Why Are We Discounting Urban Sprawl?

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In Vancouver, the city is starting to sprawl into the mainland. Yes, the border may not officially included some ridings, but if anyone doubts that Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam is part of Vancouver, needs to take a drive from Vancouver through Port Moody and Port Coquitlam. These two areas are highly dense and are a continuation of the Vancouver city proper and from what I hear, you wouldn’t notice much of a difference.

When you cruise around the Greater Vancouver area you have others as well. Randy Camp took Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission. John Cummins took Delta-Richmond East.

Looking at the Big Smoke, there are bedroom communities that the urban sprawl has reached. In the east we have Oshawa and Whitby in particular. There isn’t any no man’s land in between Toronto and Oshawa. You can even see the huge residential growth happening a bit further east in Clarington.

Jim Flaherty took Whitby-Oshawa. Colin Carrie took Oshawa and Bev Oda is returning as the MP from Durham which covers Uxbridge and Clarington.

To the west of Toronto, Mike Wallace took Burlington and Garth Turner took Halton. Halton is home to a big chunk of Oakville. Although not part of the GTA, these areas are very well developed and connected to the 416 area code with main streets and residential surburbia. If there wasn’t signs, you would have no clue you exited Toronto when driving clear through Oakville and on to Burlington. The 407 has made the drive from Pickering to Burlington pretty much an easy cruise across the top of the city without dealing with traffic or highway interchanges.

A city line may be drawn to designate where the metropolis ends, but the desire to live close to it has created no delineation when it comes to the scenery. Suburb after suburb, mall after mall, strip plaza after strip plaza, Tim Horton’s after Tim Horton’s. A drive around Vancouver and Toronto will clearly show that the above areas can be included in their respective cities.