MarylandNed

Ottawa is nothing like Barrie. I'd much rather live in Ottawa than live in Barrie. Barrie may be within commuting distance of Toronto but how many people actually travel from Barrie to Toronto for excitement and how often? How much is that actually a part of weekly life for the residents of Barrie?

One of my biggest regrets was moving out of Toronto many years ago (1994) to buy a house in Brampton. My thought process at the time was that it was for the good of the family. We had a 1 year old child with another on the way and staying in a Toronto apartment just wasn't going to work. Brampton (northern part - Heart Lake) seemed like a reasonable place to live with green space, amenities and affordable housing with back yards for the kids. I convinced myself that Toronto wasn't far away and that we would go there often for "excitement". It was probably the worst move of my life. Getting out of the house and into Toronto with 2 young kids was a drag and we didn't do it as often as we thought we would. In hindsight, we should have found a way to buy a house in Toronto. The prices back then scared me at the time but, in hindsight, they were a bargain. If I had bought in Toronto then, I'd probably be retired now!

So I don't see a valid Ottawa v Barrie comparison. Ottawa is a city - and with 1.2 million people in Ottawa-Gatineau, it's not that small. There is stuff to do there. Barrie is a small satellite town. I don't see the validity of pumping up Barrie just because it's about 100km from Toronto. I just wouldn't live in Barrie for that reason alone - it would have to have something else going for it. I would rather live in Ottawa - although there are also other places I would rather live than Ottawa. Ottawa might be dull by Toronto standards, but it's Paris compared to Barrie.

dbd33

Ottawa vs. Barrie is a slightly tongue in cheek comparison, a bit of a joke. It's likely that everyone in Canada, and every potential immigrant, realises that there is more of everything in Ottawa than in Barrie. Not much, perhaps, but more.

I would choose Ottawa over Barrie but then I expect I'd choose Gary IN over Barrie. That said, I work with people who live in Barrie and they do go to baseball/iced hockey games and concerts in Toronto, they treat Barrie absolutely as a dormitory town. I also work with someone who has a cottage on a lake in what is now Greater Barrie, I chuckle each time I picture him setting out in his plaid shorts clutching a giant rubber duck, bound for the back of Costco.

When I worked in Ottawa I was younger and motivated to make money, driven if you will, I found Toronto to be a backwater and Ottawa unbearable. I think Ottawa might better suit me now, land is cheap so a serious horse property would be an option and a stress free government job would allow time to enjoy it. I see it as a place to opt out of the rat race and it's for that reason that I question its merit relative to NS. If one is to live in a mellow place it might as well be a scenic mellow place rather than one which is frozen half the year and a bug infested swamp the other half.

MarylandNed

I doubt that you'd have many people joining you in choosing Gary, IN over Barrie. Back when it wasn't as easy to research where you were going (must have been 1991), my wife & I were driving with a friend from Toronto to Chicago for a long weekend. Looking at the road map, Gary seemed like a good spot to stop off to take a break, top up on gas and get something to eat before the final leg of the drive into Chicago. Of course, that turned out to be a bad move. I knew something was wrong when a bunch of kids on bikes saw our white faces and considered us to be something of a novelty around those parts. They were staring at us, laughing and they started to follow us along a street that had no other vehicles. Quick U-turn and back onto the interstate was the required fix.

Partially discharged

oh come on Gary is a vertiable urban oasis

https://goo.gl/maps/iCZ0m

All kidding aside, this area close to Montreal is very horse farm friendly

https://goo.gl/maps/5HqY4

Partially discharged

How does Barrie rank compared to East St Louis, Camden, NJ, Highland Park, MI, Flint?

Most people I've met from Barrie usually preface why they like living there by saying how close it is to other places (usually Wonderland, Wasaga, cottage country)

dbd33

I've never knowingly been to Highland Park. ESL and Camden are scary places, worse than Barrie, Flint's ok though, post-industrial, run down but not frightening in the manner of ESL or the less lucky parts of New Orleans.

I picked Gary, of course, because it's intergallactically famous as a dangerous dump, the American Luton. A figure of speech intended to convey that I'm impervious to the charms of Barrie's strip malls and housing projects. I've been caught off guard by the perceived need to explain that Gary really isn't very nice.

MarylandNed

I find it amusing that Barrie would even be mentioned in the same sentence as those places. Barrie is a slice of heaven compared to some of the urban blight I've seen in the US.

Have you ever been to Gary? There's nowhere in the UK to compare it to. Not Luton, and not anywhere else either.

dbd33

Gary, ESL, Flint, the 9th Ward, Mexican town, Camden, Newark, Over the Rhine, Compton (during the Rodney King riots), Brampton, Luton, Sydney NS, Stroke City, North Las Vegas, Tijuana, Washington Heights, Anacostia, Cut 'n Shoot, my lifetime itinery reads like the back of a perfume bottle.

MarylandNed

I grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. I lived in some shit holes in Manchester including in Ardwick, Hulme and Moss Side. I've had my place broken into on numerous occasions in the UK including 2 attempted home invasions while I was inside. I had a rough time growing up so I can take care of myself when I have to. I can think of only 2 times in my entire life when I honestly thought that my life might actually be in danger. Both were in the US. One was in Chicago and one was in New Orleans (both early 90s). I've had a few other scares in the US (e.g. twice I was standing on the sidewalk when the police appeared from nowhere, guns drawn, to bust someone standing near me - once in Hollywood, CA and once at a bus stop in downtown Miami). No other country I have been to has got anywhere close to scaring me. I felt safer in Mexico than I do in the US.

dbd33

And yet you choose to live there, you adrenalin junkie!

Partially discharged

This is typical of Highland Park, MI

https://goo.gl/maps/ULdDJ

and this is about as bad as it gets in Ottawa

https://goo.gl/maps/71pnz

all pretty tame in Ottawa. Must be due to all the governmental types who are fishing all the time.

MarylandNed

I'm not saying there aren't safe areas in the US. I think I live in one but the bad areas are beyond anything I have ever seen.

However, I would certainly think twice about getting into an altercation with anyone in the US (e.g. road rage incidents). You just never know who is packing heat. And with some of the absurd "stand your ground" laws here, someone could easily shoot you dead, claim self defense and get away with it. In the UK or Canada, you're more likely to be able to have a go at someone without being killed.

DandNHill

How did my mentioning Barrie become such a big thing? lol

The intention in my post was to highlight that moving to Ontario might not provide the stimulation that tracys is looking for. In our case it's just as quiet here as in NS. So doing lots of research is imperative to make sure a costly mistake is not made.
We came to this small town (not in Barrie, but 20 minutes away) because of a job and all I can say is thank goodness we're renting as we won't be here for more than two years when son #3 graduates and allows us to move on...

tracys

Lol! Love this site, always entertaining and full of helpful advice. Thanks Nicki 😊

DandNHill

You are most welcome!

Yes, I love how easy a thread can go off at a tangent... So to recap, don't move to small town Ontario, it's NS but with a slightly different accent