Sandsmehra

Thank you all again. We don't need jobs for any points to acquire the PR so we'll have to see where the job opportunities lie (they may well be outside Toronto but I picked that destination since it tends to rate highly as a "World Class" city to live in.

At this juncture Canada "seems" like a good place to emigrate to but neither my wife and I have spent any significant length of time in Toronto or anywhere else for that matter apart from a few holidays and a business trip which I did take to Toronto in December when it was indeed snowing. Having lived in Chicago years ago I'm presuming that the Winters in Toronto maybe similar.

I think we want to look at Canada as an overall country to emigrate to and amongst those factors shall be overall quality of life vs UK, education, healthcare and career opportunities etc.

The cost of living in UK given the taxation for the quality of life one has with respect to housing, disposable income as a professional/middle class worker (in addition to the increasing social problems of crime etc) doesn't appear that great now and hence the exploration of the Canada option.

Thanks again to everyone for your input. It's really useful

Sandsmehra

A big question for us now is where is it better to raise a family. UK or Canada?

dbd33

I hadn't heard this claim before though it's a common enough description for places where there's a computer; most places are both the Paris and the Silicon Valley of somewhere. I googled. The articles I found were about Waterloo, not Mississauga, and were based on the success of a company called RIM. RIM made a device called the Blackberry that was fashionable about the time of the Backstreet Boys. I suppose that makes Waterloo the Port Talbot of Canada now.

Mississauga has quite a lot of corporate offices, some of them containing computers. It's ugly (and yes I know there are half a dozen nice houses south of the QEW) and huge. The Milton Keynes of Canada would be fair if it had roundabouts instead of all those traffic lights.

christmasoompa

The answer will differ depending on who you ask, personally I'd say UK (where I now am, raising mine), but others will say Canada. It's all down to personal opinion and tbh, before you spend tens of thousands on emigration, I'd try and visit Toronto with your wife so that she can see if she likes it. I think it's a pretty 'Marmite' kind of place, so would recommend a trip.

Good luck.

Sandsmehra

Thanks, DBD 33. The Milton Keynes of Canada doesn't really sell it to me (no offence to those from Milton Keynes). Well at least it's not the Swindon nor the Slough

Sandsmehra

Many thanks, Christmasoompa. It's really of interest that you believe that UK is better to raise a family than Canada. May I ask what your primary reasons are to elect UK over Canada please? Thanks again!

dbd33

Not only the weather but the geography and architecture. During a phase of commuting to Naperville (very like Mississauga, btw) from Toronto and another phase of taking a child for monthly treatments at a hospital in Chicago I found I was constantly confused because everything was the same except that the primary navigation aid, the lake, was in the wrong place.

The aquarium in Toronto is better, the art gallery in Chicago is better. It's noticeable in Chicago that the, single person in car commuters stuck in traffic, are white and the, jammed on the platform waiting for L commuters, are black, whereas, in Toronto, commuting misery is more equitably disrupted. Otherwise I can`t tell the difference between the two towns.

dbd33

Brampton is the Slough of Canada. Etobicoke is the Hounslow. Rexdale is the Toxteth.

christmasoompa

It's been described as Slough on many an occasion - http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...ssauga-867742/

For us personally -

Being close to family and friends (both as a support network, but also just to avoid the awful reality of having family - which we're both close to - in another country and missing out on the children growing up)
More disposable income
Better career prospects for hubby
Proximity to Europe for cheap holidays and weekends (travel in/from Canada will make your eyes water), which we think is invaluable for our children personally
Better schooling in our opinion (Canada is generally said to focus on a more rounded education i.e. manners and confidence rather than focusing on the academics, but frankly I think that's the parents job and I just want my children's school to teach them!). Smaller class sizes where we are in the UK too.
Culture. I know that there is culture in Canada too, I'm not disputing that, but for me European culture and architecture just wins over that of North America.

I should add that all of this is comparing rural Berkshire to Vancouver, so hardly a fair comparison, but for us, we would have had to stay in Vancouver for hubby's job (that's where his office is) and so things like class sizes etc were a factor. Just living more rurally is also a contributing factor, for example here my daughter can have a pony cheaply, here we have no crime and leave our back door unlocked, we wouldn't have been able to do that in Van (the only place I've ever been a victim of a crime was Toronto), etc.

And again, I reiterate, that this is my personal opinion, and others will find just the opposite and prefer Canada. Different strokes for different folks and all that! Well done for researching it throughly before applying for PR though (unlike us....that was money down the drain!).

HTH.

Moses2013

As christmasoompa said, it will be personal opinion and would Toronto/Vancouver really be better than a nice village in Dorset, or somewhere in Scotland? Again the city person will say yes, because they prefer the city, however kids can adapt and it's just important that they can grow up in a nice environment.








I try to avoid big cities personally and don't really like overpopulated places, so that's why Ireland suited me better than England and housing prices played a big part at the time. You have the advantage that Canada is less populated, but then again plenty of people in Canada live in big cities. Parents will always think they know what's best for children.
Be it UK or Canada, I think there are far worse places for kids to grow up and luckily we have choices.

dbd33

Toronto isn't just a Marmite kind of place but also a matzo, allspice, allo ghobi, Yorkshire pudding kind of place. The OP knows Chicago and most things are not different but the compelling feature of Toronto is that everyone is from somewhere else. This is true to a similar extent as one sees in NYC or east London.

In Toronto it's possible to buy almost any type of food cooked or raw from a native of the country of the cuisine. Two of my children attended high school in Toronto and, at one point, neither of them was in a class where two students had the same combination of passports. You may suppose that a range of languages were spoken. It's not safe to assume that a stranger in Toronto will speak good English, even if that person is running a shop.

Be it a blessing or a curse, diversity defines Toronto. (Also horrific traffic but they have that in Chicago and Singapore).

Sandsmehra

Again, I'm really grateful for the respective input from you all. I have a good deal to consider but I think a trip to Toronto/Canada is definitely on the cards first to see if we gets good feeling for the place.

christmasoompa

Good idea. What are you scoring on the CRS for your EE application? I'm just wondering if you're close to the cut off then maybe you could apply sooner rather than later so that you don't miss out if you do decide Canada is for you, but at least that way you wouldn't have to pay the processing fees until a later date when hopefully you've visited.

Of course, if you're well over the points score, then don't apply until you get back from Toronto and are sure it's for you!

Sandsmehra

Btw the points you made about the support network of family and friends in the UK that resonates well with us, Christmasoompa.

The one primary driver for is repatriating to UK from
Singapore is exactly that since on the face of it one would be "crazy" to return given the career prospects, the home help, the low taxation/high disposable income, safety and efficiency of Singapore.

Sandsmehra

As you also rightly put it, Moses2013, we are blessed to have the choice between UK and Canada. It's not a bad "problem" to have.