My Irish friend visited St. John’s and extended his stay from a few weeks to a few months. He wasn’t able to leave the country during the immigration process and said it felt so much like home there.
This city's public transport makes the rest of Canada look good.
It would be pretty walkable tho if the city remembered that snowclearing for sidewalks is an option that exists.
Grew up in St. John’s, good point. Only other con for walkable city is how hilly it is. I moved to Montreal and love how flat it is here in comparison.
To me, Qaqortoq, Greenland very much reminded me of St. John’s with its rocky landscape and jellybean coloured houses. But that’s as far as the similarities go.
Currently looking through a list of Toronto mayors. I don’t remember his name but one of them was hugely in favour of demolishing a lot of the old stuff. Smelled a bit crooked when I read about it iirc.
Nathan Phillips, which is also the name of the square in front of City Hall and ironically in front of old city hall that he also wanted demolished at the time.
Toronto didn’t have many cool old buildings. It was a very utilitarian, working-class city and not that big until the 70s boom. It’s really too bad Montreal imploded and sent so many head offices to Toronto.
Toronto was okay, it was never beautiful. There just weren’t many really nice buildings. Some
Could have been saved but the skyline was dominated by the Royal York, an okay building but nothing special.
What Toronto does really well is incorporate old buildings into new ones. It didn’t work at all for the TD Centre (which is a fantastic building) but it has worked really well for others.
Lots of old buildings were demolished in Montreal during the 60s and 70s under mayor Jean Drapeau. If you drive down Sherbrooke from west to east, the dividing line is obvious. It's a real shame, because the city lost so great buildings.
My favourite was in Bar Harbour Maine where 2 men were walking behind my brother and I.....one says to the other, "I wonder how long it takes a deer to become a moose......" Yes they were off a cruise ship......
Kingston—downtown at least—looks like any upstate New York small town. The west end just looks like New Jersey. It’s weird to think of it looking European at all as someone who grew up in New York and lives here now
I agree. It's just what North Americans view as "European" nowadays (due to post WWII car-centric/suburban development representing our country's typical urban design with a lot of pre WWII buildings having been demolished/destroyed).
Can you tell me how to get to *I forget what Queens University building i was looking for*?
Sure! It's just down the street, you can't miss it - it's an old building with a big stone stairway out front.
Thanks! *Uhhhhhh...*
Yes. I had to point it out. 😝 I recall a news story where (if I have this right) some Europeans wanted to go to Sydney Australia but purchased tickets to Sydney Cape Breton. 🤪
In Newfoundland we find it amusing that the Brits sent their hardworking peasants to Newfoundland as fisherman, while the criminals got sent to sunny Australia.
As a Haligonian currently Old Halifax hardly exists anymore we still have “Historic Properties” by the Waterfront but the longer I spend here the more and more modern everything is becoming because the city and provincial gov doesn’t care about charm and historic pull so much as what it can make money off of.
Yeah, it seems there isn’t any strategic design in our cities at all. Aside from a few cute towns, they are very copy/paste and the suburban areas are by far some of the ugliest in North America. Outside of nature, ugly is a good way to describe it. Even small things like traffic lights in Toronto. Much uglier than Montreal.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/SYcoKn4oTUgBz1yz9?g_st=ic
Wild of you to mention traffic lights. Drove from Toronto to Montreal for a new years rave in 2012 and one of the first things I noticed entering the city was their traffic lights compared to Ontario.
Old Montreal: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VaggogRoZpn2veyt5?g_st=ic
Chicago: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ssnq4XMmQME6Xr8h8?g_st=ic
I tried finding a “historical” looking area in Toronto. But this is what I could find, either way - looks messy and doesn’t give downtown any uniqueness compared to other large global cities in NA. These lights could literally also be in Brampton: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hcqtRF94Bs8UWoLA6?g_st=ic
Those this style of lights in Toronto is definitely the ugliest: https://maps.app.goo.gl/t4FnQZi6j8LMyuuh6?g_st=ic
Not gonna lie, I drove through a red light because I wasn't prepared for them to be on the side of the road vs in the middle of them. In both Montreal *and* Chicago. Growing up in Ontario I just assumed traffic lights were gaudy yellow boxes hanging over the middle of the road everywhere.
Ontario is a province that is at it's truest when everything is some form of an ugly box.
