Talk:Pacific Northwest

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Vancouver vs Vancouver

i am a life long oregon/washington resident. for as long as i can remember, we have NEVER called Vancouver, BC, "Vancouver". If we say Vancouver, we normally are talking about Vancouver WA. We always call Vancouver, BC, just that: Vancouver BC. This can get confusing. I imagine BC people always call Vanc BC, just Vancouver. And they probably call Vancouver WA, Vancouver WA. Just one more of many differences between the PNW people North/ South of the border. this whole article seems to be somewhat artificially blending us all together, but we are extremely different from each other. Nothing but the general geography actually has any commonality, in terms of US/Canada. And maybe the english we speak. it ends there. Our perspectves are quite different. Meat Eating Orchid (talk) 07:43, 18 February 2020 (UTC) why would anyone remove the above comment i made? it is every bit as valid as any other on here. it isn't part of the article, it is DISCUSSION. so i reverted it back onto here. Leave it up. It gives American NW perspective. Meat Eating Orchid (talk) 19:12, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

I think almost by definition, this article is going to focus on the links & similarities since it's about the area as a whole, although if you want to include additional points of division you're of course free to do so. On your narrow point, I didn't even realize the question you were asking from the title - from a BC perspective, "Vancouver" is of course ambiguous in meaning, because without qualification it's not clear if that means City of Vancouver (600k) or Metro Vancouver (2.5m) - but no, without a ", WA" qualifier, it would never mean "175k in suburban Portland". Similarly, Americans from different coasts would envisage a different "Portland" (Oregon or Maine) when said unqualified, and residents of most States would see a different "Lancaster" or "Springfield". --Brislian (talk) 21:18, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

If there are changes to the article to be proposed, this is the place to do it. But this is not a forum for general discussion. As articles are written for a worldwide audience there has been a general consensus developed in many articles to refer to Vancouver, Canada simply as Vancouver. On the talk page for that article, there is a link to an essay which explains why "Vancouver" is not a disambiguation page. That may provide some context to your question.--Darryl Kerrigan (talk) 21:45, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Vancouver is only ambiguous for people in Washington and Oregon. For everyone else it's clearly Vancouver, BC. This has already been established on wikipedia. People in Vancouver BC are not always even aware there is another Vancouver. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.246.130.230 (talk) 22:57, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Geographic misnomers

As a longtime resident of a state (Idaho) adjacent to (or by some conceptions part of) the U.S. Pacific Northwest, and an occasional visitor to Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, I strongly disagree with the assertion that the adjacent region of Canada is part of the PNW. It's a geographic and directional non sequitur to say that the southwestern part of Canada is somehow part of the northwestern United States. It makes no sense. Just look at the map. I for one have never heard B.C., which is in separate country, referred to as being in the Pacific Northwest.
Even more misleading is the notion that the Pacific Northwest in any common usage includes "southeast Alaska, western Montana and parts of Wyoming." Totally unknown. (And BTW, U.S. English style doesn't capitalize directional qualifiers such as "southeast" and "western" when such regions are not recognized geographic entities.) – Sca (talk) 14:57, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Recent coverage of the 2021 Western North America heat wave often referred to SW BC and even Alberta as the Pacific Northwest. Even University of Victoria more or less admits the term encompasses SW BC here. So does one of the Canadian scholarly sources at 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic, "Smallpox in the Pacific Northwest: the First Epidemics". Here is a tourist promotion agency in Victoria that shows a ferry route map of the "Pacific Northwest", most of which are Vancouver Island-mainland and I think only two Seattle ferries. Hidden Pacific Northwest: Including Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, Victoria, and Coastal British Columbia and Pacific Northwest: Oregon, Washington and British Columbia] are book titles from major publishers. So I wouldn't exactly push a definition that includes British Columbia, but we have to realize it is out there in common use.

As for the capitalization issue, it is a known difference in US English and other variants outlined at MOS:COMPASS. We tend to follow the style pertaining to the region the article is about (MOS:TIES). ☆ Bri (talk) 15:46, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

I see you refactored your point about capitalization above, and I think I agree. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:29, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Missoula

Should we include Missoula? Western Montana was part of the Oregon Territory and it's located in the Columbia River drainage basin. Malcolmmwa (talk) 05:56, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

Keep in mind though that regardless of its qualifications for inclusion, it still might be irrelevant due to its size, as it's smaller than Medford, the current smallest entry on the list. Malcolmmwa (talk) 06:00, 30 October 2021 (UTC)

Ferry usage?

Both BC Ferries and Washington State Ferries are huge ferry systems (not to mention the Alaska Marine Highway), and while I don't know of any similar system in Oregon I think the fact that the coastal section relies so heavily on ferries merits a mention in the Transit subsection. Spellingbee91 (talk) 16:26, 23 March 2023 (UTC)