New guy here
 

Hi there

I've read this forum on and off for a long while now and decided I'b better get around to introducing myself.

My wife Wendy and I moved to Canada in 2002. Initially to Kitchener Ontario, then to Calgary, then Vancouver, back to Calgary and currently in Stony Plain, Alberta (near Edmonton). We've also travelled through just about every other Province. We became Citizens last year and get to vote this time around.

I build and restore classic and sports cars for a living and Wendy is the financial controller at a local Resort and Casino. We both love living in Canada, love the lifestyle and people and would live anywhere in this country except Ontario or Quebec!

Cheers, Gavin.

Re: New guy here
 

What's wrong with Quebec?

Re: New guy here
 

But please tell us why you wouldn't live in Ontario? - so many expats head for Ontario when they move to Canada

Re: New guy here
 

Quebec, beautiful place but the French bitch and moan too much.

Ontario (well SW where we lived) excessively hot, humid even at night, smog laden summers, miserable winters, awesome amount of salt on the roads, cars rot away in no time, bad traffic, no landscape. Food tastes bad, water injected chicken, expensive, too much beaurocracy. OPP at every corner with their radar, 80kmh speed limit.

Folks out West and in the Maritimes far more friendly and easy going. Unpolluted lakes, mountains, loads of trees etc.

It's great out here!

Re: New guy here
 

I'll have you know that I've injected no fluids into our chickens.

Do you speak French?

Re: New guy here
 

Why'd they all taste of chlorine then?

And no!

Re: New guy here
 

dbd33, great blogspot by the way, now your comment makes sense to me:thumbsup:!

GavinR

Re: New guy here
 

Thanks. If you don't like what's on the shelves you've just got to do it yourself. Surely though supermarket chickens are the same in Edmonton as in Toronto as in Yorkshire, that doesn't vary by province.

If you don't speak the language how do you know that the noise the French make is bitching?

Re: New guy here
 

Stands to reason:p their lips are moving:D

More importantly, how does gavin know what your chickens taste like?

Re: New guy here
 

I don't know what they'll taste like. I was just objecting to the assertion that Ontario chickens are necessarily water injected without being too serious about it. We buy chickens that aren't watery from the market as well as boneless, skinless, tasteless watery blob chicken breasts from Loblaws. I'm quite sure Loblaws offers the latter in Alberta as well.

The only criticism of Ontario I'd quibble with is the one about the speed limit. I think that's a national curse.

Re: New guy here
 

Ha, when we lived in Ontario the chickens always tasted of chlorine and I was told by one of the battery farmers that the packers soaked the meat in water to boost the weight for selling. I don't know whether that's true or not but the chickens sure taste better here!

Subtitles and voiceovers are a wonderful thing.

GavinR

Re: New guy here
 

I was going to argue that I havent seen any overt enforcement of the 80 limit.

If you go over 100 you might get stopped, but I got flashed doing 35 in a 30 zone last time I was in the UK, and there is nothing stupid like that going on around here at least, save for the odd two day "blitz" once a year. No photoradar for the time being either. Stick within 20kph of the posted limit, and respect the school zones and I dont see any justification for the OPP on every corner comment. I wish they were on my road...

The rest of it was fair comment I guess, although there are certainly scenic bits of Ontario (niagara falls is one most people are familiar with), just none in the GTA. One has to make the distinction that Ontario is not just the GTA I think. There is landscape out where I live, its just not jagged mountains.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/226/4...6842d870e0.jpg

As for the climate, you get used to it, I even quite like it now.

Re: New guy here
 

Most of our roads are 100 and the highways 110 thank heavens. There's nothing worse than travelling at 50 mph along a straight piece of road with no other traffic around for hour after hour. 120-130 is usually ok on the Highways according to the cops I know.;)

GavinR

Re: New guy here
 

Really? And yet so many people move there and then defend it fiercely (despite the long commutes, murder, violence in schools, poor value housing etc. etc.). Seems strange doesn't it.

Re: New guy here
 

Inshallah, I shall continue to drive to work at 75mph along roads signposted 80kph. Lots of cars pass me so I think "drive the limit but in miles" is acceptable on highways 9 and 10.

Re: New guy here
 

But this is all a bit silly, arguing about 80 wossnames vs 100. If you really wanted to drive fast you'd move to Nevada or Montana or Utah where traffic routinely goes at 100mph.

Re: New guy here
 

NSpaul, it's still better than the UK! Maybe they haven't been elsewhere in the country?

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I think you'll find that people only defend the GTA in comparison to the rest of Canada. I, at least, don't think very much of Toronto at all.

Re: New guy here
 

I'm sure that's true. There are great parts of Ontario, the North is beautiful, Bugs are a bit vicious though!

Can you post pictures on this board?

Re: New guy here
 

GTA is a necessary evil for some people. Certain jobs and salary ranges are only realistically possible in Canadas largest city.

Manufacturing in particular is very weak elsewhere in Canada, and the Corporate / Finance fields are largely in the GTA too.

There are pros and cons for all parts of Canada that I can think of, but on balance I still prefer it to the UK.

Re: New guy here
 

Perhaps but if you read all the replies to Southcote's post on Toronto (http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=464876) you sure wouldn't think so!