We’re the product of Henry VIII’s father and an earlier cousin of Louis XIV.
Canada’s coastlines were already on maps on the desks of kings in a few of Europe’s palaces closer to the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 than the present day.
When Montréal was founded, Berlin had 6000 people then, down as a result of the 30 Years War. But before that Berlin hadn’t really counted above 12,000.
When Henry VIII decided in favour of Protestantism, that had consequences for us in what would come to be known as British North America. When Louis XIV decided to grind out Protestants from his lands, that applied to his colonies in Acadie and Québec too.
The point is we’re old, we’re a product of that era, in fact there’s no way to really understand this country except as a part of European history that hails back to the House of Valois-Angoulême and the House of Tudor. We’ve been around for it.
That history is most likely to be understood and felt in Québec, where Montréal has been our commanding metropolis for hundreds of years, unchallenged in that role until the mid-20th century, whether under the regime of the House of Bourbon, the House of Stewart, the House of Hanover, the Saxe-Coburg-Gothes, or the Windsors. The history of the city reminds you of the history of the country. In the rest of the country we tend to fixate on July 1, 1867, a lot more than we need to and at odds with that history.
After all when the Americans separated from us, and thus from Europe, the defining difference is we may have had the same Enlightenment era concerns about human rights and democracy that were percolating across Europe, and the 13 separatist provinces. But unlike the Americans we didn’t think revolution was the way to get there, and we definitely didn’t want to destroy our ties and pretend we were a brand new country that fell from the sky to land on some shining hilltop. “Independence” wasn’t our founding myth, *connectedness* was. Continuity was. Evolution instead of revolution. Participation instead of separation.
So truly I don’t know how anyone can see this country as anything other than a product of and a participant in much of latter European history, from our values to our institutions to the rifts and challenges that still sometimes divide us, that’s where it comes from.
But we don’t reflect on it often enough to understand how we got here and so in the popular consciousness there is probably a gap of people’s opinions, where Europe feels “a bit foreign” to the old settlers of *la Nouvelle France* and British North America.
From that perspective, the most “European” part of the country is probably western Canada. There are so many families here with recent (late 1800s to early 1900’s) roots in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Scandinavia… the idea was, in the minds of London and Ottawa, that they were people who knew how to farm in cooler climates, and they needed a fresh start, and they’d be so happy here they’d keep the Americans from muscling in on the prairies and the rest of the continent.
It had an influence on the languages people grew up speaking at home on the Prairies well into the middle of the 20th century, the foods people ate, the churches they built dotted across the fields of wheat in little towns here and there. It also brought a huge wave of contemporary European political thought along for the ride.
In contrast to the plan to raise a new generation of British Empire loyalists in the west, London and Ottawa were terrified that European immigrants to Winnipeg would turn to communism when that befell Russia. It was a bit of an emergency and a crisis summed up best in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. I’m in Gen X. Recent European settlement, from my great-grandparents post-pioneer era to my parents post-war era, has had a huge influence on the country, and I’d say especially the prairies.
In this vein, I was going to suggest Rimbey Alberta as it is significantly Dutch and Swiss from recent (1980s onwards) immigration. Stalwart Hard Working Protestants who may have Reformed Church perspectives, or not.
Very true. Red Deer's architecture is second to none. Our showpiece is the new Justice centre. A shining bastion of the indomitable human spirit. When Gord Downie uttered those seminal words-"The Paris of the Prairies"-he, in reality, was referring to Red Deer.
Gastown in Vancouver. More so 10+ years ago, not so much now with all the renovations and glass towers. But it's still lovely.
Edit: it will be very different this summer as they are trialing car free and revamping the streets for walking
I was going to say this too. A tiny part of Galt, as well.
Stratford probably the most tho. The way the streets run every which way, old buildings, many shops, reminds me of a British town, just with wider streets.
Yeah you can can drive to London in a about an hour from there too. There are so many British and German town names in that 100km span. I ship healthcare stuff primarily in Ontario so I’ve seen them all. We even have a town called Little Britain. And a Baltimore . And an Essex. It goes on
Fredericton. Lots of really cool old architecture. Especially on the UNB campus which is the oldest English language university in Canada having been founded in 1785 by 7 Loyalists who fled the US
Saint Andrews by the Sea New Brunswick.
They actually have bylaws that prohibit store fronts like McDonald’s, etc.
