Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Thanks guys and girls

You all have cheered me up. Also I will miss this British sense of humour.
Someone said I have 'There will be bluebirds over the white cliffs of dover syndrome'!
We were only moving so my lonely Mum could be nearer her sisters and my Late Dad's nephew. Also, being nearer the relatives can drive me barmy.
Also, I do not want to waste my permanent visa status as I paid alot to the lawyer!

Brianscottie
I heard alot of horror stories about the weather. Blizzard conditions and people dying of hyperthermia stuck in their car due to a snowstorm.
One of my Professor's said ' who wants to live in that sparsely populated country at -25 for 8 months of the year!'

Mikey B
Don't forget Guru Nanak (leader of the sikhs and Haile Selaissi (head of the rastafarian contingent)

The reason why I was thinking of Mississauga was because being a research scientist, all the pharma and biotech companies are based mainly in that area. I was rather hoping it would be like Ealing, West London !

To those who live in Ricmond Hill, I heard its a lovely locality but how long would it take to commute from there to Mississauga ? Also to downtown Toronto
I am not afraid of commuting, I was doing the tube including the notorious Northern line

P.S
Can you get good fish and chips out there ? Which shop
Also Cadbury's Wispas bar.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Duckworth's on the Danforth for fish and chips. Note that commuting to Mississauga implies driving, it's more like Slough than Ealing.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I used to drive from Mid-Town to Mississauga for work. Took on average 45 minutes each way. I lived in Yonge-Eglinton which I can highly recommend if nightlife is important to you. It is particularly vibrant in the summer. Yonge and Eglinton has lots of bars, restaurants and coffee houses. Another good thing about Yonge-Eglinton is you can get to downtown very easily on the subway or via a taxi, it's about 5km's. Lots of young professionals in the area hense the nick name "young and eligible". Personally it is one of only 3 area's in Toronto I would live if nightlife is important. The other two are King West which has been regenerated recently or the Annex which is very studenty and ecclectic.

I think if you lived in Mississauga you'd be very bored very quickly. I used to work there and for nightlife it had very little it is more for young families I believe. Richmond Hill is nice (very posh) but I don't think it's idealy located if you like your nightlife it is a fair distance from Downtown Toronto if you have a few drinks and want to get home. I know the General Manager of Richmond Hill Toyota if you need a discounted car service.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Maria_747 said:
I heard alot of horror stories about the weather. Blizzard conditions and people dying of hyperthermia stuck in their car due to a snowstorm.
One of my Professor's said ' who wants to live in that sparsely populated country at -25 for 8 months of the year!'

Your Professor needs to go back to school for an education. People have died on the Yorkshire Moors and Dartmoor from hyperthermia and no doubt also in other parts of the UK. The number of people dying in cars each year in Canada in snowstorms from hyperthermia is very few indeed.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

dbd3

Slough ! :confused::blink:You are having laugh, aren't you ?! :huh:

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Those "horror stories" are tremendous exaggerations.

Canada as a whole might be sparsely populated, but the first time you're mired in traffic on the QEW, DVP, or 401, the words "sparsely populated" will be the furthest things from your mind.

A Richmond Hill to/from Mississauga commute will be awful.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I am sorry, I ask so many questions :o I was a curious child when I was little !

But.......you've all done it and been there and some of you ae still there !


Many thanks James for the offer, will let you know in due course.
Would you ever go back to Toronto ?

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

No, not all of them. http://www.ctidirectory.com/Search/c...company=161851

Most of RH is essentially indistinguishable from Mississauga (except of course the bit which I live in).

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I actually have my Simplified Application with CIC. I am expecting to get my 90 day request in the first half of next year.

The truth is when I applied back in January 2007 I don't think it was for all the right reasons and there was a canadian girl involved in my decision. However all of that is water under the bridge now and I will complete the immigration process.

