Do most Americans know Hamilton or Ontario?

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Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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I'm an American and I know where...

Just a minute. Your a Mid-Western. Milwaukee. Cosmopolitan & enlightened. A favored stop by everyone from Bob Dylan to Rufus Wainwright. Let someone from Butte Montana or Taos New Mexico tell us where Hamilton is.
 

Mayor Bee

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Dec 29, 2008
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Thank Chryssie Hynde for that one. O. H. I. O....Ohio... From Seneca to Cuyhoga Falls. Ah, O, I, Ohio.... You guys are about as far "south" as Rochester or Erie Pa. Might as well be back pocket Canucks. Except for the War Aggression. Serious Northern Yankee Territory. GHOSTS of the Great War. For Gods sake what Canadian made that mistake?. Point the OP out. Happy ro teach History & Geography. Never heard tell of the the Cannon, :shakehead

I'd rather not thank Chryssie Hynde for anything, thank you.

Besides, we're our own entity entirely, particularly Columbus. Literally every other part of the United States and Canada has some type of regional accent, but not central Ohio. The unaccented area extends all the way up to the real Golden Horseshoe (Akron/Canton/Massillon); once you get further north, that bizarre accented "a" becomes prominent. That's the one where "cash" sounds like "cyash", or, if the speaker is real bad about it, "kee-ash".

Actually, I will thank Chryssie for something. She stuck her pompous vegetarian restaurant in Akron a stone's throw from Luigi's, so if anyone from out of town has heard of her place but not Luigi's, it's a good orientation point to then go a little south and find real good food.

Columbus is south of Cleveland and 2hrs from Pittsburgh.

Southwest, and anything less than 3 hours from Pittsburgh is nearly impossible. The shortest route (US 22 from Pittsburgh through Cadiz) is either a colossal bore or white-knuckle driving (at night, when the deer are plentiful). I-71 to 76 is longer, but has the added advantage of going past Barberton, which is the home of the best fried chicken in the world.

Maybe that's what it is. Columbus is southwest of the best fried chicken, and since fried chicken is normally associated with the south...
 

Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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She stuck her pompous vegetarian restaurant in Akron,,,.

Ya, she did that, her pleather upholstered peon to everything tofu & pre-fab sprout. Ray Davies would not be impressed. Ive still got papercuts on my lips from the cardboard hamburgers they were serving. Pretty pathetic. :shakehead

But you know, theres nothing more beautiful than a Pelican carrying a framed Rembrandt in its claws across the Sea of Cortez at dawn.....
 
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Brodie

the dream of the 90s is alive in Detroit
Mar 19, 2009
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I disagree that there is no regional accent in Central Ohio. There are a lot of accents floating around as people continue to pour in from Cleveland and Cincy... not uncommon to hear a mix of Inland Cities Vowel Shifters and Southern accents while walking around in C-bus.
 

guyincognito

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Mar 21, 2007
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What's the point, Hamilton is box-office poison and if the usual suspect got the team, it wouldn't be playing in Hamilton anyway after the arena was built.
 

Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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What's the point, Hamilton is box-office poison and if the usual suspect got the team, it wouldn't be playing in Hamilton anyway after the arena was built.

And just where would the Usual Suspect move the team from Hamilton?. Sell it to "The Balkan" aka Kayser Souza' & relo the team to St.Petersburg on an Aerofloat DC8 piloted by Kevin Spacey?.
 

Seanconn*

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Ontario? I woud hope so. and where does this so called aMerican live?

I don't see why many people south of Kentucky would even have a remote clue about Hamilton unless they had family/business there.

Americans are kinda famously bad for geography according to the Simpsons.
 

rojac

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Apr 5, 2007
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Ontario? I woud hope so. and where does this so called aMerican live?

I don't see why many people south of Kentucky would even have a remote clue about Hamilton unless they had family/business there.

Americans are kinda famously bad for geography according to the Simpsons.

You might find a few people who have watched CFL games on American TV who have at least heard of it.
 

Kane One

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Feb 6, 2010
43,087
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Brooklyn, New NY
Hamilton: No.
Ontario: Yes.

Before I watched hockey, I never heard of Hamilton and most other Canadian cities. I don't want to name the ones I didn't know, because it's quite embarrassing.
 

TheMoreYouKnow

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May 3, 2007
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The irony is that Hamilton is less known partially because it hasn't had a NHL club. There's a reason mayors and city boosters talk of "putting the city on the map" when they talk about getting sports franchises.

For a city to be notable you need something there that gives people a chance to know about it. I'm not aware of anything in Hamilton that would give the city any name recognition. It probably doesn't help that the name is pretty generic and there's a load of Hamiltons distributed all over the English-speaking world.
 

berklon

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Dec 24, 2008
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Hamilton: No.
Ontario: Yes.

