martyjay

My wife and I are in the very early stages of looking to move to Ontario. We are looking at a couple of areas.. one being Kenora and the other is the Essex area closer to Toronto. Have any of you lot got any personal experiences of these areas? If so would you mind sharing?
Thanks a bundle.

Siouxie

I moved your post from the Canniversary forum to the main Canada forum (Canniversary is for posts marking an anniversary of being in Canada).

martyjay

Fankoo.

Siouxie

You are most welcome.

Essex is near to Point Pelee National Park / Wheatley Provincial Park where my sister goes 'birding' every year - she absolutely loves the Leamington area and has considered moving there herself.

Kenora, I would imagine, would be extremely isolated and frigid in winter!

Muskoka

I haven't been quite as far north as Kenora, but understand from friends that have that it is very beautiful, but as OP says frigid and isolated in the winter.

luckyduckie

Having lived in Chatham-Kent for a short time and spent much time in Essex I can say that it really is a beautiful area. It does get very humid during the summer, however, and it can become quite uncomfortable at times. Kenora is quite a bit smaller and more isolated and is very cold in the winter. It is not uncommon for the winter to have an average temperature reading in the -20's. In Kenora you are more isolated and are about 6 hours away from Thunder Bay which would be the closest large city in Northwest Ontario but you are closer to Winnipeg which is only a little over 2 hours away.

orly

Essex County is still a bit of a hike from Toronto (~3.5 hours) but it's apparently a nice part of the world. Only really driven through it on the way to Windsor (which I found less than impressive). I was a bit confused when all the signs along the highway started back into English/French but then I was informed there are quite a number of franco-ontarians in the Lakeshore, ON area.

It's rather rural but I guess being from SK that shouldn't be too novel for you

Dashie

We're not too far from Essex/Chatham Kent. Been through it a few times and have a few acquaintances that way. Yes, it does get very humid in the summer, regularly 30s-40s with the humidex, but it's unusual to be -20 for very long in the winter, you'd really only get the odd day that cold a few times over the winter. -10 would be more common, although effing cold pretty much covers both Mind you, coming from Saskatchewan, either of those might seem balmy in comparison...

Like lots of SW Ontario, it can be very pretty at times, you're never going to be more than an hour or so from a decent sized shopping facility if you need, and you can get lots and lots of lovely local produce in season too.

neilcumming

I dont know Essex but I have been to Kenora a few times ,its a small town on the Lake of the Woods ,lots of people have cabins go there at weekends ,theres a boat that cruises the lake,very nice place,all depends on what your looking for.Its about 2hrs drive from Winnipeg so it can get very cold in winter!

martyjay

Thanks everyone for your replies. we have also been looking at the south west Ontario region as a whole so any thoughts on Chatham-Kent (still find it weird having such familiar English place names in Canada ) etc would be helpful too.

bats

Why weird? Read some history.

Dorothy

I lived in far northern Ontario years ago and I think you would prefer Essex Co. The winters are long and can be brutal up north and when spring hits the black flies/mosquitoes are horrendous.

Can I ask why Kenora and/or Essex County? Do you have job offers there?

martyjay

I have, I wasn't being stupid about it either just makes me smile.

luckyduckie

I lived in Chatham for a few years and it was a relatively pleasant experience. There is an ethanol plant on the west end of the city and it can smell quite foul when there is a strong wind. Up until a few years ago there was an International Truck plant but it has since moved (Mexico if I'm not mistaken) so much of the industry there has dwindled down. Their "Thames River" in Chatham proper looks pretty disgusting and I would not recommend going near it out of fear of mutation . Blenheim and Tilbury are nice little towns in the county so if you want to be nearby without living in Chatham itself, it's a nice alternative. Shopping in Chatham at the time that I was living there wasn't all that great but the north end of the city (St-Clair St.) has since grown quite a bit but their shopping centre still leaves much to be desired. There's still quite a bit of shopping in London and in Windsor (we often went to Windsor for shopping) as well as state-side in Detroit and Fort Gratiot/Port Huron. There are a few different school boards there (public, catholic/separate, as well as French) so if you have children, you have many options to pick from as well.

If there's any other information that you might want about Chatham-Kent, feel free to ask!

Dashie

Ha! We still haven't got used to the fact that Delhi is pronounce Del-high. Are you tied to anywhere particular for work? What other requirements do you have?