I probably would not have left Canada but I was on a Work Holiday Visa and failed to get a work permit to stay. Since then I have changed abit and I must admit living in Canada for a year made me realise alot of things that I took for granted in the UK when I came back.

I think it would be a shame to get PR and not try it but I plan to head to Vancouver first and see what life brings me on the west coast. If after 5/6 months things aren't happening in Vancouver then I will probably head to Toronto where I have a few good freinds. I would definately go back to Yonge & Eglinton. I liken it to Clapham High Street if you know Clapham at all?

But I must admit I really love living in London and wish I'd moved here when I was 21 so if after a year of Canada it's not clicking I will come home but I will give Canada another shot.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Thank you for your tips and advice. I will research yonge/eglington area. This sound like my kind of area. Thanks for the tip that mississauga may not be for me. Do you have any more info about yonge/eglington area. I will really check this area out when I go at easter.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Novacastrian,
Many thanks for the website, will check it out.
What do you think of Whitby ? I know Novartis pharma company are based there.
Are Canadian employers like the Americans with their hire and fire policy ?
I heard you only get 2 weeks annual leave ?

James
I Know Clapham , Clapham junction is one of my favourite stations
I used to visit an Uncle in Streatham Vale. I hope you you get where you want to in Canada. Vancouver is much more beautiful than Toronto I heard. Also you are not far from Seattle.

I think I just got to be a bit courageous and go out there and try it for a year or two. Besides , I lived in Qatar for years when my parents were stationed out there. I still miss those Schwarma kebab sandwiches and the dodgy 12 year old drivers

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Actually I am not sure what your interests are but I wish when I got to Toronto some one had told me about the TCSSC (Toronto Central Sports & Social Club). They run lots of events and activities and it is a great place/environment to meet people and socialize through all 4 seasons. They offer sports for all abilities and everyone (in the main) played the games with a good attitude. After joining the TCSSC I found my life in Toronto improved immensely.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

When you mention Schwarma's, there are quite a few places that do them in Toronto.

I did however struggle to find dirty donner kebab's.

You can however go and get chinese food after a night out down Spadina avenue in Chinatown. It is always fun when you have a good group.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Of the top of my head it's hard to say. I pretty much found that Yonge-Eglinton offered me evreything I needed from dry cleaning to coffee. What really impressed me was the quality of take away food you could get. In England it is always greasey and fatty but for example there was a greek place called Yummi's and you could get chicken, rice and salad for around $10 and it was a great meal. There are a couple of English named pubs there like "The Rose and Crown" but my favourite Bar was Gabby's GrillHouse. One thing I really love about Canada is table service and not having to fight your way to get served at the bar. There are some boutiques, plenty of restaurants (some are expensive), a cinema, an LCBO (off license, one of the big pains in Canada is finding places that sell booze), an HMV, a Blockbuster, it has the best smelling Subway Station on the planet aswell!!!!.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

No, it's primarily light industrial with some computer firms. The housing is "tract" or "subdivision" thrown up on farmland. There isn't quite the Indian population that Slough has but there are a significant number of immigrants.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Gabby's is a franchised chain so, if you particularly like that format of bar, you're not limited to any particular area.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I like the usual theatre, concerts, comedy club, sport events and eating out ethnic, being originally ethnic myself as well as the usual british food.
I did check out the Scottish and the premier league football, where they are shown live.

Ironically, I was going to fly out to Toronto for a break in October, I even booked a couple of tickets to see The Who at Copps Coliseum on 23rd October but had to refund the tickets as I couldn't make it for health reasons.

Any good persian and Lebanese restaurants in Toronto ?
Anyone been to scallywags/

Anyway, got to dash see you all

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I liked that Gabby's specifically because it was very small and therefore you would always get chatting to people. Incredibly freindly and a good way to get to know people in the Neighbourhood.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Yes. Scallywags does "The Soccer Breakfast" which is lovely. Scallywags is Yonge/ St.Clair if memory serves. Not far from Yonge-Eglington. It is good for premier league, a nightmare to watch England games there, way too busy!

