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What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Old Oct 14th 2015, 3:34 pm
  #46  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Pizzawheel
OK. My bar for bad water is based on Lagos lagoon/ five cowrie creek. So as long as they're aren't human bodies decomposing or bags of surgical sharps floating by I'm pretty cool with it.
Just don't go near the Humber River and, yes, it'll all be fine then. Even the Don has improved to the point that fish like creatures can live in it.
Originally Posted by Pizzawheel
The city core of Toronto- which we have debated here a lot- is definitely not sprawling car suburbs. If you live in the 905 you've paid your money and made your choice. Montreal is even more European.
Agreed.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 3:48 pm
  #47  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Ever the contrarian, I have to say that a couple of complaints on this thread find no echo with me. (Ordered list because paragraphs don't work anymore).
  1. It's nearly lunchtime, we're going to walk over to the food trucks and consider Indian food vs. Italian food vs. Greek food. There will be other choices and the trucks will be 100 yds from a sushi bar so I'd say that, even in small town Ontario, we're not stuck for ethnic food. If we're desperate for Ethiopian or Tongan nosh we can drive into Toronto where everything but decent Mexican is available.
  2. The cradles are parochial alright, iced hockey, killing things, drinking while driving and throwing the bottles out of the window are their traits but how often do we deal with them? Rarely enough that it doesn't much matter, perhaps 5% of the people I deal with are Canadian by Harper's standards and most of those are Mennonites so they likely count themselves as Swiss or German or Stateless anyway. Not liking Canadians isn't a barrier to life in southern Ontario.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 3:52 pm
  #48  
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Talking Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

I'm off for a plate loaded with Jerk Pork, Rice + Peas, and I think today, some spinach.

Disliking cradles is like disliking kittens cos they crap on the floor occasionally. There is much worse out there.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 4:33 pm
  #49  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

- terrible drivers. tailgaiting - "only a fool breaks the two second rule"... so that'll be nearly sodding everyone, then. see also the implicit social acceptance of drink-driving that's about 30 years behind the UK.

- that horrible arse end of winter that makes March one long, drawn-out grey slush-ridden pain. Buggering off to meet the in-laws in Florida has become a regularly attractive option

- mosquitoes in the summer. Even with best attempts at preparation, a few bites and bumps on the skin are inevitable.

- static-induced Tourette's that comes every winter as the humidity plummets, and touching a door handle results in a mild shock. It's taken me five years to not swear out loud every time. Thankfully, co-workers have always found this amusing. I felt like the office Father Jack (although only one of them had ever heard of Father Ted)

- backward alcohol sales and distribution. The beer sector is slowly inching its way to some kind of start of reform. Cider is treated like wine, so those two are still buggered for the forseeable. Too bad, since there are some amazing nascent cider producers around this way.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 4:40 pm
  #50  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

BTW, no lack of ethnic food around here.

Off the top of my head, I can get great Thai, Caribbean, Indian (seeing as it's been something of an item of discussion on other threads: Shehnai on Main and Dundurn for omnivores, Himalya in Stoney Creek for vegetarian), Chinese (northern, sichuan, and typical "Canadian-chinese"), Middle Eastern, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, and Mexican.

Oddly enough, we discovered an amazing Mexican place in Simcoe at the weekend (Amiga's) - hardly the most obvious place I'd expect to find a gem like that.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 4:41 pm
  #51  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by dbd33
  1. The cradles are parochial alright, iced hockey, killing things, drinking while driving and throwing the bottles out of the window are their traits but how often do we deal with them? Rarely enough that it doesn't much matter, perhaps 5% of the people I deal with are Canadian by Harper's standards
Where I used to work there were few purely woolly Canadians among my immediate colleagues and even fewer in the undergraduate body: the problem was that a large section of the Administration was born in situ, which meant that the whole organization was terminally dysfunctional.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 4:58 pm
  #52  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by bgpz
Oddly enough, we discovered an amazing Mexican place in Simcoe at the weekend (Amiga's) - hardly the most obvious place I'd expect to find a gem like that.
The Mexican restaurant in Simcoe is likely as a result of a lot of migrant farm workers from Mexico in that area involved in fruit, ginseng and tobacco crops.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 5:26 pm
  #53  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Partially discharged
The Mexican restaurant in Simcoe is likely as a result of a lot of migrant farm workers from Mexico in that area involved in fruit, ginseng and tobacco crops.
That's right, it is. We discovered it about 20 years ago when we were in the neighbourhood sourcing furniture in a Mennonite shop around the corner.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 5:29 pm
  #54  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Partially discharged
The Mexican restaurant in Simcoe is likely as a result of a lot of migrant farm workers from Mexico in that area involved in fruit, ginseng and tobacco crops.
Indeed, there's a pop up Ecudaoran place in the Holland Marsh in the summer. Best Ecudaoran food I get most years.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 6:13 pm
  #55  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by dbd33
Rarely enough that it doesn't much matter . . .Not liking Canadians isn't a barrier to life in southern Ontario.
I wholeheartedly agree. My usual litmus test is if I can spend a day on a boat fishing with them and not wanting to smash their faces in with the fish bonker. I'd say its about 3% of the cradles in Vancouver I've met. The rest I quite happily ignore and they have little, to no substantive effect on my existence here. Not sure I'd feel this way if I was younger and was going out every night.


Oh and for you pervs, this is a fish bonker.


Last edited by Oink; Oct 14th 2015 at 6:20 pm.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 6:53 pm
  #56  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Oink
Oh and for you pervs, this is a fish bonker.

http://s18.postimg.org/mm4ubyex5/fishbonker.jpg
Ribbed for their pleasure?
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 7:14 pm
  #57  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Novocastrian
the problem was that a large section of the Administration was born in situ, which meant that the whole organization was terminally dysfunctional.
That narrows it down...

(I deal with a reasonable number of 'em quite regularly, and sadly this confirms my experience since moving over here)
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 8:17 pm
  #58  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Where do Ontarians go for their hols (considering the 'prohibitive' cost) ?
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 8:57 pm
  #59  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Shard
Where do Ontarians go for their hols (considering the 'prohibitive' cost) ?
The goddamn cottage.
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Old Oct 14th 2015, 8:57 pm
  #60  
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Default Re: What do you dislike about living in Ontario?

Originally Posted by Shard
Where do Ontarians go for their hols (considering the 'prohibitive' cost) ?
Cradles go to the 'cottage' 'up north' 'myrtle', Florida, all inclusive bubble vacations in Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Those with less $ often go camping or find a friend or relative with a cottage. Using up the meager vacation rations does not seem to be a big priority for many old stock Canadians.
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