Most of us, at least in highly mobile socieites such as this one, have context-specific answers to the "where are you from" question. If in Europe, I'll say "Toronto" - though it's a half hour drive to the city (longer to downtown). If in Toronto, I'll often say "Milton", which is, technically, correct - that's my municipality - but sometimes, if I feel like people know the area, I'll be more accurate and come out with "Campbellville", because that's what my postal address says. Really, though, there's an even smaller village (hamlet? road crossing?) that applies. And I'm not *from* there, I *live* there.
I lived in Guelph longer than any other place in my life and I still work there, but it would never occur to me to say 
I'm from Guelph. I do, however, frequently say I'm from northern Ontario - the nine years between nine and 18 seem to count for a lot more than the 11 between 22 and 33 (though that makes sense with the law of diminishing sense of age: the older I get, the faster the years move, after all).
Northern Ontario, though, is a big place (and I would argue that Barrie is nowhere near northern Ontario, and Parry Sound is questionable - it begins where it is no longer feasible to drive to Toronto for the evening, where First Nations lands are so common that they're a regular part of the landscape, where the majority of cars are older than three years, $40,000 is considered a "good income", and cities are declining in population rather than bleeding into space with estate home developments). So, indubitably, if you're from Smooth Rock Falls, the bush outside Bruce Mines isn't so very north, but it fits my definition (which, arguably, is not a definition so much as a description of home).
Despite being "from" there, though, I don't have that much of a sense of Sault Ste. Marie and environs. My family wasn't that involved in the community, we didn't have an extended family there, and we lived walking distance to nowhere and, aside from a few years of figure skating lessons, we never went anywhere. The first time I went to the cinema was on a high school field trip (Amadeus). So it probably doesn't come as a surprise that I'd never been to Landslide Hill, which was a tiny (50m vertical) ski hill in the Sault, with one lift (and a poma lift at that). But Iain had a youth of Pony Club and ski hills, and it's as much fun to visit the old haunts of the man who's been one of your most treasured friends for 20 years as it is to see your own, really - and that's what we did on Boxing Day. We also went to Gros Cap, which I *had* been to before - courtesy of Iain, sometime in the 90s, during the Christmas holidays...
I can't honestly say that I can see myself living there again, but I love it. I think the Sault, with its definite feel of a northern town and its steel-plant dominated cityscape, is not a bad place. I think the countryside around there is beautiful, and outdoor adventure - including Lake Superior, the North Channel, miles and miles of canoe routes and good hiking are more accessible than here, in "just outside Toronto, edge of the GTA" territory. Georgian Bay wouldn't be any further away (though the three hour drive would get me to the less populated part of it). Winter would be real winter: none of this grey saltspray, highway turned parking lot nastiness. Property would be more affordable.
But, working for a living? Not exactly the land of opportunity. That's the reality of it all: young people, especially the ones who chased after an education, tend to leave. There are a few, those who became teachers or got some of the few governement jobs or the imaginative, entrepreneurial ones, who made a good go of it. But most of us, we end up leaving. And, for me, living the life I do, I suspect - despite all my bitching about suburbia - that I'd miss the highly mobile, relatively young population I'm surrounded by here. Just a hunch.
Doesn't mean I don't sometimes wish it were possible.