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

There are loads of kebab and falafel places, Aida's in the Beach is the one we usually go to. There are more upscale Lebanese places along the Danforth either side of Greektown.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I would honestly say if you love central London, participate in cultural activities and like the trendiness and edginess of the London, then you'll find Toronto a disappointment. It's not that Toronto has nothing to do, or that it's totally boring and uncultured (it's none of those things), it just doesn't have the buzz of London.

On the plus side though Toronto is much safer than London, particularly these days, people are generally more polite and children better behaved. Toronto summers are hot - winters are certainly cold, but by no means intolerable.

Mississauga is like a cross between Milton Keynes and some parts of Bournemouth/Poole, mostly suburban, bland and residential in character, with some of the nicer parts towards the lakeshore. Large parts of it are no more than 30-40 years old, though there's a lovely spot called Streetsville, which was obviously an older town which got swallowed up in the sprawl and is quite picturesque.

I agree with what's been said about public transit - it's surprisingly good in both Toronto and Mississauga, but it's annoying that the two systems are separate. GO trains and buses cover the whole of the GTA and beyond, and sort of make up for this if you live near them - though don't expect the same frequency of service you might be used to on London commuter routes.

Canadian TV is mostly very American influenced and I hardly ever watch it when I'm there. CBC Radio is a something along the lines of Radio 4.

I know this is a counsel of perfection, but if you're coming to Toronto, try and accept it for what it is - and it's a very different place from London.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

dbd33,

Do you have a strong hatred for north Mississauga? It seems like you just love to knock everything north of the QEW. What's wrong with people wanting to move into bigger, newer homes? Have you ever been to Scarborough, Pickering, or even Brampton? Their standard of living doesn't even compare to Mississauga.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

No, I think it's a dump and it depresses me to see it from the highway but "strong hatred" is overstating the case. Coming into Mississauga from the west on the 401 always gives me an earworm of the Talking Heads, "I wouldn't live there if you paid me", the Wal-Mart on the north side perfectly illustrates why that's an exit one hopes never to have to take.

The QEW is just a convenient marker, a generalisation, there is a pleasant place within Mississauga north of there; Streetsville as noted above. There are also some pretty grim developments south of the QEW, the Watercolours by Mattamy brownfield site leaps out as an example of an area that was more attractive when it was post-industrial wasteland.

Environmentally or in aesthetic terms?

I know Scarborough passably well. I'd say the area east of Vic Park along the lake is spectacularly above anything one can find in Mississauga, it's an area comparable to Mississauga's Lorne Park Estates in having older homes on the water but, it's in the city, reachable by streetcar and so more expensive.

Pickering I only drive through, I'd say it's indistinguishable from the barren parts of Mississauga (north of the QEW) there's even a shopping mall which has a clone in Mississauga. I don't think a life lived in Pickering would differ from one lived in Mississauga nor for that matter from one lived in Plano.

Brampton I visit several times a month, it's more interesting than Mississauga (notQEW) because it has actual independently owned shops and restaurants; businesses that were not designed and are not managed from a corporate headquarters in another country. Structurally though I have to agree, much of it, especially The Yellow Brick Road (actually built from yellow blocks, not proper bricks) is as tacky as Mississauga.

Mississauga (notQEW) seems to me to have been styled after the Truman Show. It could be anywhere. I particularly dislike the endless streets of look alike houses with no pubs, no shops, no churches, nothing to serve as a landmark. I hate the way the houses are built out to the limit of the lot so there's no lawn, no proportion to the structure. The lake of any foliage reminds me that, I can recall when it were "all fields around here" and the loss of farmland for the sake of constructing shabbily built houses saddens me. And then there's that City Hall.

I assume you have a McMansion in Mississauga. Apart from being big, what's good about it?

