Yeah, you summed it a up nicely. The only country that wont let you work and yet wants proof you are looking for work.
CIC want shutting down and the building destroyed. What a bunch of no brainers.

Joepublic, meet Squidge & Canadiangrape.

Squidge & Canadiangrape, meet Joepublic

We came to Canada in April 87, prior to that we made a final trip from Germany to bid farewell to our family in the UK. We were booked on that ferry. As fate would have it, we managed to get away early and make an earlier sailing. A friend who was supposed to follow us down to Zeebrugge was on that ferry, he survived, thank god. I have not thought about how close a call that was for years, my kids were 4 and 2....we were so lucky.

Anyway, Over the years I have visited the UK often (I was born in Hampshire, my family are from Devon). I worked back in the UK from 2002 till 2006 (Farnborough). Like most I miss aspects of the UK, but those years reinforced for me one thing; that it is highly unlikely I could ever live there again.

As for Canada, I have lived in BC, Ontario and NB....I expect to be retiring early in the next year or so and have to decide where we will hang our hat. I like NB and may opt to just stay here. We will see.....

At the end of the day, life is what you make of it, Canada has been good to us....and family is a plane ride away.

I have a dubious connection to the herald the free enterprise - was serving on the HMS Hurworth at the time which was on exercises in Ostend. We were the first RN ship at scene, dispatched as a rescue ship. Ironically some of our lads were supposed to be on the ship but were lucky to get on a earlier sailing on a faster hydro foil. I remember a lot of Brit service personal were among the dead. Half of our ships company were away that weekend and we had to use local Belgium sailors. A very horrific moment of my life.

Glad to hear you didn't get on board. I left the Navy not long after that.

"I also find that the Canadians are very two faced and really cant be trusted"

Sounds like the south of england - we have plenty of horrible people down here !

thats why we are all leaving !

The nice people kicking you out?

your joking mate - south of england not exactly famous for nice people

wonder whether there is a table somewhere by country on this

america must be the worst - all the fake :-

"have a nice day - now give me your money"

approach they have to everything

Don't get me started there, my last American girlfriend was anorexic and had serious depression issues but whenever we went to someone's house for dinner then she'd be like Ashley Simpson on acid.

Reading this; I stand by my question

I always take the view that I'd rather be told to have a nice day by someone that didn't mean it than to **** off by someone that does.

Seriously, don't come with the illusion that Canada will be very different to the USA.

Now JonboyE, Canada isn't all bad

fair point - i may concede that one

el_richo - "The nice people kicking you out?" - and your point is ?

no , i am one of the nice people (like most of this board) but most "folk" down in the south of england are not which is one of the reasons people are leaving

hope thats simple enough for you to understand !

thought you'd be a bit better given your blog which is
an interesting read

give me strength ! - or a molson . . .

There's really no need to resort to Molson, we get Sam Adams' in Canada.

My question was initially an attempt at humour.

Then, after your generalisation that "most" people in the south of England are not very nice steered me into considering the legitimacy of the question. It's not nice to say somebody is not nice when you've never met them nor know them. Surely you've not met "most" people living in the south of England?

True there are a few dickheads but there are also very many nice people. To leave based upon your thinking is, in my opinion, a recipe for a let-down. Heck, canadiangrape and Squiddgelalert must have a basis for their opinions

Hy Rico

Actually I do have a basis for my opinions - first one is I come from the South of England myself, (Bedfordshire), and contrary to belief - we are not all bad!

Secondly, I have had the chance to live in another country I can say with hand on my heart - I am looking forward to going home. Wifey and me had two good jobs, family and friends, a new PT plus 2 new motorbikes. But we were being taxed out of our arseholes. If the government could tax you on something, they would find a way to do so. Our only option was to leave the UK and come to Canada. USA was in big trouble so we didnt want to go there and the other European countries are just as bad as England. But, I always had a job and never got laid off.

Here I was laid off after 7 weeks of arriving here, and now I cannot work because of the stupid shits at CIC and there stupid LMO rules. Thank god our work permits are good till November, at least we can save some money to get out of here.

Going back to the UK means I wont have to wait for 3 months of processing time when I need to change a job, I can drive on the correct side without ever having to dodge erratic pedestrians, and I can sit in my local and have a chat with the barman without some dizzy waitress bugging us about the quality of our Nachos which are quite "awesome!" (or is that awefull)
:curse: