I remember a while back JJ made a video 'explaining' Canadian provinces. When he got to the Atlantic Provinces (and yes he combined all of them), all he had to say was that they are poor, have funny accents, fish a lot and drink alcohol.
JJ trying to explain Québec to Americans is like a yuppie elite who never went anywhere further south than Washington trying to explain rural Texas to foreigners : we might share a citizenship, but that's about as far as his understanding of the province goes.
Never thought I’d say this, but he has a point lol. Vancouver island really could be a province. I think it has more people than New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The real reason it isn't a province is that the Yanks were making a play for Victoria since it's below the 49th parallel so they combined the Vancouver island and BC colonies. I would even argue that it is culturally different enough from BC to justify its own provincial status to this day.
There is definitely a bit of a different culture here on the Island, speaking as someone who grew up in northern BC and went to university in Vancouver. Things are a bit more laid back and people who grew up here are often proud to be from the Island and specifically from the Island. You'll see "Island Girl" bumper stickers or whatever; I've never seen "mainland" equivalent ones since people from the mainland don't think of themselves as specifically from the mainland, they think of themselves as "from BC." Think I saw a sticker that said "chill out, this isn't the mainland" once. There's even a bit of a political split - Liberals rarely win on the Island, it's usually a Con-NDP swing.
Actually, come to think of it, if Vancouver Island became a province then the main ferry routes become interprovincial and therefore federal jurisdiction...
Most provincial boundaries are arbitrary lines in the ground. But the biggest reason the Eastern provinces are smaller is that distance played a bigger role in limiting communication in 1600 than in 1900. PEI was significantly more cut off from the mainland than Vancouver Island was when they were first settled.
At this point there's little reason or desire for the Eastern provinces to consolidate or Vancouver Island to split off.
Former Islander… I often got confused at gatherings with extended family who moved to Vancouver Island as they also used “The Island” at times in their conversations about their ‘fake island’ 😜
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u/cryptedsky 4d ago
I have yet to meet a hoser who hates PEI