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Db33 is the restaurant Fonzarelli's still in Brampton?

I lived in Bramptom 2 month's (it was like a prison sentence), that is the sort of town that really does make me realise I could never live in Suburban Ontario.

I remember if you wanted to go to Toronto on public transport there were only 3 GO trains in the morning. If you missed them you had to catch a GO coach which was once every hour and there were no coaches between 12 and 3.30, so if you turned up at 12.05 you were screwed.

So where do you live dbd33? You must earn a fair old crust to dismiss all these other places.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I believe the restaurant you are talking about is 'Fanzarelli's'...it was right near the GO Train Station.

I must have committed some crime in a previous life as I had to endure Brampton from 1989-1993...actually it wasn't too bad, I lived a 3 minute walk from Fanzarelli's and had a car. There were some faux pubs nearby, but outside of the 'core' area of Brampton it was pretty banal.

dbd lives in the 'roof of Ontario' somewhere north of Orangeville or Shelburne I believe and he seems to drive a long way to work, no doubt creating a larger carbon footprint than the suburbanites he comments on.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I moved to the middle of nowhere coming on two years ago after taking up with a woman who wanted room for horses. Before that I was fifteen years or so in the Beach, before that I lived downtown. Before that I lived in Mississauga, in the house where my ex still lives. I've been paying Mississauga taxes for twenty years and still haven't seen the street ploughed.

Good grief no, we're the rural poor, hence the blog title. I think the fact that most of the people I know in Toronto I met through the Grauniad talkboard indicates that we don't move in affluent circles. I think urban vs. suburban is a quality of life vs. more consumer durables choice; most of the people I know in Toronto have, for example, chosen to have one or no cars whereas, in the 'burbs two or more is the rule.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Back working in Guelph so not too far and, despite heavy snow this morning, I'm minimizing environmental impact by driving the, economical, Beetle on low traction tyres.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Sounds like you live more in the country than the burbs?

If you've payed Mississauga taxes for all those years you've definately earned the right to bag the place!

You must know the GTA better than everyone with that broad living experience. I must admit I only went to the beaches twice but it is an area I would like to explore more.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

We're in the country now, at least it seemed like deep country when we moved there, now that we've adjusted it seems a little too urban.

My knowledge of the GTA is patchy. I arrived in 1981 but hardly went north of Bloor St (expect on the highways) until after 2000 (I say hardly because in the 80s I had a mistress on Roehampton and went to the Rose and Crown quite often. Now we know some people you live at Yonge and Shepherd so we go there; it's just 'burb though so we only go to their house or out downtown. I lived with a Newfie for seven years or so, half of her 13 siblings lived in Scarborough so, during the 90s, I knew parts of that borough well.

I fetched and carried children in Mississauga through the 90s so I know the horror of the Hershey centre and the awfulness of ballet recitals at the Oakville Centre. The children went to school downtown so I can directly compare with the Ted Reeve and Moss Park arenas. The latter are better because older kids can get there on their own; in the 'burbs you're their chauffer until you buy them each a car.

The Beach worked for us. Lots of bars and restaurants and yet houses with backyards; room for kids and dogs and all so long as you retain a British perception of house size and acceptable degree of crumbling.

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So, its lunchtimes at the 'Woolie' for you these days. I hope to get there at Christmas time to escape the FIL.

I was in the Pembroke/Renfrew area (that could be a 'rural appalachia' place for you if you get tired of your current locale....land is dirt cheap and not much good for much beyond donkeys and the occasional sheep) yesterday and saw a VW Bug fishtailing like crazy on Highway 17...not a pretty sight.

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Scarborough is referred to as 'Scarberia' to many Torontonians.

Looking online we were impressed by the low cost of real estate, but driving through and around it last time we holidayed in Canada we soon realised it would be a soul destroying dump to live in.

There are many better cheap'ish places nearer downtown Toronto which have much better amenities, housing, and vibes.

