[0] https://archive.org/details/Machine_Language_for_the_Commodo...
I think it's more like "for some reason, monitors are called debuggers in later microcomputing."
[1] https://www.tpug.ca/tpug-media/tpugmag/TPUG_Issue_15_1985_Ju...
This is part of the issue; the GTA is solidly in the east (the centre of Canada is in Manitoba), but when someone says, "eastern Canada", one automatically thinks "Nova Scotia", but Toronto is a relatively short drive from New York City. That being said, I understand that in most cases, "central" is referring to population, industry, finance (not fashion - that's Montrėal).
Regarding the site, the exhibit's producer, Zbigniew Stachniak, wrote an excellent book [0] on the world's first truly portable computer: the MCM/70 - which ran APL (yay!).
And that shift of centrality from Montreal to Toronto was surprisingly recent too, very much post war.
Montreal, and Quebec, absolutely feel like a separate country from the rest.
It is really geographically "midwest" by US standards, not "east"
When I was in elementary school in Alberta in the 80s we called this "central Canada." And that's how I still think of it. But there's a growing trend especially in Alberta to call this "down east" which is in my mind a very political way of "othering" what is actually geographically quite central and economically and demographically as well.
Anyway. I live closer to James Bay than DC. Let that sink in a moment (and sink is what you will do if you attempt the drive).
Our province is huge, and east past about e.g. Peterborough it's a very different province. And north past e.g. Barrie. And then again past Thunder Bay, etc etc.
Southern Ontario is the north eastern tip of the midwest. Eastern Ontario is the western end of the northeast. Northern Ontario is... huge.
Edmonton is as far west from the geographical centre of Canada as Toronto is east. I think it's a a bit of a stretch to call the GTA "geographically central". Economically and demographically, definitely.
The Weather Network, which really should consider geographic markers only, calls the GTA "central Canada". I think there would be an outcry if they started saying "eastern Canada".
And that's ... definitely not Ontario. Unless you count the lakes, which I mean, sure, why not?
Or another definition of eastern might be "along the Appalachian range". And again, def not Ontario.
Quebec is more up for debate.
Most of southern Ontario is also most definitely "midwest" from a "biome" POV. The first couple times I went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for work I was thinking it would feel like the prairies, like Manitoba or Sask or something. Nope, it looked identical to southern Ontario. In fact it was the same latitude, even. The vegetation and terrain, I felt like I was in Essex County or something.
If I'd gotten in a car and driven home, it would have been directly east on the interstate and it would have been same same same corn and soy fields, maples, oaks, etc for 16 hours.
Like, 20 hours of driving. And then to get to e.g. Halifax or Sydney NS, which aren't even our furthest east points, another what.. 15? 16? hours of driving. And then a ferry out to Newfoundland?
Toronto is really quite quite far west of the easternmost points in the country. Calling it "east" seems odd.
Especially when you consider when people were settling this country they were doing so by going up the St Lawrence and into the lakes. Or had taken the railway from Halifax, etc. They had traveled a long way before they got here. It wouldn't have felt "east" to them at all.
As as Maritimer who moved to Toronto (but who came of age as an adult outside the Maritimes), your comment def wakes me up to the moral imperative of resisting the Toronto-centric framing in whatever ways I can
This persecution complex seems bizarre. The only entities exploiting Alberta are the oil companies who offshore billions of dollars in profits. Instead of growing their sovereign wealth fund the way Norway does, Albertans allowed themselves to be exploited.
Edit: I see now that when I wrote "created a fund like Norway" it was taken as implying Alberta didn't have a fund, when what I meant was "created one that is similar to Norway's fund". Edited for clarity.
2. The amount Alberta has sent in equalization payments would have allowed us to have a far larger wealth fund than Norway has.
Also, you are aware that, no matter who exploits the oil, the Alberta government receives royalties from it, right?
Also, most of the foreign companies have joint ventures with Canadian entities and a lot of the money does stay within Canada and Alberta.
And even with all the equalization Alberta has sent, we're still the richest province by far. We just know we could be much richer still...
Since the 70s, yes, and it's minuscule because the oil companies socialize the risks and privatize the profits, less some token royalties. Norway's was established in the 90s and is multiple orders of magnitude larger, because they don't allow big oil to fuck them over.
>The amount Alberta has sent in equalization payments would have allowed us to have a far larger wealth fund than Norway has.
