I know that’s a common belief, but it’s still inaccurate. Ottawa and Gatineau may form a single agglomeration, but they aren’t the same. (Some people would even tell you about the difference between the former cities of Hull and Gatineau, or between the former cities in the former city of Gatineau. :D)
Really? It is the hometown of Wayne Gretzky.
I have heard of Panama City. You decide what that means. 
I’ve never been anywhere in Canada east of Alberta. Been to plenty of other parts of the world, mind you.
I’m not a big hockey fan, I’m afraid. Though you have now given me a reason to remember that town, thanks. 
I know, my facetious side is showing. 
I’ve been to Hull and Ottawa a few times, and I’ve always been struck by how Ottawa and its population of civil servants influence the other side of the river.
I’ll throw my 2 cents in the ring, seeing as my university diploma and in-laws hail from there. Sherbrooke itself is a large town or small city, depending on your perspective, but Sherbrooke is also the biggest urban area in the region by default. You see, it had several surrounding towns merged into it in 2002. This means that, for example, despite the unavoidable fact that it’s a 15-minute drive through suburbs and countryside from l’Université de Sherbrooke (in Sherbrooke proper) to Bishop’s University (in Lennoxville), Sherbrooke now gets to say that it has two universities. Not that Bishop’s is that much of a catch…Kidding! Je naise! Please don’t send football players to beat me up!
Believe it or not, I’ve also been to Thetford Mines. Oo, asbestos!
I wondered why Gatineau (which I’d never heard of) was listed, but Hull wasn’t. Glad I had that bit of ignorance fought!
I guess I’ve never officially been to metro Toronto – my family drove through the area on a vacation when I was still in high school, but we didn’t make any stops that I recall. I have spent at least one night each in Montreal, Regina, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay.
I’d never heard of Abbotsford, BC. Apparently those of you who didn’t recognize Oshawa are not fans of Stephen Colbert, whose show features a running gag involving the hockey rivalry between the Oshawa Generals and Colbert’s “beloved” Saginaw Spirit.
Hah! Welcome to my world.
I mean, I was told we’d cruise the seas for American gold! :mad:
Stan Rogers’ estate will be pleased to know that y’all have just spurred a sale. I haven’t heard that song in twenty years, and it popped back instantly. So I thought I’d better buy it while I was thinking of it.
Wrong Sherbrooke, I think.
Technically, it’s neither: Sherbrooke, QC is too far inland and Sherbrooke, NS is too young. But that shouldn’t get in the way of a good song. (Footnotes here.)
It doesn’t matter one tiny bit. I was still singing it in my head. It’s SO SAD.
Having lived there for way too long, we’re not really missing much.
Lord Thunderin’ Jesus, you people, it’s not even last call!
I raise my fist and cast a curse upon your house for planting that song in my head !
Damn you, damnyouall!
Never been to Vancouver (or any other Candaian cities west of Hamilton, Ontario). First city on the list I didn’t recognize was Oshawa.
A couple of people have mentioned not knowing Granby. That’s actually one of the first Canadian cities I learned - when I was a young lad growing up in northern New York, we used to go on school trips to the Granby Zoo.
I’ve been to Montreal and Victoria. I’ve heard of the following:
Toronto
Montreal
Vancouver
Ottawa-Gatineau
Calgary
Edmonton
Quebec
Winnipeg
Halifax
Victoria
Saskatoon
Regina
Guelph
Thunder Bay
Medicine Hat
Moose Jaw
I thought I knew Prince Albert but I realized that was only in reference to whether I had him in a can. And yes, I know Halifax from Stan Rogers.
No problem, but there’s something I want to point out anyway, and I’ll try to keep it short. I’ve lived in Gatineau (and Aylmer before that) for all my life until last January when I moved to Sherbrooke to pursue studies. And I’ve never had the feeling that I was living in a cultural wasteland. But apparently this is the reputation that Ottawa and, by extension, Gatineau have in other parts of Quebec: a super boring place where there just isn’t anything to do and people go to bed at seven. But we do have a few theatres and places to have shows, and Ottawa has the National Arts Centre. I’m sure we’re nothing compared to Montreal, but Montreal’s larger, so that’s what I’d expect. I haven’t seen that much of a big difference between Gatineau and Sherbrooke, except for the fact that Sherbrooke seems to have quite a few lunatic drivers, which is what I expect from a student town. 
