How similar are Maine and Atlantic Canada?

[TDAS04]

How much does Maine have in common with Canada's Atlantic Provinces (NS, PEI, NB, NF)? What are the major differences (besides the obvious that Maine is not in Canada)?

Also, what would be your opinion of a hypothetical country consisting of the four Atlantic Provinces + Maine?

[King of Kensington]

Maine is sort of the "bridge" between New England and the Canadian Maritimes.  Maine-1 is more like Massachusetts, Maine-2 is more like New Brunswick.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I think that Atlantic Canada has more of a communitarian/blue collar environment that I guess in some ways resembles an area like West Virginia but is far less socially conservative. But I'm guessing it isn't similar to anywhere in the mainland US let alone Maine.

[TDAS04]

I don't even think that Atlantic Canada and Lower New England (MA, CT, RI) are that similar, that's why I'm only asking about how the Atlantic Provinces compare to Maine. Lower New England is very densely populated and urban, but Maine's populations density is on par with Nova Scotia's.

Is Atlantic Canada even more rural than Maine? Sure, Maine has Portland, as well as a few other sizable towns along or near its coast, but doesn't New Brunswick have a couple cities similar in size to Portland? In any case, there really aren't any big cities anywhere in Atlantic Canada or Upper New England.

[King of Kensington]

Interestingly I see a sort of "Maine in reverse" going on in the Maritimes, with New Brunswick more like northern Maine and mainland Nova Scotia more like southern Maine (Cape Breton/eastern Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland are North America's "Celtic fringe" and not really comparable to anything in the US). 

[mileslunn]

I don't even think that Atlantic Canada and Lower New England (MA, CT, RI) are that similar, that's why I'm only asking about how the Atlantic Provinces compare to Maine. Lower New England is very densely populated and urban, but Maine's populations density is on par with Nova Scotia's.

Is Atlantic Canada even more rural than Maine? Sure, Maine has Portland, as well as a few other sizable towns along or near its coast, but doesn't New Brunswick have a couple cities similar in size to Portland? In any case, there really aren't any big cities anywhere in Atlantic Canada or Upper New England.

Atlantic Canada is quite rural like northern New England and much like northern New England it is one of the few areas where Liberals still do well in rural areas (although polls suggest that may end next election) so I think comparisons have some logic.  New Hampshire is more akin to Chaudiere-Appalaches in Quebec despite language difference is both have a strong libertarian streak while Vermont is probably closest to PEI with lots of recent transplants from cities and that small town liberal communitarian vibe to it.  Maine is probably most like English speaking parts of New Brunswick as while there are French speaking towns in Maine, language protection doesn't play same role in politics it does in New Brunswick.  Canada is officially bilingual and protecting French language is big reason French speaking parts of New Brunswick go so heavily Liberal.  US is overwhelmingly English speaking so asking government to provide services in French is totally unrealistic and its more at family level trying to preserve language.

[King of Kensington]

Educational attainment is a huge difference between New England and the Maritimes.  I suspect share of degrees in similar to northern Maine.

[King of Kensington]

Newfoundland is kind of its own thing.  It's much more remote than the Maritime provinces.  I sort of see it as Canada's Ireland and Canada's Iceland.

[mileslunn]

Newfoundland is kind of its own thing.  It's much more remote than the Maritime provinces.  I sort of see it as Canada's Ireland and Canada's Iceland.

Best comparison is Celtic fringe in UK where Liberal Democrats still strong.

[King of Kensington]

Portland MSA (556,000) is actually bigger than Halifax Census Metropolitan Area (465,000) but the urban area is only 205,000 so quite a bit smaller than the urban area of Halifax (349,000).

Halifax Peninsula (the city's boundaries before the 1960s) has a pretty dense population too (72,000 in 7 square miles).

[King of Kensington]

Newfoundland is kind of its own thing.  It's much more remote than the Maritime provinces.  I sort of see it as Canada's Ireland and Canada's Iceland.

Best comparison is Celtic fringe in UK where Liberal Democrats still strong.

Sort of an east/split in the Maritimes too.  New Brunswick and western half of Nova Scotia are largely made up people of New England Yankee ancestry or French Canadians, similar to Maine.  The Celtic influence is stronger in eastern Nova Scotia and PEI where Scottish is the most common ancestry (and interestingly they're descended from Catholic Highland Scots).

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

Northern/eastern Maine is very similar to Anglo New Brunswick. I've been to both areas, they seem like one place that just happens to have an international boundary run through it.

[King of Kensington]

Northern Maine almost did end up in Canada:

Mark Zuehlke, for one, has considered the “what ifs.” The Victoria-based writer, whose books include For Honour’s Sake, an account of the War of 1812 peace talks, points out that returning occupied Maine created an “illogical” boundary that drives a wedge between Quebec and the Maritimes and forces travelers to take roundabout, time-consuming routes.

“It almost makes more of a border sense to go straight across, from Sherbrooke (Quebec) to the coast,” says Mr. Zuehlke. Railways — and eventually, highways – could have followed shorter, all-Canadian routes from Montreal to the Maritimes.

Inserting a British colony, a New Ireland, between Quebec and New Brunswick could have reoriented trade along east-west lines. And better communications links might have brought Canadians closer together — and planted the idea of nation-building – long before the drive for Confederation that culminated in 1867.

“There was an inwardness that might have broken down had there been better, easier communication between Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritime colonies,” says Mr. Zuehlke. “Confederation would have probably come more quickly, because there would have been this integration that didn’t happen until the late 1850s.”

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/new-ireland-how-maine-almost-became-part-of-canada-at-the-end-of-the-war-of-1812

[Lechasseur]

Newfoundland is kind of its own thing.  It's much more remote than the Maritime provinces.  I sort of see it as Canada's Ireland and Canada's Iceland.

Best comparison is Celtic fringe in UK where Liberal Democrats still strong.

Sort of an east/split in the Maritimes too.  New Brunswick and western half of Nova Scotia are largely made up people of New England Yankee ancestry or French Canadians, similar to Maine.  The Celtic influence is stronger in eastern Nova Scotia and PEI where Scottish is the most common ancestry (and interestingly they're descended from Catholic Highland Scots).

I know Halifax is kind of South-Central NS, but from a cultural standpoint, would it count as Western NS?

[King of Kensington]

Probably.  In fact, the main shift in Nova Scotia in the past 60 years or so has been the decline of Cape Breton and growth of Halifax.  A century ago, the industrial cities of Cape Breton had a similar population to Halifax.