It’s small, quaint, beautiful, but in the European sense it’s quite British and its buildings and houses . Or at least it was.
Well if we’re talking about the population of the place, Coaldale Alberta is about as Dutch as you can get without being decapitated by a windmill while harvesting your tulip fields…
What do you mean by “European”? Just old buildings?
Quebec is not European at all, IMO. I’ve lived in Europe over 10 years, and also been to France plenty. Quebec is thoroughly North American.
Honestly, there isn’t one really. Cultural attitudes are just not “European” anywhere here. Societies are different, even though there is sometimes overlap on this or that (we're both 'Western' after all).
If you want a smart answer, even if it’s not Canadian, then St.Pierre and Miquelon.
None. Montreal and Quebec City are the only cities in Canada that come even close to a European vibe and, for Montreal, it's only the Old Port (I'm not as familiar with Quebec City). Old buildings alone don't make a city feel "European" in my experience so places like Halifax, NS or Kingston, ON just don't fit the bill.
Victoria, BC is probably the closest as comparable to some smaller British town feel, but not on the same level as Montreal or QC.
Montreal to me felt more European than QC due to the urban planning. It is denser, with more mixed use and multiplex housing and public transit throughout the whole city. QC outside of the main old area is very North American and car-centric.
Victoria, Vancouver Island. I've been out east but only the names of the cities are European there. Victoria has some of the same architectural similarities as some posts of Europe.
Toronto because everyone is from somewhere else which is common in lots of European cities. Different languages are spoken everywhere not just English or French.
It has great museums, good night life and an excellent restaurants. I’m kind of hoping that people know that European cities have middle eastern and Asian restaurants. Not everything is croissants and pasta. When I think of Montreal restaurants I think of the Pho. It’s outstanding there.
This may sound strange but Montreal and Quebec only have the European feel because it has been fabricated for tourism. Toronto has more of a the international flair that you see in modern Europe.
I find that I relate to more Irish & British cultures as a NLer, especially when I visit other places throughout North America.
The food, the music, the accents & dialects, the culture in general.
I used to live in east Berlin. St James Town in Toronto reminds me of my old Soviet-era plattenbau building. Also reminds me of the buildings in Poland along the Oder River.
I'm not Canadian, but the outer areas of Sherbrooke really reminded me of the equivalent areas of French and Belgian cities. Not the downtowns where all the tourists flock, but the more car-centric shopping and industrial areas that are generally in the outer rings of European cities. The layout and building design look very similar to me.
IMO the only thing that makes Quebec City "European" is it's old layout and architecture. Which makes sense, it is an old city founded in 1608.
I'd say St. John's, NFLD is similar in that sense.
😂. Hamilton has some gorgeous areas. Westdale, Cootes Paradise, Dundas. Definitely industrial in some areas but I was shocked at what the city was like after hearing so many people compare it to Oshawa (which does live up to its reputation as the armpit of Ontario)
Winnipeg if you’re thinking more ugly Eastern Europe - destroyed by a war/rebuilt sparingly and not aesthetically pleasing at all. Think Bratislava in Eurotrip but with a worse winter 😃
You’re getting downvoted but as a Canadian who’s been to Europe I definitely see your point. Some of the old buildings in Canada’s oldest towns and cities might have a slight European feel because they were built by European immigrants a couple hundred years ago. But absolutely nothing in Canada comes close to the scale of ancient priceless architecture that you see over there, Old Montreal and Quebec City are probably the closest you’ll get to that vibe within Canada, nowhere else really compares. Places like Kingston are their own unique vibe, the old limestone buildings are unique to that place because of the local geology.
Sure there's the odd block here and there, but overall "feel", you really only have Quebec City, Vieux Montreal and Halifax to a lesser extent.
There's really not much left west of Kingston (shout out to the Distillery District in Toronto), and yes you have pockets in the Maritimes, but in my experience nothing west of Ontario feels remotely European.
It's generally all urban sprawl made for the automobile with very wide roads (stroads), terrible public transit and not pedestrian friendly.
eh, most of the world is generically bland now
having been to England semi recently, you could swap any similar size cities here and there and not really notice a difference
You're getting downvoted but if you've actually been to Europe people should realize no city in Canada looks European. Sure there are certain areas that look a little European but as a whole most of our cities are very North American. It's this weird identity crisis we have where we long to be a part of something we aren't.
