Moncton? Where’s that?

One of my fondest media moments in New Brunswick was either last year or the year before when Halifax received over 100 centimetres of snow and smashed all records. A little remembered aspect of that particular storm system was that Moncton received, ho hum, 70 centimetres. Most of us where working either that day or the next while Halifax was paralyzed for a week.

But the memory is of the Daily Gleaner which ran a lead story with a title something like (I am paraphrasing here but you’ll get my drift) Major storm bypasses New Brunswick.

For me that was a metaphor for how the two other main New Brunswick cities have viewed Moncton over the years – a dreary, drab place with a weird brown sledge and almost no charm. When I moved to Moncton in the mid 1990s, a Saint John colleague intoned “why?”.

This lack of knowledge about Moncton is not restricted to the Loyalists and the Elites. Check most maps of Canada. Fredericton and Saint John. Check the weather network on TV. Saint John.

Well, Fredericton and Moncton would be wise to put Moncton on their maps. Since 1955, the population of Saint John County has remained the same while Westmorland (Moncton) has doubled. And we all know about the success of the 1990s.