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mainland
DCHP-2 (Jul 2013)
1an. — Newfoundland, Geography
(in Newfoundland and Labrador) not in Newfoundland; a place name referring to all other locations in Canada, including Labrador.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Like in many other contexts, the term mainland was appropriated by residents of Newfoundland and Labrador to their geographical situation. Since this was the last province to join Canadian Confederation in 1949, it is likely that both the sea boundary and feelings of "differentness" from the rest of Canada gave rise to the expression.
Quotations
1881
The result of this confusion is, that there is no law whatever on the French[-speaking] shore. That country is inhabited by refugees from other parts of the island, and emigrants from Cape Breton or Prince Edward's Island, and from Nova Scotia and other portions of the mainland.
1963
After discussing church-state relationships in Japan, England, the United States, and finally mainland Canada, Dr. Warren then went on to Newfoundland.
Briefly he traced the growth of education in Newfoundland from the building of the first school by the churches to our present day system.
2011
[Author Wayne Johnston], along with writers Michael Winter and Kathleen Winter, artist David Blackwood, and comedians Rick Mercer and Cathy Jones -- to name just a few -- have created some of the most vivid and lasting depictions of Newfoundland culture, all from the distance of the mainland.
1bn. — Newfoundland, Geography
(on smaller, coastal islands in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador) referring to the Labrador coast.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — In this context, the meaning of mainland changes only slightly, with a specialization referring to a specific mainland rather than a general one, such as the Labrador Coast in the 1993 quotation.
Quotations
1993
At the top of the agenda is whether to move the Innu from their island settlement to the relatively pristine mainland location of Sango Bay.
1996
Strong demand usually means high commodity prices and solid profits. And Newfoundlanders want a healthy kickback. The province wants to change its tax laws to ensure a bigger share of Voisey's Bay revenues. It looks like it's going to win its smelter. Both Diamond Fields and Falconbridge have agreed. And both say they're eager to negotiate with the 5,500 Inuit and 1,500 Innu living on the mainland. "To us it doesn't matter who ends up in the driver's seat," said Chesley Andersen of the Labrador Inuit Association. "They'll still have to deal with us."
2000
The 600 Mushuau Innu have endured horrible living conditions for years. They suffer from poor health, suicides, substance abuse and erosion of traditions.
The government promised in 1994 to relocate them to the mainland to improve their lives.
The federal government has provided some $113 million toward the move, to pay for water and sewer systems, housing and health care as well as infrastructure.
The Innu voted to move to Little Sango Pond, Natuashish, located on the Labrador mainland, some 15 kilometres from the current island site of Davis Inlet.
2n. — Prince Edward Island, Geography
(in the province of PEI) not on Prince Edward Island; a place name referring to all other locations in Canada (except the island of Newfoundland).
Type: 3. Semantic Change — As with meaning 1, PEIers have adapted the term to their specific situation.
Quotations
1994
Islanders will always shop on the mainland, said Lisa Finkle, manager of the Waterfront Mall in Summerside. The big challenge is for P.E.I. retailers to cut into that large business.
1999
And if it weren't for a piece of legislation unique to PEI, Seaman's Beverages would probably be just a memory, too, like so many others.
Instead, not only is this tiny Maritime bottler surviving, it's thriving. Thanks to everything from innovative packaging to aggressive marketing of its old-style sodas on the mainland, Seaman's Beverages is now enjoying some of its most impressive growth ever.
2012
For Summerside, a city of about 15,000 (and serving another 45,000 in the surrounding areas) about 20 kilometres from the bridge, the bridge helped rebuild an economy hurt by the closure of the air force base in the late 1980s. He sees the bridge as a link to the mainland and a potential market of millions of people.
3n. — Cape Breton Island, Geography
(on Cape Breton Island) mainland refers to peninsular Nova Scotia.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — As with meaning 1, Cape Bretoners have adopted the term to their specific situation.
Quotations
1881
These strata occur in the isthmus joining the peninsula of Cape Rouge with the mainland, and from the isthmus, the coast of the peninsula and the strike so nearly coincide for upwards of a mile, that no additional strata can, for that distance, be safely gathered from it.
4n. — British Columbia, Geography
(in British Columbia) referring to the City of Vancouver and the region surrounding it; usually in the form Lower Mainland.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — In the compound Lower Mainland, 'lower' refers to the lowland region, which comprises the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts. This area is the most densely populated in the province (approximately 60% of BC's total population). The boundaries of the Lower Mainland are not officially defined, but are generally understood to be from Horseshoe Bay in the northwest, to Chilliwack in the east, and to the Canada-U.S. border in the south.
Quotations
1888
BRITISH COLUMBIA, a province of the Dominion of Canada entered the Confederation in 1871. It includes Vancouver island (first constituted a British colony in 1849), also the numerous islands and adjacent mainland of North America lying between point Roberts in the strait of Georgia, and Portland canal.
1990
Heavy snow started late Saturday afternoon in the Lower Mainland, continued yesterday and was expected to turn to freezing rain after midnight.
2008
Over the years Pat and I have kept track of Tyler's broadening career through receiving emails and telephone calls from his father and periodically travelling over to the Mainland to hear him perform whenever he toured through Vancouver.
2008
Tracking the appendages back to their source, unfortunately, is a long shot. Swirling ocean currents between the B.C. mainland and the offshore islands are all but entirely unpredictable. Beachcombers routinely find fishing net floats that drifted all the way from Japan. They likewise find empty water bottles that might have been discarded anywhere along any of the streams or rivers that cut through the province's interior. The five floating feet that have turned up so far -- the sixth reportedly turned out to be a hoax -- could have come from almost anywhere in the Pacific Ocean's drainage basin, which only includes about half of the planet.