I’m sure there are parts of Montana much closer to Calgary, Alberta, than any American city, likewise with northern Maine to Fredericton, New Brunswick. Are there any parts of the United States that look to Canadian cities as their biggest influence?
I grew up in northern New York. We considered Montreal to be the big city. If you wanted to go to a major sporting or entertainment event or do more shopping than you could do in the local mall, you went to Montreal.
Actually, to get to Calgary from Montana, you go through Great Falls. Unless you take back roads, which would add hours and hours. I do get your point, though.
(Also, there’s a Canadian city closer than Calgary, called Lethbridge.)
It’s interesting to note that stations broadcasting from Burlington, VT, carry many commercials for businesses in Montreal. I think they’re mostly addressed to people in Montreal who pick up these channels, but I think this counts as influence “bleeding”.
Some American teens grew up on decidedly Canadian shows like Degrassi and Fifteen.
Speaking as a New Brunswicker, I’d hardly call Freddie-town a city, Captain Socks. Saint John, now that’s a REAL city, population 82 078 and growing! 
Now speaking as someone who grew up in a border community, it’s to see how the “bleeding” can go both ways. My town and its American counterpart are inditinguishable from each other in many ways, and we were even more alike in the days before 9/11. It was more noticeable to me how much we’re alike when I traveled all the way down the east coast to Florida, and all of a sudden the US didn’t seem as, well, Canadian as it did back home. Central Maine is definitely a lot more like southern New Brunswick than North Carolina is. Of course, someone from Bangor would probably find Da Nort’ Shore of New Brunswick quite different from central Maine.
Sorry if this isn’t quite what you’d asked in the OP, but geographic proximity obviously plays a big part in this “bleeding”, and I wanted to share my own experiences with the sort of homogeneity that I’ve found along the border of my province and Maine.
Sorry for the double post, but even sorrier for the spelling mistakes and forgotten words. I really shouldn’t post at 2 AM. That should read : ‘it’s easy to see how the"bleeding" can go both ways.’ and ‘indistinguishable’.
QoT
Very interesting.
I also thought that Winnepeg would have some influence.
Toronto is the big city for those living in Buffalo. Unfortunately, Torontonians tend to think of Buffalo not as the equivalent of Milwaukee for Chicagonians, but instead more like Gary.
Culturally, Toronto bled into Buffalo as much as Buffalo’s local popular culture influenced those north of the border. About half of the commercials on WUTV-29, the Fox affiliate in Buffalo, are for Canadian businesses. Buffalonians watch Hockey Night in Canada, CFL games, and the Brier and other big curling draws, while the Generation X crowd grew up with Uncle Bobby, the Polka Dot Door and The Beachcombers. Canadian bands such as Rush, the Barenaked Ladies, and the Crash Test Dummies have a huge following in Buffalo.
Many restaurant and retail chains that are in most major US metropolitan areas are missing from the Buffalo market, but there’s many Canadian chains with a presence in Buffalo. Tim Horton Donuts is almost as ubiquitous in Buffalo, the first US market they entered, as in the suburbs of Toronto. In Buffalo area supermarkets, the bulk of shelf space in the beer aisle is devoted to Labatts, Molson and OV, and Labatts is the default generic beer in most bars and restaurants. Budweiser, Miller and Coors are given roughly the same amount of shelf space in a Buffalo supermarket that Canadian beers get in Cleveland or Chicago.
Whe it comes to sports, Buffalonians generally aren’t Blue Jays fans; they cheer on the Yankees or Indians. Same thing in basketball; the Raptors aren’t seen as the home team.
The accents don’t cross the border. Buffalo’s harsh nasal accent and distinctive flat-A stops in the middle of the Niagara River, with those on the west side of the river sounding as Canadian as anyone else from Southern Ontario.
Plattsburgh is attempting to bill its airport as “Montreal’s U.S. Airport.”
I wasn’t aware we needed a U.S. airport.
There’s also the hordes of Vermont 18 to 21-year-olds who come up here to get swizzled.
I was thinking that Toronto would have influence on Upstate New York.
St.Stephen/Calais by any chance? Sharing gunpowder in 1812? International street car line?
You have no idea how far Calgary really is from the border. The answer to your statement is “No.” Or “BWA-HA-HA-HA! No.”
Only if you live south of Great Falls, or west of the Divide. To get to Calgary from here, you use the back roads and make careful notes of when all the Ports of Entry close for the night and open in the mornings.
Rochester has been trying for ages to get Torontonians to come spend money in the city. They even set up a ferry service that Toronto never took seriously, and that quickly ran into all sorts of problems. (As far as I know the service is now dead, but I could be wrong.) I was kind of angry about Toronto’s attitude in this matter. I visited the place where the ferry docked in TO, and it was abysmal. A temp structure, no signs, unpaved roads, a confusing drive to downtown (if you’re unfamiliar with the area) – what a joke. As far as I know, Rochester did all the legwork and took most of the risk on this one and TO said Meh… Anyway, upstate New York is always hungry for Canadian influence, but can’t always get it.
[QUOTE=Derleth]
You have no idea how far Calgary really is from the borde
[QUOTE]
It looks relatively close on the map, but I’ll trust you.
It depends on what you mean by “relatively close”. It’s about 150 miles, which is nothing for a drive to a Montanan but still too far to go just for the fun of shopping at a different mall.
And it’s not like a lot of people are living right on the border. From Great Falls, MT to Calgary, AB, you’re talking about a significantly longer drive, and a lot of mostly empty space. So with respect, I think the question is whether people in reasonably-sized population centers in MT (like Great Falls) have any reason to drive up to Calgary, or whether they can access the same goods and services closer to home. Undoubtedly, they can access the same or comparable goods/services closer to home, so there’s really no reason to go up to Calgary for them. And therefore these isn’t a lot of influence on MT by Calgary or Alberta, AFAICT. And vice versa as well; I’d be very surprised if anyone in Calgary gave a rat’s ass about Montana.
Also, you can’t discount the PITA-factor of having to cross the border. In Northwest Washington, Vancouver may well be closer than Seattle, but most people on the U.S. side will still drive down to Seattle before going up to Vancouver because it can be such a pain to get across the border and back.
But I think you’re question is still a good one: What is the cultural influence in U.S. communities when the closest major population/shopping/cultural center is in Canada? I assume that happens not-infrequently in the East. It just doesn’t happen in Montana. 
The ferry’s dead.
On one hand, it’s true that Toronto never really invested what it was supposed to in the ferry infrastructure. On the other, it’s hard to justify spending the Toronto taxpayer’s money on a ferry that went somewhere nobody wants to go, and I can appreciate why the city bailed on what was obviously a losing proposition. I don’t have anything against the good people of Rochester, but the demand for trips to Rochester from Toronto is pretty much nonexistent. If a Toronto resident wants to see a dirty old industrial city, Hamilton’s just 40 minutes away and you don’t need a passport.
What all is involved with crossing the Canadian border these days? I thought maybe the security measures might have rolled back a bit closer to the pre-9-11 levels.
I’m looking at some cool Google maps of the area between White Rock, BC and Blaine, WA. There seems to be a joint park in operation there: the Peace Arch Provincial/State Park. Can’t tell from the satellite map, but there appears to be no fence or anything in the park. Also, just east of the park, some suburban homes on the Canadian side look just a few yards from the Washington State line – it looks as though someone on the Canadian could step across the street into some small undeveloped property in Washington.
I lived in Buffalo, NY for a few years and the only influence Canada had on me was when the cashier at the Aero Drug Store in Williamsville mistakenly gave me Canadian quarters and dimes instead of real money.