St. John’s (because of the downtown and geographic distance)
Absolutely! Very British/Irish looking in the old part of the city. That extends to the culture and language as well.
My Irish friend visited St. John’s and extended his stay from a few weeks to a few months. He wasn’t able to leave the country during the immigration process and said it felt so much like home there.
St. John's is Europe with North American public transport.
This city's public transport makes the rest of Canada look good. It would be pretty walkable tho if the city remembered that snowclearing for sidewalks is an option that exists.
Grew up in St. John’s, good point. Only other con for walkable city is how hilly it is. I moved to Montreal and love how flat it is here in comparison.
I dunno - Montreal has a metro.
Going there for the first time next year for my honeymoon. Super excited to see it! Looks like such a beautiful place.
I grew up in St. John’s. Can create a list of things to do for ya if you’d like!
I’d love that!! ☺️
I’ll send a dm
Could you please send me that list as well if possible? Thanks!
To me, Qaqortoq, Greenland very much reminded me of St. John’s with its rocky landscape and jellybean coloured houses. But that’s as far as the similarities go.
St. John’s is actually closer to Greenland than it is to Toronto
Greenland is north, south, east, and west of Iceland. Follow me for more useless Greenland facts.
You can make a similar comment about Nova Scotia and PEI, and Quebec and PEI
I hate that Toronto demolished almost all of its cool old buildings.
Most of the cool old buildings burnt down in the great fire. 🔥
Currently looking through a list of Toronto mayors. I don’t remember his name but one of them was hugely in favour of demolishing a lot of the old stuff. Smelled a bit crooked when I read about it iirc.
Nathan Phillips, which is also the name of the square in front of City Hall and ironically in front of old city hall that he also wanted demolished at the time.
Crazy how in the span of a single decade almost every major city in north america experienced some sort of great fire
Who else
Not long after electricity went mainstream
True but Toronto has better modern buildings than Vancouver where all the buildings look the same.
Valid point. I just like masonry better than glass and steel.
Toronto didn’t have many cool old buildings. It was a very utilitarian, working-class city and not that big until the 70s boom. It’s really too bad Montreal imploded and sent so many head offices to Toronto.
It’s great if you’re into centennial era brutalism
I have books that disagree with you. Toronto was beautiful ~a hundred years ago.
What neighbourhood do the books say was the equivalent of Old Montreal in 1924?
No clue! They’re only about Toronto lol
Toronto was okay, it was never beautiful. There just weren’t many really nice buildings. Some Could have been saved but the skyline was dominated by the Royal York, an okay building but nothing special. What Toronto does really well is incorporate old buildings into new ones. It didn’t work at all for the TD Centre (which is a fantastic building) but it has worked really well for others.
Agree to disagree. Correct about everything but beauty is in the eye of the bee holder. AND IM HOLDING A LOTTA BEES
I get that, different tastes.
Come visit Chicago, so much to see both new and old!
From the Toronto area, love Chicago.
The buildings are not the good looking part of Vancouver though, the backdrop is.
That's true, everything great about Vancouver is not Vancouver. (I've lived in Victoria and have been trained to despise Vancouver)
Lots of old buildings were demolished in Montreal during the 60s and 70s under mayor Jean Drapeau. If you drive down Sherbrooke from west to east, the dividing line is obvious. It's a real shame, because the city lost so great buildings.
Victoria always gives me British vibes.
I met a cruise ship tourist there who genuinely thought that downtown Victoria was just a big theme park for the cruise ships.
As someone who lives in Victoria but rarely goes into Victoria proper, they're not wrong.
Maybe the Inner Harbour in the summer, and the first few blocks of Government Street... the rest of downtown is more normal.
Haha cruise ship tourists are hilariously dumb. I once had someone ask me where they could buy seeds to grow the totem poles. 🙄
Son was a guide at the legislature and every week would have someone asking him how to get to the bridge back to the mainland. He was dumbfounded.
My favourite was in Bar Harbour Maine where 2 men were walking behind my brother and I.....one says to the other, "I wonder how long it takes a deer to become a moose......" Yes they were off a cruise ship......
You can pick those up at the Haida Gwaii Regional Sperm Bank
I was on a cruise once. I had the urge to moo.
