Bay of Quinte areas, Kingston/loyalist Trail/St Lawrence regions etc) to feel more 'eastern' than 'western' but that may simply be the aspects of those places I'm tapping into or that resonate for me.

 

[CDL.TO]

Official American definition of Midwest.

 

[Hydrogen]

One could argue that those states aren't truly indicative of the 'midwest' which by and large is flat and covered in corn. Rather, they are central or transitional states. To me, although there are parts that do feel like the states you mention, Ontario has too much woodland, rolling hills and shoreline to feel very midwestern.

Aside from the trees, Ontario is the "flatest" province.

 

[Mongo]

Aside from the trees, Ontario is the "flatest" province.

Southern Ontario, maybe. There are some good-sized hills (or borderline mountains) north of Lake Superior, though. For flatness, Manitoba has Ontario beat.

 

[junctionist]

Aside from the trees, Ontario is the "flatest" province.

If you go by the highest point, Ontario's highest point (Ishpatina Range) only tops the highest point in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In this sense, we're the third flattest.

 

[ProjectEnd]

/\ Hes right, its all here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_points_of_Canadian_provinces_and_territories

 

[Mongo]

That's true, but 'flat' implies that local changes in elevation are gradual. Parts of Manitoba may be further above sea level than any point in Ontario, but except for a few small hilly areas, most of Manitoba is flat as a table. A few tens of thousands of years ago, it was at the bottom of Lake Agassiz. I do not believe that any part of Manitoba has the vertical relief of the area north of Lake Superior.

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/scenic.html

Bill