Though we all live in the GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District, for those of you reading from elsewhere), the right to call oneself a Vancouverite depends on which side of the fence you’re sitting.

Any of us, when we go abroad, can say we’re Vancourites. Better than explaining where Aldergrove or Burnaby are.

But back in town, there’s a certain snobbery. Vancouverites proper are the centre of the GVRD. There are even Vancouverites who define their city limits by an approximation of historical boundaries - no further south than Prince Edward or further east than Commercial.

The backlash was bound to happen.

North Vancouver blogger MaikoPunk calls the GVRD outside of Vancouver “There Is Life Beyond Vancouver.”

Sometimes it gets frustrating if you live anywhere outside of the socially-blessed areas. A friend (from Langley, working in Coquitlam) related the following conversation:

My friend: The meeting is in Coquitlam.

Her friend: That’s too far for me to drive. How about we meet Downtown?

My friend: But that’s just as far for me to drive!

She went on to fume how it was just as far for her to drive Downtown as it was for her friend to drive out to Coquitlam.

Dang it, you two!

There are ways to solve the Vancouver-non-Vancouver dilemma.

The current best halfway meeting places are, if you live in one of the northern areas of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody or east North Vancouver and meeting a Vancouverite, at Brentwood Mall. If you’re from New Westminster, southern Coquitlam or northern Surrey, then it’s Metrotown. Both have SkyTrains for the Vancouverites and free parking for the suburbanites.