I’m from Toronto. I must say I like the people here in Halifax but unfortunately it seems as if they are as equally brainwashed and indoctrinated as the rest of Canada.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2008.
Hali
I’m from Toronto. I must say I like the people here in Halifax but unfortunately it seems as if they are as equally brainwashed and indoctrinated as the rest of Canada.
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About what?
You like them now. You should have seen them 5 years ago. I don’t know where the attitudes are coming from but it’s been quite the 180 degree change. People in halifax used to be much nicer and more patient. Better drivers for sure.
Maybe it isn’t the Haligonians? I’ve been noticing a lot of ComeFromAways filling up the new subdivisions that are popping up all over the place…
Halifax is a city on the grow (graon). I guess it just has some growing pains. Maybe all the UC’s that come here for school decided to stay.
Hey Torontonian I lived there for two years from Hell i’m glad to be back home, where I can at least see greenery, trees, flowers, the ocean and where yes people do smile and have the time of day! If ya don’t like the east coast go to fuck home we don’t need you here.
Halifax: people smile, hold the door and make snide remarks behind people’s backs as they pass through.Toronto: people usually don’t hold the door unless they’re nice. I think Haligonians are the furthest thing from the super friendly, quaint, happy-go-lucky people they are stereotyped as- and I include myself in that, though I’ve had to tone down the bitchiness since leaving and which is why I like this site!”Oh, you’re from Halifax…people from Halifax are sooooooooo nice!”
Lynn you seem to have had some bad experiences with Haligonians on par with my experiences with chicken shit. 🙂 I have never noticed the snide remarks, but I think I would still choose “surface” friendliness to cold indifference. But TO is really not that bad either, just your standard big city standoffishness. The individuals are typical Canadian friendly. They don’t know shit about anything east of montreal though. (“Did you go to the university of Halifax?” “I thought you all had scottish accents like that guy in the commercial”)
Haha, I guess you could say that!
I’m with Lynn. I find the whole “friendly Maritimer” thing to be total bullshit. Maritimers are TOO surface-friendly – solicitous, ingratiating, obsequious, and totally self-absorbed about it. We aren’t being truly hospitable, we are self-servingly begging for approval, to be liked, worried only about the impression we make and not about the people to whom we are friendly-to-their-faces-but-stabbing-in-the-back. We’re the most mercenary bunch of insincere suckups in the country. It’s revoting to see our public figures squirm over guests and ask only about whether they like us, caring only about their approval, the PR opportunity, and potential tourist dollarsYuck.
I dunno guys, we didn’t invent the “friendly maritimer” persona…there must be truth in it somewhere. I’m not being insincere when I hold a door open, or ask how someone’s day is going, or give directions to tourists when stopped on the street, and I doubt that most maritimers are either. Where do you guys get this from? where’s the backstabbing come in? How am i this naive? (don’t answer that last one!) I’m not saying maritimers are saints with golden halos, shitting buttercups or anything, I just don’t see the wrath. Jamilaka’s remark about public figures I might accept, but that’s just politics.
Miles, for me the key word is ingratiating. It’s the whole “I just did something nice, aren’t I nice, please tell me I’m nice, do you like me, aren’t I nice”? I have always found the Maritime way is to be nice to get approval, not for the sake of being nice. We practically beg outsiders for compliments. And then we pass petty judgment on the very people we were just so “nice” to if they don’t respond as we demand. We try desperately to impress “come from aways” (god I hate that expression), yet we constantly slam them. “Toronto bitch go home” is an awfully common expression on this message board – every week we’re telling the “snooty Torontonians” off. If someone dresses really well we call them shallow. If they’re really well educated, we call them pretentious. If they carry themselves well we call them snotty. We’re always trying to cut people down, especially if they’re not like us. Isn’t that awfully insecure? Is it “nice”?A recent example in the media is those awful Atlantic Lotto ads that try to sell the Maritime lifestyle as some sort of Eden – the ones that cut down the Toronto condo dwellers and imply that we’re somehow superior and better off choosing to live in rural splendor. Well guess what – big city dwellers are healthier, not nearly as fat, more active, more socially engaged, less likely to smoke or be alcoholics, and more financially successful. So are we really better off? Not even a little bit.It all speaks to a deep seated cultural inferiority complex.
Thanks for explaining your view a bit more Jamilaka. I am still not sure I entirely agree with the idea that our niceness is not sincere, but I can see your side a bit better. I think our niceness is genuine and that the insecurities and judgementalness you mentioned comes from a separate issue. When maritimers as individuals are nice to each other or to tourists or whatever, I truly believe it is not to seek approval or anything. We just treat our visitors the same way we treat each other (which is typically polite). Now, when we talk about the maritimes to others (tourists, visitors) we may cite our kind actions events as evidence of our niceness in an attempt to seek approval, but I don’t think many people would actively think “if I hold this door open, this person will like me better”I think maritimers are generally proud of their culture and their communities (and rightly so) but we do get defensive if others don’t “get it” and we are quick to cut down those who are “successful” (snotty, pretentious, shallow) before they can take a jab at our “quaint little lives”
“Well guess what – big city dwellers are healthier, not nearly as fat, more active, more socially engaged, less likely to smoke or be alcoholics, and more financially successful. So are we really better off? Not even a little bit.” hmmm Jamilaka…I’d like to know where you got those statistics…please share. Because I live about 35 minutes outside of Halifax….and I’m healthy, not fat, I have a social life, I exercise, I don’t nor have I ever smoked, I rarely drink, and I go to university so I can someday become financially successful. And I’m not the only acception here.