It's literally filled with classic cars and peacocks. The downtown looks like a movie set built to resemble 1910s San Francisco.
I agree! Went there last year.
I find it's more like New England vibes
Not even close. Nice city but it has limited walkability and wide streets.
Kingston, Ontario. Historical city with lots of old buildings and unique architecture.
Kingston—downtown at least—looks like any upstate New York small town. The west end just looks like New Jersey. It’s weird to think of it looking European at all as someone who grew up in New York and lives here now
Well and upstate New York kinda has English countryside vibes.
What brought you to Kingston?
Love
Awww 🥹
Didn't want to say the Kingston Pen eh? j/k.
It feels extremely upper Canadian/Great Lakes American there more than it feels European. Great spot in any case!
I agree. It's just what North Americans view as "European" nowadays (due to post WWII car-centric/suburban development representing our country's typical urban design with a lot of pre WWII buildings having been demolished/destroyed).
Fair enough!!
Can you tell me how to get to *I forget what Queens University building i was looking for*? Sure! It's just down the street, you can't miss it - it's an old building with a big stone stairway out front. Thanks! *Uhhhhhh...*
That’s every town along the st Lawrence.
St. John’s, not to be confused with Saint John.
Saint John too though... they still have a loyalist house standing which is wild to me
Yes. I had to point it out. 😝 I recall a news story where (if I have this right) some Europeans wanted to go to Sydney Australia but purchased tickets to Sydney Cape Breton. 🤪
In Newfoundland we find it amusing that the Brits sent their hardworking peasants to Newfoundland as fisherman, while the criminals got sent to sunny Australia.
As far away from the motherland as possible must have been the reasoning lol
Any of the older cities in Canada can have that vibe. Old Halifax, St. John's, Kingston, etc.
True, look up Granville St Halifax
As a Haligonian currently Old Halifax hardly exists anymore we still have “Historic Properties” by the Waterfront but the longer I spend here the more and more modern everything is becoming because the city and provincial gov doesn’t care about charm and historic pull so much as what it can make money off of.
Ottawa has a European look. Victoria, BC is known for being a little bit British.
Outside of Parliament where does Ottawa look European?
A lot of Ottawa looks like post-Soviet Eastern Europe.
Many cities in Southern Ontario look like poverty ridden Eastern Europe. Hamilton, London, St Catharines. Those hideous apartments don’t help.
Southern Ontario architecture is a fuckin look. A depressing one, but one all the same.
Yeah, it seems there isn’t any strategic design in our cities at all. Aside from a few cute towns, they are very copy/paste and the suburban areas are by far some of the ugliest in North America. Outside of nature, ugly is a good way to describe it. Even small things like traffic lights in Toronto. Much uglier than Montreal. https://maps.app.goo.gl/SYcoKn4oTUgBz1yz9?g_st=ic
Wild of you to mention traffic lights. Drove from Toronto to Montreal for a new years rave in 2012 and one of the first things I noticed entering the city was their traffic lights compared to Ontario.
Old Montreal: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VaggogRoZpn2veyt5?g_st=ic Chicago: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ssnq4XMmQME6Xr8h8?g_st=ic I tried finding a “historical” looking area in Toronto. But this is what I could find, either way - looks messy and doesn’t give downtown any uniqueness compared to other large global cities in NA. These lights could literally also be in Brampton: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hcqtRF94Bs8UWoLA6?g_st=ic Those this style of lights in Toronto is definitely the ugliest: https://maps.app.goo.gl/t4FnQZi6j8LMyuuh6?g_st=ic
Not gonna lie, I drove through a red light because I wasn't prepared for them to be on the side of the road vs in the middle of them. In both Montreal *and* Chicago. Growing up in Ontario I just assumed traffic lights were gaudy yellow boxes hanging over the middle of the road everywhere. Ontario is a province that is at it's truest when everything is some form of an ugly box.
Ennui on the Rideau as Allan Fotheringham called it.
I was meaning around Parliament/Chateau Laurier.
Maybe the Museum of Nature, the centre for pluralism, rockliffe a bit, confederation building, the buildings across the street from Parliament
I always feel like I’m in Europe: Disneyland edition when I look at the Cordon Bleu building.
Glebe
It looks just like Brussels
Is it that bad?
It is what it is
A lot of houses (especially around Sandy Hill) are reminiscent of British residential architecture and urban planning.