I think you're right - that is probably the main reason

Re: New guy here
 

Yes, manage attachments, browse, upload.

This is downtown Hamilton ON.

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I think it's better than the UK only to the extent that houses are cheaper. If you can't afford more stuff as a consequence of moving then, no, it's not better.

Re: New guy here
 

Plus less overcrowding / more space between people, plus less petty crime, plus more interesting seasons, plus stuff costs less anyway in general, plus totally different political and social landscape. But apart from that....

Re: New guy here
 

Or is this...
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newpict...urnaceD-ra.jpg


Thats embedded using [img]url [/img]

Re: New guy here
 

I'd have no chance of affording a home like ours in the UK.

Plus I've got all the toys I could hope for here and the acreage to use them on. Thought about moving back to the UK a couple of times for family reasons but when costed it out it just doesn't make sense. Where else could you live 15 minutes outside a major city and get a large house with 3 acres for $300k? I do miss the fish and chips though.

The manufacturing industry is going bananas over here too!

Re: New guy here
 

Thats manufacturing for the oil business though, not actually making stuff to sell as real goods.

The problem with Alberta and especially Edmonon is its largely a two trick economy, farming and oil. Problems with either has major repercussions. Plus its frigging fridgid in the winter. The advantage for AB was always cheaper property than the GTA, but that is less and less true in the current boom.

Re: New guy here
 

As you know, I don't think Brampton is less crowded than Milton Keynes and I think the lack of experience of crime is a consequence of being relatively richer than before; expat Brits just live in better places than they did at home.

I don't follow the different political and social landscape comment. Two parliamentary democracies in which the populace by and large opposes foreign wars in which the government has elected to join regardless. Two countries with strong economies in a couple of regions and nothing much happening in the rest. Two countries with socialized medicine and nominally progressive but actually regressive tax systems. Two countries with similar class structures, one based primarily around money, the other ceding some status to ancestry. Everything happens more slowly in Canada but similar things happen.

The only clear difference I see is that while the politicians in both countries are prone to finance corruption and consequent scandals British politicians also have sex and so are prone to a wider range of scandals.

Re: New guy here
 

They both are. My shot is of Walker's Falls.

(Thanks to that often banned poster, Mick someone, for telling me about the park).

Re: New guy here
 

I think that's my point. Canada offers more stuff.

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Yes, we know your views. You know mine. I cant be arsed going into all that again other than to say two things;

At least there is still a place for a liberal agenda in canadian politics that is largely missing now in the UK.

Its easy to attribute everything to money, but I dont have vast amounts of money, and yet manage to have avoided all petty crime with little effort for nearly ten years now in Canada, as opposed to about 10 months as a best effort in the UK.

Re: New guy here
 

It can get a bit nippy here at times, at least in Cowtown we had Chinooks.

As you say, it's pretty much all oil based, even the farming with the biofuels is having an impact. However the affluence also has a knock on effect to many other industries too, hotrod builders, car sales, real estate etc. On the other hand it can be a pain, I've been trying for weeks to persuade any manufacturing company to bend me a bit of pipe for my Lotus rollbar but they're all far to busy to be bothered with a $100 job.

Re: New guy here
 

The GTA has the beauty of the Islands, a ravine that runs throughout the city core, trails that allow you to traverse on foot or by bike the entire city length, several very large Beaches, plus other undiscovered jewels for those who step off the beaten path.

Gavin has obviously Zero Knowledge of Ontario, he makes broad comments that may apply to Southern Ontario, but even then they are shortsighted and way off the mark.

Ontario is beautiful, the Ottawa Valley, the Muskokas, the Beaver Valley, the Blue Mountains, Manitoulin Island,the 1,000 Islands, the Near North, the North, the Great Lakes , Georgian Bay, and so on

The list is endless, that is why we say

Ontario, Yours to Discover.

Re: New guy here
 

Hmm, I think I said SW Ontario and that the North is beautiful. Plus I lived there for a couple of years so I do have first hand knowledge.

Typical Ontarion reply.

GavinR

Re: New guy here
 

Ontarian, although we like to think of ourselves as Canadian, unlike those in The Republic.

l
Let those Eastern Bastards freeze in the dark, Albertan Political Campaign.

Re: New guy here
 

My, I hadn't figured you for a fan of M. Trudeau and his policies. Bravo!

Re: New guy here
 

Confederacy if you please. You have a gun rack for sale for my truck? Oops no, you had to give them all away with the registry.

Just pulling your leg.

GavinR

Re: New guy here
 

Every night I hear gunfire. I'd be surprised if there's a house on our street without a firearm. I don't think you need worry that there are too few guns in Ontario.

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http://www.ontarioguide.com/OntarioPhotos/BeaverValley/

Hope the link works, just scroll through the slides, we reside in Thornbury.

Re: New guy here
 

Yikes, gunfire! Occasionally here too but mainly kids getting their 20c from the farmers for each gopher tail. Never heard any in anger as we're a bit too far from Edmonton for that!

Nice pics of Beavervalley, we used to enjoy going up to lake Huron on the penninsula. Didn't much like the 80 kmh journey to get there though:rofl:

This was the view from our home just South of Calgary.