Respectfully shortened
As I was taught, it had nothing to do with values/ideology (fur trappers and ports on both sides) and everything, with economy, land and power.
First, there was Oregon’s Country. Co-ruled by the US and GB. Who really owned it? Hudson’s Bay, an old monopoly.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Then in 1848 indeed the NW border between US and Canada was drawn on the map along the 49th parallel, with the exception of Vancouver island. Again, less values and more “how do we divide the land between British North and the US?”
en.m.wikipedia.org
What US got south of the border were the territories that now are Oregon, Washington, Idaho, tiny parts of Montana and Wyoming.
en.m.wikipedia.org
What Canada got was mostly BC and Vancouver Island (it makes sense if you drive there, like I did to Banff. BC is a very long state).
At that time, Canada even didn’t have its name. The territory I am talking about was called British North. Canadian confederation with four provinces got its name in 1867. Time-wise, as the country, Canada formed even longer than the US so the culture in different provinces differs.
As to American NW in general, it really grew with the Alaskan gold rush. Then the territories around the huge ports such as Seattle and Vancouver expanded. Jack London wrote about it. There is also in interesting museum in Cashmere, 8 miles East of Leavenworth, WA. One gets an idea how it looked like before the Oregon Treaty.
I think it makes more sense if we look at presidential elections.
In improving his margin in the national popular vote by about 6 points from 2020, Donald Trump ran further ahead of his 2020 margin in the nation’s most vote-rich counties than he did in the rest of the country.
centerforpolitics.org
The gap was wider in 2016 when all big cities except for Indianapolis voted blue.
Where I live: Western WA is “mostly” progressive, Eastern “mostly” redneck. The distinction is geographical but essentially, the same trend seems to exist in every country. US, Canada, France, Germany. You name it.
Western Washington turned blue with Microsoft and other IT. But any megapolis that has many jobs requiring education eventually turns progressive.
Eastern Washington is behind the Cascades. Different climate, not unlike parts of California. Farmland. More physical distance between people. Here is your redneck area because of the geography and the trade.
I drove to Banff via Seattle-Spokane-Idaho panhandle- crossed the border - a part of BC - Alberta farmland - Banff. And then we drove to Calgary. Tell me if I am wrong, but I thought I noticed the difference between “farmland” BC and “farmland” Alberta. (Yes I did: cell coverage, apps to avoid fires downloadable for BC but not for Alberta). Calgary looked beautiful and “progressive enough”.
BTW, I don’t use “rednecks” negatively. Lots of my great-grandparents were rednecks. I think “culture” is more defined by what climatic and economic conditions people have to survive.