You are being fed a narrative.
Equalization payments are taken from federal tax revenues. Every Canadian pays taxes according to the same graduated tax rate schedule, whether Albertan or not.
Alberta does not "pay into" equalization payments. Provinces do not "send money to other provinces". That's simply not how the program works.
You're being pedantic.
Income from Alberta workers gets taxed and sent to other provinces or citizens living in other provinces via various federal programs. If we were a separate country, all that money would stay in Alberta.
Splitting hairs over the precise "how" doesn't change the fact it's money siphoned out of Alberta to other provinces.
And you'd be incurring lots of new expenses like border controls, national security, etc. The last estimates I saw were that the total equalization payments attributable to Alberta were about a tenth of the cost of federal government services provided to Alberta.
That is to say Albertan taxpayers would be on the hook for an additional 25 billion dollars annually, or so.
>Splitting hairs over the precise "how" doesn't change the fact it's money siphoned out of Alberta to other provinces.
It's not pedantic, you're just factually incorrect. It's money that all Canadians already pay to the government (because it's federal tax). There's no line item in the Alberta budget for "equalization payments".
If we deleted the entire Equalization Program tomorrow, we'd all still be paying the same taxes.
Then I moved to Toronto in 1996 in the .com boom. I had spent plenty of time in Vancouver but living in Toronto was night and day in terms of vibrancy, culture, activity, economy. Toronto was a real living city and even Vancouver didn't compare. TLDR there's a reason why the country is in part Toronto centric. There's just a lot going on there. A lot of people, a lot of money, and a lot of culture. In the 90s especially it really was "downtown Canada." That would have been even more so in the period this article is talking about. It has nothing to do with Toronto people thinking they're superior, it has to do with the fact that this is the 3rd or 4th (depending how you count it) largest city in North America and nothing else in Canada even comes close.
I have lived both sides and most of my family is still in Alberta. The persecution complex out there is 100% bullshit. Nobody in reality is treating Alberta badly. It actually gets a remarkably good deal in confederation -- selling oil and gas to the rest of the country. Hydrocarbons aren't the centre of existence. Even after all these years of neglect and downgrading the manufacturing economies of central Canada are still a massive part of the GDP of the country, and the industrial policies that apply for them are not necessarily the same as for energy or forestry exports and that needs to be recognized.
Not to mention that this part of the world is where the bulk of the population still is. Yet I hear people in Alberta routinely talk about how they're somehow holding the whole country up. It's not factually correct. Not even close, unless you play wilful distortion of how equalization works.
Also, we are some of the the biggest customers of Alberta, Line 9 runs right behind my farm. 90% of the oil used here in Ontario is purchased via that line from Alberta, pumped from Edmonton. I also fail to see recognition of this from many pundits in Alberta. Even Harper was spreading misinformation about "Saudi oil tankers coming up the St Lawrence" -- that's just bullshit. The only part of our country that uses middle eastern imports is Atlantic Canada, for obvious reasons.
I don't see it as colonial at all. I think certain people got very aggressive when necessary moves were made around climate regulation. As a person who lived half their live in Alberta, and half their life here... I just think those people are wrong. a) It's wrong for Alberta to be so dependent on hydrocarbons and it needs to diversify b) Climate change is real and Alberta's exports play a significant role in that.
There is a lot of ... motivated ... disinformation spread by various actors in Alberta. People should be skeptical.
Quite possibly the most Canadian comment I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason we (Americans) love you guys!
When I first moved here to Ontario I was blown away by how many people my own age didn't even know what/where Edmonton (a city of a million people, and the capital of the province) was, their only conception of Alberta was Calgary at most.
At the same time, I feel a strong sense of unease in the other direction when I'm out visiting family. There, again, there seems to be some confusion about what the country actually is.
I really love this country, having lived on two ends of it and driven across it many times. I've moved back and forth twice via Grayhound, 50+ hours slogging it across northern Ontario and the prairies stopping at every weird little town.
It's really something, what we've built here. I wish more people saw more of it.
Back when I worked in Toronto, people would always ask when I'd be moving there - because why would you want to live anywhere else?
I also remember, circa 2000, when the marketing people at the company I worked at were talking about advertising - they didn't see the point of spending on advertising outside of Toronto.
It's a very different mindset, that's for sure.