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According to the CIA World Factbook, the metro areas of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharja accounts for 85% of the population. I say those places are more representative of the UAE than a plethora of villages and towns scattered in rural areas.
But UAE is highly exceptional, in that it has no pre-urban past or cultural identity.
Have you ever spent a night in any non-tourist town outside a major metro?
For "capital". read "main population and cultural center". Otherwise the question is just begging for a pointless list of outlying capitals.
Anyone that thinks the Greater Washington DC area is representative of the USA is in for a surprise, but Greater London is more representative of the UK than Greater Washington DC of the USA.
I agree, indeed London is as reflective of the UK as NYC is of the US or Paris in relation to France.
All are global cites and business centres and are very international, although in London's case there is a lot of pageantry and history, however this is coupled with a diversity of cultures in parts of the city. Just look at NYC with it's diversity of food and culture.
I wouldn't see it as an awkward place. Just look at many other countries.
USA: Washington DC < NYC
China: Shanghai > Beijin
Australia: Sydney > Canberra Canada: Ottowa < Toronto
Nigeria: Abuja < Lagos
Ecuador: Quito < Guayaquil
Brazil: São Paulo > Brasilia
India: Mumbai > New Delhi
There are many others.
Many people abroad might identify Toronto when asked to name a Canadian city in a trivia quiz, but I don't think that its size necessarily makes it the city most representative of Canada.
Ask people in Quebec, Nunavut, Newfoundland or even Vancouver if Toronto is representative of Canada.
As such, Ottawa is probably as good as it gets in terms of having a representative capital city for this country. BIMBAM made an excellent post that gives many reasons why.
I would actually say that Ottawa is fairly representative of the country, sort of a rough midpoint where people from across our geographically enormous and culturally varied country could all feel relatively comfortable. It's urban, but not extremely urban, a mid sized city surrounded by a greenbelt that small town people feel more comfortable in than in a city like Toronto and city people feel is acceptably urban to be comfortable option for them as well. It's a metro that is roughly 25% Francophone and 75% Anglophone with portions in Quebec and Ontario, a rough mirror of the federation as a whole. It has diverse immigrant communities but not much more so than the country as a whole. Even the age of the city feels like a midpoint, with it being young compared to neighboring Montreal, but old compared to Western cities like Calgary. Probably the most median and representative place you can find in Canada, but it does still feel rooted in its region.
It's not a huge population share, though larger than in the other Canadian big cities. (The Indigenous share of Canada's population isn't that big to begin with, at 5-7%. Ottawa's share is probably in the 3-5% range.)
On a whole other level, Ottawa also arguably has the classic Canadian climate: DFB or humid continental. This means cold snowy winters with winter sports like skiing and kids playing hockey on frozen ponds. And nice and warm summer days swimming in lakes or rivers at a cottage or a campground.
I agree, indeed London is as reflective of the UK as NYC is of the US or Paris in relation to France.
All are global cites and business centres and are very international, although in London's case there is a lot of pageantry and history, however this is coupled with a diversity of cultures in parts of the city. Just look at NYC with it's diversity of food and culture.
Having lived in the southeast for a chunk of my life, I can tell you that NYC, while it might be the quintessential city of the Mid-Atlantic northeast, is not at all culturally reflective of the country as a whole. Contrast with Atlanta, for example. Not even slightly close.
But UAE is highly exceptional, in that it has no pre-urban past or cultural identity.
Have you ever spent a night in any non-tourist town outside a major metro?
For "capital". read "main population and cultural center". Otherwise the question is just begging for a pointless list of outlying capitals.
The UAE absolutely does have a pre-urban cultural past, just one that gets relatively little international attention. There are quite a few historic forts and the occasional remains of a ghost village here and there attesting to that.
Having lived in the southeast for a chunk of my life, I can tell you that NYC, while it might be the quintessential city of the Mid-Atlantic northeast, is not at all culturally reflective of the country as a whole. Contrast with Atlanta, for example. Not even slightly close.
I think Chicago is a pretty good fit as the quintessential American city.
Many people abroad might identify Toronto when asked to name a Canadian city in a trivia quiz, but I don't think that its size necessarily makes it the city most representative of Canada.
Ask people in Quebec, Nunavut, Newfoundland or even Vancouver if Toronto is representative of Canada.
As such, Ottawa is probably as good as it gets in terms of having a representative capital city for this country. BIMBAM made an excellent post that gives many reasons why.
Pretty much agree. No city of course can represent all of our country, but Ottawa is the closest. As long as a visitor whose only visit to Canada was Ottawa, doesn't think that it is 100 percent representative, since they would miss out on the vast variety the country offers.
Toronto.
It represents some aspects of Canada, and I feel perfectly at home there, but it certainly doesn't reflect Vancouver, let alone BC, or the other places you mentioned.
The UAE absolutely does have a pre-urban cultural past, just one that gets relatively little international attention. There are quite a few historic forts and the occasional remains of a ghost village here and there attesting to that.
But the UAE has no past distinguishing it fron the scattered forts and villages in the remainder of the Arabian peninsula. A line wasn't even drawn between them until a generation before the impact of oil changed all that. I didn't say the culture was non-existent, but that it was a large undifferentiated culture.
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