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Still, the Atlantic provinces— absent Prince Edward Island because the sample size was too small — consider each other friends. Seventy-one per cent of those in New Brunswick, for example, look fondly at Nova Scotia and 51 per cent of those in Newfoundland and Labrador look at Nova Scotia as a friend.

And 77 per cent of Albertans say that Saskatchewan’s a friend; 75 per cent of them reciprocate that feeling. Sixty-three per cent of Manitobans also see Saskatchewan as a pal.

British Columbia, on the other hand, is the odd one out in the western clique: just 21 per cent of people in other western provinces say B.C. has a close relationship with their own province, and that feeling, in the same proportion, is reciprocated west of the Rockies. B.C., along with the other two most popular provinces — Quebec and Ontario, feels isolated: 43 per cent of British Columbians say they don’t feel any other provinces are close or friendly, that number is 41 per cent in Ontario and 30 per cent in Quebec.

“We are a country in which proximity or geography may or may not play a role in how close we feel to each other, very much depending on the other factors at play,” Kurl explained.

The polling, drawn from an online survey of more than 4,000 Canadians across the country who are members of the Angus Reid Forum, a group of survey respondents, also says that a “primary criticism” from residents in Alberta and Saskatchewan, is that they don’t benefit in proportion to what’s provided to the rest of the country, as discontent over equalization payments bubbles up. Just more than one-third of all Canadians believe Alberta gives more than they get to Confederation, while 16 per cent believe Saskatchewan does, too, followed by Atlantic Canada and Ontario, tied at 15 per cent.