[sandworm101]

I didn't day 100 anything. I said near. The people of new england are near ports for trade with the "old world" of europe, just as canadians are near the great lakes. The boarder was all about ports, not population, even in the west. It's all about the waterways to the world, not being within some magic distance to any boarder as the crow flies.

[nommm-nommm]

This makes no sense.

When people say something is "near" something else they mean its geographically close. You were replying specifically to "Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border," in the comments of an article specifically about geography, which makes your "near" definition make even less sense. You might as well say "New York City is like in Chicago's back yard since you can get there by boat." or "Bergen is near Miami because they are both on the Atlantic Ocean."