Before I watched hockey, I never heard of Hamilton and most other Canadian cities. I don't want to name the ones I didn't know, because it's quite embarrassing.

Don't feel too embarrassed. I have work colleagues all over the US, and it's funny talking to them about Canadian cities and provinces. One from Cleveland though Toronto was in the west coast ("near Vancouver"), and another from NJ thought it was prairie land. Both didn't know the province Toronto was in.

Some in the lower parts of the US (ie. Houston, Tampa, etc) haven't a clue about Canada except that it snows 365 days a year.
 

Melrose Munch

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Mar 18, 2007
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Its the American Media. We can get american channels in Canada. They block Canadian channels in the US. FCC rules.
 

CGG

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Jan 6, 2005
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Not too many Canadians had really heard of Raleigh before they had an NHL team. Even fewer knew what a Greensboro was the first few years of the Hurricane's existence. I'm sure most knew about Charlotte if they had to name a city in the Carolinas. None of that stopped Raleigh from getting a team, so lack of recognition by Americans shouldn't stop Hamilton from getting a team either.
 

Melrose Munch

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Mar 18, 2007
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Raleigh is the home of Duke and UNC.
CGG The NHL is an American League, there is a difference.
 

CGG

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Raleigh is the home of Duke and UNC.
CGG The NHL is an American League, there is a difference.

The NHL started with four teams - Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and another Montreal team. None of those places is in the US. At best, the NHL is an international league. It is definitely not an American league.

Duke, UNC, and college sports teams do very little to advertise the city that they're from, or to help Canadians find them on the map. I suspect most Canadians have no clue where State College, PA is either, even though the Nittany Lions play there.
 

Fidel Astro

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Aug 26, 2010
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I think it's pretty accepted up here that the average American is pretty ignorant when it comes to Canada. It doesn't necessarily mean they're stupid, just that they don't give a **** about anything beyond their own borders.

As for Columbus being in the "south," it's a ******, boring to watch, money-losing, recent expansion team with an idiotic name and hideous jerseys. There are a number of other teams like that in the league, and they're almost all in the south. It's easy to lump Columbus in with the rest of 'em.
 

Fidel Astro

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The NHL started with four teams - Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and another Montreal team. None of those places is in the US. At best, the NHL is an international league. It is definitely not an American league.

Agreed. Seven (now that we have a team back in Winnipeg) of the 30 current teams are located in Canada and over 50 per cent of the players (not to mention the vast majority of Hall of Famers) are Canadian. Canada has enough of an impact on the NHL that it's definitely not an "American" league.
 

cheswick

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Mar 17, 2010
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I think the lack of knowledge comes partly down to the education system. I'm guessing they don't teach Canadian geography in US schools very much. When I was growing up we had to learn every US state and their capital. That combined with Canadians consumption of largely US television programs makes it easier for Canadians to get an understanding of US geography than vice-versa.

I drove through the States last summer and was talking to a friend of my fiance's from Minneapolis. I mentioned I used to live in Regina and he looked at me like I had two heads, when I said in Saskatchewan, that really didn't help at all.
 

AdmiralsFan24

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Mar 22, 2011
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I think the lack of knowledge comes partly down to the education system. I'm guessing they don't teach Canadian geography in US schools very much. When I was growing up we had to learn every US state and their capital. That combined with Canadians consumption of largely US television programs makes it easier for Canadians to get an understanding of US geography than vice-versa.

Can't speak for anybody else but I remember in 7th grade we had to learn the main 6 provinces in Canada and their major cities. So I remember the order of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec along with their majors cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City.

That was pretty much the extent of what we learned about Canada and I'd imagine most schools had even less than that.
 

straka91*

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As an American, most have no clue where Hamilton is. Doubt most even know where Montreal is sadly. In my schooling days, we spent maybe 2 class periods on Canada. Only reason I have some knowlege about Canada is because of Hockey.
 

TheMoreYouKnow

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May 3, 2007
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Well, there really is no good reason why an American kid should know about Hamilton. Just like I don't see why a Canadian kid would have to learn about Fresno or Des Moines. That's basically trivia type information.
 

piqued

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Nov 22, 2006
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I'd never heard of Hamilton before HF and I knew/know way more about Canada than your average American.
 

Melrose Munch

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Mar 18, 2007
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The NHL started with four teams - Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and another Montreal team. None of those places is in the US. At best, the NHL is an international league. It is definitely not an American league.

Duke, UNC, and college sports teams do very little to advertise the city that they're from, or to help Canadians find them on the map. I suspect most Canadians have no clue where State College, PA is either, even though the Nittany Lions play there.
It started as a Canadian league. It is not now. If the NHL is international so is the MLB and NBA.
 
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