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Comment by skissane | Hacker News Reader

> I wouldn't expect anyone outside of the Pacific Northwest or Canada to read it as British Columbia.

I’ve lived in Australia my whole life, never been to Canada, etc - and yet I immediately assumed “B.C” meant “British Columbia”. It just seemed like the most likely expansion in the context (looks like a news headline, posted on a North American website). Although a bit like you, my initial parse of the sentence was that she was crushed to death in a warehouse accident, it took me a couple of seconds to realise it was more likely meant figuratively

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Australia and B.C do have somewhat of a kinship though

> Australia and B.C do have somewhat of a kinship though

It is true that Australians and Canadians find themselves to have certain things in common, both being former dominions of the British Empire – but that doesn't mean that Canadian provinces have particularly strong salience for Australians.

Australians consume a lot more American media than Canadian media; and the US is a significantly more popular travel destination. I have a much better idea of the difference between New York and Florida than the difference between British Columbia and Ontario – I've been to both New York and Florida, as I said I still haven't got around to visiting Canada; even before I'd ever been to either, I'd watched countless TV shows and movies set in both, and that gave me a certain image of both in my head (and actually experiencing them in person wasn't hugely different from my pre-existing mental image). I think of Canadian provinces, and my mental images are a lot vaguer. I think that's generally true – the average Australian, if their idea of US geography is somewhat patchy, their idea of Canadian geography is likely to be a lot patchier.

I think he’s being more specific about the kinship between aussies and those in the lower mainland. I live in Vancouver, and I know exactly what this guys talking about when it comes to Aussies— drive up to Whistler (a nearby ski/snowboard/party town in the mountains) and you’ll be amazed at how many Australian accents you hear. It’s like Little Melbourne up there, my brother used to work the bars/restaurant scene up there, more than half of his coworkers at multiple jobs he had up there were aussies.

I don’t expect that Australians hold a bond with Canada at large, I can’t very well imagine any of the Aussies I’ve met having a fond place in their hearts for Calgary or even the rest of Canada (read: Toronto, Montreal).

I find it totally believable there are lots of Australians in some parts of BC. I just can't remember hearing it before.

Now I think about it, years ago, I did hear something about Australians working in the Canadian ski industry, and I suppose that probably was in BC. But I've never really been into skiing, so the information didn't make much of an impression on me. So I doubt that's got anything to do with my immediate understanding of "B.C. woman..." as being a reference to British Columbia.

Also, one of my aunts (by marriage) is Canadian, and if I remember right she grew up in BC. But I've never been particularly close to her, and I haven't seen or spoken to her in years. So I'm sceptical that has anything to do with it either.

jknutson was right about what I meant by kinship, in that there's relatively strong concentration of Aussies who come here for the mountains, presumably as sort of a right of a passage and end up staying if they can (easy PR I think), but also that B.C people tend to want to visit Australia for no other reason than it seems like a bit of a different world and most of us probably know some Aussies, but also don't tend to digest much if any Aussie media. I'd expect the desire to come here is the result more of word of mouth than advertising, but that's just a hunch.

Yes, exactly, though I did appreciate their elaboration on the sort of media Australians at-large are exposed to.

I'd say also that B.C people are fairly likely to want to pursue visiting Australia, despite not really digesting any substantial amount of Aussie media.

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