M.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I had some, er, traction issues on CR5 near nowhere in particular on Monday. That was a really bad day for driving, fortunately I had not enjoyed a long lunch. Always up for lunch at the Woolwich.

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Such as?

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

What is your proffessor a proffessor off? Moronism?

Maybe you should tell him to look at a map where he will see Toronto is the same latitude as Rome, In 4 years here Ive only encountered -25 the odd day here and there through winter, coming from the rain lashed midlands to me the -25 here is nowhere near as bad as say a -5 and frosty in the UK because of the damp air there and the dry air here in ON and considering May - Sept in my experience has typically been Mediterranean style sunshine with high 20's low 30's. If you wonna head to the prairies or NL then -25 to -50 you may get in the depths of winter but certainly not for 8 months of the year and bear in mind summers in those areas are just as hot. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people are - worst thing is as a proffessor he is teaching this stupidity to others!

Fish and Chips are OK here, there are a fair few around, always had good experiences with wherever I have tried, not as good as the UK generally speaking but good enough to get the job done.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

I cannot think of a worse place to live than Y&E, the traffic is horrendous, getting onto a major highway like the lovely 401 is a major disaster!! yes there is a bit of a nightlife there but if nightlife is what you want then downtown is where its at, If and my life would have to depend on it I had to live in TO only place would be in the core south of the gardiner! Your detached enough so that its not all go go go 24/7 but a $10 cab ride from everywhere, admittedly this is expensive but if you want to treat yourself to a nice steak you dont get one from food basics!! Plus there is the odd occasion the Gardiner is not a disaster so you can actually get out of the city to see the real Canada.

I have to disagree the burbs have no nightlife at all and it gets boring if your single - its not TO nightlife but my 1st year here was single and I lived in Oakville where there are a few pubs to have a beer or 2, burlington the same with a club or 2, Hamilton has hess in the summer, a drive away from the concrete jungle of TO to St Cats has port dalhousie in the summer and the GO train can get you downtown any time your heart desires!!

Every time I have the mis fortune to drive through Y&E I cannot wait to get out - your life will not move outside of 6 square blocks if you live there because getting out is such a disaster! If thats your cup of tea you will enjoy it - me I like to get about a bit and not waste an hr a day in traffic moving 5km's! I live way north of the city and a 95km commute to work takes me 60-70 mins so sitting in traffic at Y&E fills me with dread!

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I disagree that there are major traffic issues in Yonge-Eglinton as having lived there and visited there many times I have never had bad problems getting out.
I got onto the 401 easy. Just went down Yonge. Cut through on Briar Hill to Avenue, Headed to Lawrence and then down to the Allen Rd and onto the 401.Took me 15 minutes on a bad day.

Re: Moving to Toronto
 

Mikey B.....I'm afraid you lost any credibility with me in the statement that the 401 is lovely.....to me it in Toronto represents what Chris Rea was singing about in 'Road to Hell'.

Where are you travelling to and from to go 95 km (each way?) for a commute....that sounds like a lot of travelling that eats up a lot of time and $$$.

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You've been in North America too long. Remember irony?

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Hopefully for all of us you are right. I guess losing my sense of irony is the 1st stage in becoming a dreaded un-hyphenated Canadian.

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You do know that was my English Sarcasm coming out?? I detest the 401 as much as dbd33 detests Mississauga!!

Alliston to McCowan/401, of course I always use the 407 otherwise it would be a 4 hr drive with the lovely 401!

Disagree you may but its all down to personal experience - I have friends that live in north york and others St Clair/Bathurst and a couple right on Queens Quay so have passed through Y&E a lot from one to the other - its a disaster!! The few times Ive been on Allen is always a nightmare to the point I avoid it like the 401 across the city! Plus its the whole traffic congestion and people congestion in that area thats a disaster not just getting onto the 401 - too many sheep!! I dont like places where there are a lot of sheep!