Not sure that I can agree with this one. With almost 50% of its population having been born outside of Canada, it's hard to support the claim that Torontonians do not think beyond their city.

I've spent many years living in small town Ontario. The insular outlook is a direct result of so few "outsiders" making the town their home. It's generation after generation of "the same old". As a result there is little exposure to the world beyond the town line.

I do believe that this is changing though, and not just at the town level, but also the country level. The Internet, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit etc all transcend borders and serve to draw us closer together. Britishexpats.com another case in point.

Sounds like NZ. Hence, I left at 23 and never looked back.

Canadian history is at least slightly more interesting than NZ history, but luckily we did a lot of English history at school, that was cool.

Surely people living in Toronto but not born there aren't Torontonians but people from wherever they're from who are living in Toronto. Rob Ford would be an example of a Torontonian, Mel Lastman too. Not us though. I very much doubt that anyone who posts here is a Torontonian, I'm certainly not, nor have I ever been, though I suppose I lived there longer than most other posters.

I think these media serve to support insularity. In their absence most people would sit at home and watch the TV but some would go off to India or hitchhike across Canada. I think the internet as entertainment primarily draws from the latter group, taking away real experience and substituting the ability to mingle only with like minded, if physically dispersed people. britishexpats, newspaper talk boards, stormfront.org all draw audiences self-selected to suit the nature of the board. Someone in Toronto would be exposed to more diversity of people and opinion by getting a bus to Scarborough than by reading Rihanna's tweets and posting about them spotty-yut.com.

Just like Brits getting Canadian Citizenship are not Canadian.

In light of the fact that this is your 26,851st post, your two points would appear to contradict one another.

My guess is that on this board you've learned a lot about the thoughts, opinions and circumstances of others, from both across Canada and around the world. Maybe the Internet isn't so bad after all.

From the internet? Oh, no, only inasmuch as I read the Guardian online. I don't think that's functionally different from reading it on paper. Even here in smalltown Canada I'm exposed to much more diversity in real life than in the computer. Two immediate differences between people in the internet and the real people are that the former are affluent and speak English.

Actually 35% of US citizens and 65% of Canadian citizens have passports.

LOL!

Thanks guys - I appreciate your thoughts on this.
I seem to drift from depression to hope and back to depression at the moment. Still no job Still struggling by. Still ok, just.
I'll probably be back to positive and hopeful tomorrow. I hope.

I think a hell of a lot of people have a bit of an emotional roller coaster here icar. I have been likened to Mary Poppins on speed on occasion, but that has largely dissapeared here, and I'm hoping it's just in hiding, waiting for my mental processes to settle down. This is a horrible miserable time of year too...certainly here it's been very grey and wet and gloomy, and you know it's not going to get fundamentally better before spring!

Have you applied for many jobs? Are you still applying or because you are getting fed up have you stopped? Are there many vacancies, for anything, where you are?

I dont know about that, I was way more horrified by Nanton, AB than I was by North Bay, ON.

Sounds just like Brampton and Mississauga innit? High house prices and property taxes, and people sticking together or is that just MILTON?

There are 75 jobs listed on Job Bank this week (last 7 days) - lots of them are School Bus Driver, Welder, Food and Beverage Server etc.
I'm still applying for anything vaguely interesting that turns up - something like 125 applications since March, including on spec applications to companies.
I agree, the drizzle doesn't help, and the weather will only get worse from here on.
I wish the leaves would finish falling...

Have you tried an agency yet? Sometimes they have the jobs that don't make it to the job banks

Have you tried the knocking on doors approach?? Take a pile of cv's and go and bother some people!!!

Canadians prefer face contact and I would imagine that this is especially true in smaller towns. Be persistent and insistent. Canadians are so polite they dont like saying no. Being a bit pushy might work.