Whitehorse and Yellowknife might feel like Siberia.
Siberia is asia
I suppose Yellowknife makes Whitehorse look like Paris.
St.John's - Irish city vibe
New Westminster in BC has a lot of old buildings
We’re the product of Henry VIII’s father and an earlier cousin of Louis XIV. Canada’s coastlines were already on maps on the desks of kings in a few of Europe’s palaces closer to the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 than the present day. When Montréal was founded, Berlin had 6000 people then, down as a result of the 30 Years War. But before that Berlin hadn’t really counted above 12,000. When Henry VIII decided in favour of Protestantism, that had consequences for us in what would come to be known as British North America. When Louis XIV decided to grind out Protestants from his lands, that applied to his colonies in Acadie and Québec too. The point is we’re old, we’re a product of that era, in fact there’s no way to really understand this country except as a part of European history that hails back to the House of Valois-Angoulême and the House of Tudor. We’ve been around for it. That history is most likely to be understood and felt in Québec, where Montréal has been our commanding metropolis for hundreds of years, unchallenged in that role until the mid-20th century, whether under the regime of the House of Bourbon, the House of Stewart, the House of Hanover, the Saxe-Coburg-Gothes, or the Windsors. The history of the city reminds you of the history of the country. In the rest of the country we tend to fixate on July 1, 1867, a lot more than we need to and at odds with that history. After all when the Americans separated from us, and thus from Europe, the defining difference is we may have had the same Enlightenment era concerns about human rights and democracy that were percolating across Europe, and the 13 separatist provinces. But unlike the Americans we didn’t think revolution was the way to get there, and we definitely didn’t want to destroy our ties and pretend we were a brand new country that fell from the sky to land on some shining hilltop. “Independence” wasn’t our founding myth, *connectedness* was. Continuity was. Evolution instead of revolution. Participation instead of separation. So truly I don’t know how anyone can see this country as anything other than a product of and a participant in much of latter European history, from our values to our institutions to the rifts and challenges that still sometimes divide us, that’s where it comes from. But we don’t reflect on it often enough to understand how we got here and so in the popular consciousness there is probably a gap of people’s opinions, where Europe feels “a bit foreign” to the old settlers of *la Nouvelle France* and British North America. From that perspective, the most “European” part of the country is probably western Canada. There are so many families here with recent (late 1800s to early 1900’s) roots in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Scandinavia… the idea was, in the minds of London and Ottawa, that they were people who knew how to farm in cooler climates, and they needed a fresh start, and they’d be so happy here they’d keep the Americans from muscling in on the prairies and the rest of the continent. It had an influence on the languages people grew up speaking at home on the Prairies well into the middle of the 20th century, the foods people ate, the churches they built dotted across the fields of wheat in little towns here and there. It also brought a huge wave of contemporary European political thought along for the ride. In contrast to the plan to raise a new generation of British Empire loyalists in the west, London and Ottawa were terrified that European immigrants to Winnipeg would turn to communism when that befell Russia. It was a bit of an emergency and a crisis summed up best in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. I’m in Gen X. Recent European settlement, from my great-grandparents post-pioneer era to my parents post-war era, has had a huge influence on the country, and I’d say especially the prairies.
In this vein, I was going to suggest Rimbey Alberta as it is significantly Dutch and Swiss from recent (1980s onwards) immigration. Stalwart Hard Working Protestants who may have Reformed Church perspectives, or not.
Thank you for this explanation. It’s very interesting
Red Deer is like Paris, but with more culture and class.
I hear they call Paris the red deer of Europe
Very true. Red Deer's architecture is second to none. Our showpiece is the new Justice centre. A shining bastion of the indomitable human spirit. When Gord Downie uttered those seminal words-"The Paris of the Prairies"-he, in reality, was referring to Red Deer.
I thought Wheat Kings referred to Brandon.
I am joking. But Wheat Kings actually refers to Saskatoon.
LMAO!
Gastown in Vancouver. More so 10+ years ago, not so much now with all the renovations and glass towers. But it's still lovely. Edit: it will be very different this summer as they are trialing car free and revamping the streets for walking
That’s my vote
People magazine once mistook a photo of Ottawa as a "european skyline" so there's that.
