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Moving to Toronto

Moving to Toronto

Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:34 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by James Martindale
I lived and worked in Toronto for a year. The winter there is very different but I do not want to overwhelm you.

My advice if you get your PR in February is to head out in the spring and find a good job and then as winter nears pick your work colleagues brains as to what you need to do to prepare. I seldom used public transport in Toronto and drove everywhere. In the winter this required an underground fanned carpark to stop the engine freezing and having to scrape my car. Good quality all weather tyres (that were very expensive) to grip in the snow. Lots of screen wash in the car trunk because you constantly have to clear your windscreen of grit and run out fast. You will also need to develop a good canadian winter wardrobe and understand that all the people in downtown seem to move underground. There is a subway (tube system) and there are buses but I do not think they are as good as in London.

Anyway as I say I do not want to overwhelm you. It is different but I really enjoyed the winter there as it was a phenominal learning curve.

I cannot help with your medical question.
Your frightening Maria-747 to death. Maria, in a Toronto winter, cars do not freeze, except very infrequently, and on occasion you may have to scrape the WINDSHIELD and WINDOWS of ice and snow but not the car which sometimes may need brushed off. You are required to squirt windshield washer fluid but not constantly. You buy a container of the fluid which, from my 42 years experience, will probably last 1/2 months. We have a good public transit system but nothing as widespread/good as London but then few cities have. The reason the underground car parking is "fanned" is to extract the exhaust fumes not to heat the area. There is a huge downtown undergropund walkway with hundreds of shops with subway/commuter trains arriving/leaving there. Tens of thousands of people working downtown hardly ever need to come outside in the winter if they choose not to.
Toronto will always seem unexciting to young people vs London but there are lots of bars, restaurants and clubs, great shopping and most important, people are nice and friendly.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:43 am
  #17  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Maria_747
Does downtown Toronto have the same vibrancy as central London ?(aka Leicester square or Piccadilly).
No. Nothing like. Toronto has the vibrancy of Aberdeen. NYC is the nearest place where one can gasp at the excitement of it all.

Last edited by dbd33; Nov 25th 2008 at 12:48 am.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:47 am
  #18  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Maria_747
So basically, I am trying to find a locality that fits the bill.Some say mississauga does !
People who say this are those for whom the pace of life in Hemel Hempstead would be too much.

Look, Toronto may offer a chance to be relatively well off, to have a bigger house, more cars, better education for the children, things money can buy but it's nowhere; if city life matters to you then settling on Toronto is accepting life in the minor league.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 2:22 am
  #19  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Maria_747

Does downtown Toronto have the same vibrancy as central London ?(aka Leicester square or Piccadilly).
In 2 hours you can be in Paris or Brussels ? from St Pancras ! Plus the corner shop I will miss !
We have corner shops, if that helps at all. In two hours you can be in Mississauga or Pickering.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 2:29 am
  #20  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Novocastrian
We have corner shops, if that helps at all. In two hours you can be in Mississauga or Pickering.
From downtown Toronto on the commuter train it's 45 minutes to Pickering or Mississauga. By car, outside rush hours, perhaps 30-35 minutes. I've lived in both places.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 7:10 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Maria_747
Many Thanks Elaine

That is my problem ! :
I am comparing every little thing of London to Toronto.
I live in West London, walking distance to the tube, so can get to the Westend within 25 mins, heathrow airport, The M4 etc.
So basically, I am trying to find a locality that fits the bill.Some say mississauga does !

May I ask, do you miss Toronto now ? Would you go back in the near future ?
I'm very fond of Toronto (both my kids where born there) I especially enjoyed living downtown (Church and Welleslely area) within walking distance to everything, but no I won't be moving back I'm a lot happier where I am. I think moving to Canada is a opportunity to do something different so if you move and compare everything to London you may be disappointed.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 11:49 am
  #22  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by brianscottie43
From downtown Toronto on the commuter train it's 45 minutes to Pickering or Mississauga. By car, outside rush hours, perhaps 30-35 minutes. I've lived in both places.
But why would anyone want to go to Mississauga or Pickering?
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:00 pm
  #23  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by dbd33
But why would anyone want to go to Mississauga or Pickering?
Maybe for the history and scenery?
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:05 pm
  #24  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Elaine B.
Maybe for the history and scenery?
Ah ha! Perhaps there's also an opera house.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 12:16 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Elaine B.
Maybe for the history and scenery?
Prepare for the great southern Irish invasion this weekend Elaine. 2% off VAT! People are literally dribbling at the thought of bargins! Newry will have a Dublin accent this weekend.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 1:27 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by dbd33
Ah ha! Perhaps there's also an opera house.
No no no! We have 2 (two) museums here in Mississauga. Both are some old mice-smelling houses featuring a collection of rusty agricultural tools and rural furniture on display.

As for scenery, we have over 280 parks, some of them (at least ten) having more than five trees.

And all that is reachable from Union Station in 20-30 minutes by Go train.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 1:36 pm
  #27  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Settlers_Unlimited
No no no! We have 2 (two) museums here in Mississauga. Both are some old mice-smelling houses featuring a collection of rusty agricultural tools and rural furniture on display.

As for scenery, we have over 280 parks, some of them (at least ten) having more than five trees.

And all that is reachable from Union Station in 20-30 minutes by Go train.
One of my kids went to a rustic living weekend at the museum house south of Clarkson, I don't remember the name of it. She could, of course, have done the same in Toronto or, I suppose, Pickering, so that's not really a reason to go from one to another. Mississauga, at least the wasteland part north of the QEW, is built on farmland so I have to think it has less trees per acre than most of Ontario. It does have some sort of amusement arcade though, there are signs to it on the highway.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 1:42 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by dbd33
But why would anyone want to go to Mississauga or Pickering?
If anyone has a sensible answer to this Im all ears - always baffled me!
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 1:46 pm
  #29  
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

Originally Posted by Elaine B.
I think moving to Canada is a opportunity to do something different so if you move and compare everything to London you may be disappointed.
Well put!!!

Canada is not the UK and never will be - thank god, allah, buddha and any other make beleive religeous character!

This is Canada so if you come here then you need to be able to enjoy and embrace that and all what Canada has to offer not expect another London! I for one dont want another London here! I left the country for a reason (well several)!!! For me any country in the world has big cities that are all horrible urban sprawls of concrete - Canada is all about the great outdoors!

Last edited by Mikey B; Nov 25th 2008 at 2:14 pm.
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Old Nov 25th 2008, 1:54 pm
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Default Re: Moving to Toronto

dbd33 needs to go get a hug from his donkey.
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