Suggestion For Automakers

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

I found Albertans to be friendly, but (in other Canadian provinces) I found a somewhat negative and ever so slightly envious attitude about Albertans from other Canadians.....

I am going to keep this brief .. and try not to piss off too many Canadians at the same time.

Let me just say that Alberta is considered the HAVE province and the other provinces know it. We don't have a sales tax (but we do gas our own cars unlike Oregon) and we have lots of oil resources so when **** hits the fan and the economy tanks we still have money in the bank.

Alberta is the only province with no debt .. and people from other provinces when they need a job make the trip to Alberta cause jobs are easy to come by here. In fact they are predicting a labour shortage in the years ahead. Even BC (one of our closest neighbors) is pissed at us as they want some of the billions of dollars from a planned pipeline which would go to the west coast.

The sharing of resource revenues is not normally done (and thus why Alberta is considered a rich province) and the rest of Canada is pretty much pissed as the Alberta government won't share with the other provinces when it comes to our wealth.

Oh yea .. re this thread. If people want a 50 MPG car .. they should just buy the Prius C. No problem getting 50 MPG in the city .... a friend of mine has one and it is a pretty nice car.

[jayeh]

Originally Posted by edmscan

Let me just say that Alberta is considered the HAVE province and the other provinces know it. We don't have a sales tax (but we do gas our own cars unlike Oregon) and we have lots of oil resources so when **** hits the fan and the economy tanks we still have money in the bank.

Hey! Speak for yourself, Ontario is a have province. We HAVE: expensive auto insurance, expensive booze, Ottawa and Toronto. We have lots of things!

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by jayeh

Hey! Speak for yourself, Ontario is a have province. We HAVE: expensive auto insurance, expensive booze, Ottawa and Toronto. We have lots of things!

Honestly . . you can have both Toronto and Ottawa. Yea .. being stuck on the 401 in rush hour with Toronto's mayor. I think you can HAVE it all .. I will stick to the west. I do however love Vancouver ..

[jayeh]

Originally Posted by edmscan

Honestly . . you can have both Toronto and Ottawa. Yea .. being stuck on the 401 in rush hour with Toronto's mayor. I think you can HAVE it all .. I will stick to the west. I do however love Vancouver ..

Yes. Rush hour on 401. I think there is a break in traffic from 3:00am to about 3:58am, unless there is construction.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by jayeh

Yes. Rush hour on 401. I think there is a break in traffic from 3:00am to about 3:58am, unless there is construction.

.... The last time I was in Toronto (in 2007) I left during rush hour on the 401. I remember there WAS (now=?) a hospital very, very close to the 401 amd I spent so much time nearly parked alongside it on the 401 that I probably could have counted all the bricks on the side of the hospital.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by edmscan

Honestly . . you can have both Toronto and Ottawa. Yea .. being stuck on the 401 in rush hour with Toronto's mayor. I think you can HAVE it all .. I will stick to the west. I do however love Vancouver ..

I agree with you re Vancouver, and I think West Vancouver has probably the best location of any suburb in the U.S. or Canada. There are very few in the U.S. that are even in the same stratosphere as West Vancouver that also have some sort of outstanding physical beauty and modern intrusion that is not obnoxious....a few Seattle suburbs (The Highlands, Medina, Yarrow Point, etc).....Belvedere and Tiburon (both near San Francisco)....La Jolla (near San Diego)...Lake Oswego (near Portland)....Alpine,NJ (near NYC)....and some of the smallest towns right on the ocean between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in Florida. One thing that puts West Vancouver permanently above these towns (IMHO, for my taste) is having Grouse Mountain in the metro for snow skiing.....so close!

[edmscan]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

I agree with you re Vancouver, and I think West Vancouver has probably the best location of any suburb in the U.S. or Canada.

My parents live in West Vancouver .. at the top of the hill (1200 feet above sea level) I can see the whole lower mainland from there, and even into Washington state and Vancouver Island. I love it there ... but haven't been there for quite a few years. I am not used to the traffic in Vancouver though as Edmonton doesn't have a traffic problem really to speak of.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by edmscan

My parents live in West Vancouver .. at the top of the hill (1200 feet above sea level) I can see the whole lower mainland from there, and even into Washington state and Vancouver Island. I love it there ... but haven't been there for quite a few years. I am not used to the traffic in Vancouver though as Edmonton doesn't have a traffic problem really to speak of.

Wow, what a fantastic location. My aunt and uncle (in California) built their house together, elevated from the houses around them, and have a significant mountain view--nothing like what you describe...it is a great place to watch fireworks from though. My aunt jokes that they will be taken out of the house feet first (they'll never move). I'll bet your parents feel the same way. Vancouver has mass transit that people actually enjoy using (at least that was my impression re my use and the people I spoke with...I also drove around as well), but I would imagine that the bus in West Vancouver doesn't make it quite all the way up to your parent's house.

I don't like traffic either. I love my area, but Montgomery County is the 23rd fastest growing county in the U.S. (out of over 3,000 counties) and Exxon Mobil announced last year that they are going to build their North American headquarters where Harris County meets Montgomery County with the Grand Parkway right next to it. The Grand Parkway will be the longest beltway around any city in the world (about 180 miles). If the traffic increases as much as I think it will I will probably move up to Lake Conroe on the very edge of the Houston Metro and half into the Sam Houston National Forest.