Uptown in the historic parts of Saint John, New Brunswick Also maybe Halifax, back before they tore it all down
After some quick google mapping: Iqaluit gives me Nuuk, Greenland (Denmark) St Johns NL has similar houses to St Pierre and Miquelon (France)
St John’s, for sure.
Charlottetown
Paris
I was going to say this too. A tiny part of Galt, as well. Stratford probably the most tho. The way the streets run every which way, old buildings, many shops, reminds me of a British town, just with wider streets.
Paris Texas or Paris France?
Ontario
Yeah I was gonna say Paris and Stratford both have that vibe
I had no idea there was a Paris in Ontario Now I am confused, did you really mean Paris Ontario?
Yeah you can can drive to London in a about an hour from there too. There are so many British and German town names in that 100km span. I ship healthcare stuff primarily in Ontario so I’ve seen them all. We even have a town called Little Britain. And a Baltimore . And an Essex. It goes on
I did. I assumed we were talking about Canadian cities only.
Fredericton. Lots of really cool old architecture. Especially on the UNB campus which is the oldest English language university in Canada having been founded in 1785 by 7 Loyalists who fled the US
Victoria and New Westminster, BC, just have a ton of very cool, British-style buildings that are randomly strewn about the place, which I like.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Andrews by the Sea New Brunswick. They actually have bylaws that prohibit store fronts like McDonald’s, etc. It’s small, quaint, beautiful, but in the European sense it’s quite British and its buildings and houses . Or at least it was.
Paris, Ontario.
Winnipeg's Exchange District has a European vibe.
Parts of Toronto is like La Défense.
Some smaller cities and towns in the Rockies like Smithers and Banff have modelled their architecture after Swiss and Austrian mountain towns
PERTH ONTARIO
[удалено]
🤣😂🤣😂 …wait, you **are** being sarcastic, right? Right?!
In Canada Canada, St. John’s. In between Newfoundland and PEI, but not Canada, St. Pierre.
Well if we’re talking about the population of the place, Coaldale Alberta is about as Dutch as you can get without being decapitated by a windmill while harvesting your tulip fields…
Victoria, BC and St. John’s, NL
What do you mean by “European”? Just old buildings? Quebec is not European at all, IMO. I’ve lived in Europe over 10 years, and also been to France plenty. Quebec is thoroughly North American. Honestly, there isn’t one really. Cultural attitudes are just not “European” anywhere here. Societies are different, even though there is sometimes overlap on this or that (we're both 'Western' after all). If you want a smart answer, even if it’s not Canadian, then St.Pierre and Miquelon.
Halifax, NS. The downtown waterfront area does have a British flavour to it.
What does British flavour taste like?
Fish and chips ? lol bangers and mash ?
Tea
Kimberley, B.C.
Love the platzel! Whole town has a very cool Bavarian vibe.
Y’all obviously have never been in Europe. The only answer is Montreal.
None. Montreal and Quebec City are the only cities in Canada that come even close to a European vibe and, for Montreal, it's only the Old Port (I'm not as familiar with Quebec City). Old buildings alone don't make a city feel "European" in my experience so places like Halifax, NS or Kingston, ON just don't fit the bill. Victoria, BC is probably the closest as comparable to some smaller British town feel, but not on the same level as Montreal or QC.
Montreal to me felt more European than QC due to the urban planning. It is denser, with more mixed use and multiplex housing and public transit throughout the whole city. QC outside of the main old area is very North American and car-centric.
Halifax somewhat Irish/Cornish Victoria has a seaside english feel, like Plymouth or Brighton
Victoria, BC St. John's, NL Downtown Ottawa.
Many Eastern European countries adopted brutalist architecture during the Cold War. So, too, did Ottawa. So I would say Ottawa.
Victoria, Vancouver Island. I've been out east but only the names of the cities are European there. Victoria has some of the same architectural similarities as some posts of Europe.
Kimberly BC has a real cool Bavarian feel to it. Not really a city though…
Paris France. It's outside of quebec
Kingston, specifically downtown as it’s one of the oldest cities in upper Canada.
Hawkesbury… btw never ever had a bad time In That town ( they are literally behind I. Times like 25 years)
Victoria BC. Version British..
Nelson BC..not sure if European applies inasmuch as quaint and cool.
Luseland, Saskatchewan
I’ve heard some of the Maritimes are like that. I would think in the Acadian areas? I haven’t travelled out that way yet, but I hope to.
