as border cities we're part of the US cities'/corridor's economic organism in a big way and our economies are closely tied into it, Vancouver's as much as Tijuana's; by this I mean above-board economies as well as dark-market smuggling and worse of all kinds; this goes back to the booze running of the '30s - Vancouver and Tijuana had major trade/shipping between their latitudes, guess why (other boats would bring it in through the fogbanks...) and it goes back even before that; Vancouver and Seattle have always been rivals as well as partner in all kinds of ways, and are more like each other than they are like anywhere else, with the exception of smaller cities adjacent to them