Of course I’m more of a stay-at-home person, so that might account for part of it. Maybe I am a boring squarehead after all. :o 
But there’s another thing, and this is why I responded to your post in the first place. It seems that a large part of Quebec’s population seems to barely realise that the urban Outaouais region is actually part of Quebec. It’s like you said, with or without reason, they consider that it’s actually more in Ontario anyway. This, I believe, has lead us to become a sort of “forgotten” region that nobody really cares about. Just as an example, the Outaouais only has one single university, and it has a very limited selection of programs. We don’t really mind since Ottawa has the University of Ottawa (where I did my bachelor’s and master’s, and I enjoyed it) and Carleton’s University, but for residents of Quebec, their tuition fees are much larger than Quebec universities’, and despite the University of Ottawa loudly proclaiming its self-designation as “Canada’s University”, in some programs it’s still near-impossible to take classes in French passed a certain level. And no one in the rest of Quebec seems to really care about this. I remember a high-profile Parti québécois MNA complaining about Hydro-Québec making a $150,000 donation to the civil law section of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. A militant (and former president) of her own party in Outaouais had to write a letter in the media (see Le Devoir of March 7, 2006, sorry I can’t link it here) pointing out that 90 % of civil law students at the U of O are from Quebec, and it’s the only such program available in the region, so if it’s our goal to develop our regions, this donation is necessary. (And I really respect him for putting the interests of the region before the interests of the party.)
So this is where I’m coming from.
That is absolutely shocking. It’s hard to believe that in such a major population center in Quebec, you can’t get adequate university education in French. And it fell to Hydro-Quebec of all groups to improve matters… To think our Montreal and Sherbrooke students are protesting over universities unfreezing tuition for the first time in years. They’ve got nothing to complain about compared to that. Consider my ignorance on the issue fought.
Never been to Quebec City (but I hear it’s nice).
Never heard of Chilliwack, BC before, but the name does have me snickering.
Been to Toronto, intend to go to more; never heard of Kelowna.
Dang, I miss Toronto all over again 
But I’ve always wanted to go to Vancouver. I like the West Coast in general, especially the further north you get.
To be fair, Hydro-Québec makes donations to several university faculties in Quebec. The complaint of this particular MNA was that they should keep their money inside Quebec and not make a donation to the University of Ottawa. But given that the University of Ottawa is the only place in the region where you can study civil law, they didn’t really have much of a choice. (And the civil law program at the U of O can be followed in French in its entirety, but that shouldn’t be surprising since the reason you’d study civil law is to practice in Quebec.)
But yeah, if you want to study something that isn’t offered at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (which means most hard sciences, most engineering fields, many social sciences, etc.), the obvious choice is the University of Ottawa, where (in my experience as a mathematics student) fourth year classes are in English only, many third year classes are as well, other third year classes are offered in alternating years in English and French, but anglophone students can petition to have a French class given in English instead (this actually happened, not to me, but to students a few years after me; which means that this particular core course wasn’t given in French for three straight years!) Don’t get me wrong, the U of O is a very good school and I’m glad I studied there, but they have a very hard time trying to both offer good service to Franco-Ontarians and Western Quebecers and convincing anglophones that you don’t have to know or learn French to come study there.
Yeah, that’s something else I find interesting here: the University of Sherbrooke campus is extremely politicized. I thought students at the University of Ottawa were political, but I hadn’t seen anything yet. And most of those I see have these irrealistic (to me) extreme left-wing political beliefs. Ah, I guess I’m getting old, since I thought like them just a few years ago… 
Anyway, of course after a few years in Ottawa, I find the tuition fees here laughable, and I’ll gladly support the government raising them a bit. I think it’s more progressive to have higher tuition fees and more bursaries for needy students, and I wonder why our student politicians don’t support that. I have no problem paying more, and I’m sure I’m not alone.