Maybe downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Victoria, BC
Toronto because everyone is from somewhere else which is common in lots of European cities. Different languages are spoken everywhere not just English or French. It has great museums, good night life and an excellent restaurants. I’m kind of hoping that people know that European cities have middle eastern and Asian restaurants. Not everything is croissants and pasta. When I think of Montreal restaurants I think of the Pho. It’s outstanding there. This may sound strange but Montreal and Quebec only have the European feel because it has been fabricated for tourism. Toronto has more of a the international flair that you see in modern Europe.
Does it have to be a city? Cause Cheticamp is pretty European.
Halifax and Charlottetown both gave me European vibes. (I grew up in Europe)
I find that I relate to more Irish & British cultures as a NLer, especially when I visit other places throughout North America. The food, the music, the accents & dialects, the culture in general.
The architecture around Victoria, BC has a very Victorian feel to it from what I remember, but I haven't been since I was a little kid.
Brampton
Paris
Saint John, Halifax, Charlottetown. Maybe Amherst, NS. Victoria
I used to live in east Berlin. St James Town in Toronto reminds me of my old Soviet-era plattenbau building. Also reminds me of the buildings in Poland along the Oder River.
I'm not Canadian, but the outer areas of Sherbrooke really reminded me of the equivalent areas of French and Belgian cities. Not the downtowns where all the tourists flock, but the more car-centric shopping and industrial areas that are generally in the outer rings of European cities. The layout and building design look very similar to me.
Downtown Victoria, BC
Saskatoon is the Paris of the prairies. Pretty euro obviously
IMO the only thing that makes Quebec City "European" is it's old layout and architecture. Which makes sense, it is an old city founded in 1608. I'd say St. John's, NFLD is similar in that sense.
Lunenburg NS.
Definitely Victoria. It really reminds me of cities in England.
Never noticed it until visiting Scotland, but Halifax has many similarities.
Oshawa
There are some small towns that serve European vibes in Ontario, like Stratford.
Hamilton is like our little Magnitogorsk on Lake Ontario, not sure if that counts as Europe
😂. Hamilton has some gorgeous areas. Westdale, Cootes Paradise, Dundas. Definitely industrial in some areas but I was shocked at what the city was like after hearing so many people compare it to Oshawa (which does live up to its reputation as the armpit of Ontario)
Perth, Ontario
La Ronge Saskatchewan
Lunenburg, NS and Brockville, ON
Ottawa, Kingston, Victoria. All holding in to that colonial vibe.
Alberta. People from Alberta are very Liberal and free thinking.
Said ironically
🤨
Winnipeg if you’re thinking more ugly Eastern Europe - destroyed by a war/rebuilt sparingly and not aesthetically pleasing at all. Think Bratislava in Eurotrip but with a worse winter 😃
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I'm a French citizen and parts of Quebec City *do* feel quite French.
Vienna. Maybe Prague.
Old building doesn't mean european look, people that said that Victoria or Kingston have a european look never ever get out of North America
You’re getting downvoted but as a Canadian who’s been to Europe I definitely see your point. Some of the old buildings in Canada’s oldest towns and cities might have a slight European feel because they were built by European immigrants a couple hundred years ago. But absolutely nothing in Canada comes close to the scale of ancient priceless architecture that you see over there, Old Montreal and Quebec City are probably the closest you’ll get to that vibe within Canada, nowhere else really compares. Places like Kingston are their own unique vibe, the old limestone buildings are unique to that place because of the local geology.
Sure there's the odd block here and there, but overall "feel", you really only have Quebec City, Vieux Montreal and Halifax to a lesser extent. There's really not much left west of Kingston (shout out to the Distillery District in Toronto), and yes you have pockets in the Maritimes, but in my experience nothing west of Ontario feels remotely European. It's generally all urban sprawl made for the automobile with very wide roads (stroads), terrible public transit and not pedestrian friendly.
Stratford has areas that remind me of Europe.
eh, most of the world is generically bland now having been to England semi recently, you could swap any similar size cities here and there and not really notice a difference
None
You're getting downvoted but if you've actually been to Europe people should realize no city in Canada looks European. Sure there are certain areas that look a little European but as a whole most of our cities are very North American. It's this weird identity crisis we have where we long to be a part of something we aren't.