While it is naïve and simplistic to believe that Canada is perfect and that the UK is the pits then why wouldn’t people return to the UK?

Mine are as follows :

I would have a hard time adjusting to crowded streets, roads and houses.
I wouldn’t consider returning to Lancashire because of the drab weather there. I really prefer the distinct seasons in my part of Canada (including the winter).

I am happily settled with my Canadian wife and enjoying my retirement in a small Ontario town with access to lakes and beaches.

While I have traveled around Canada quite a bit including B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, there’s still more I’d like to see especially Newfoundland and the Yukon

To return after 35 years would be like immigrating all over again because I realize that my memories are now just nostalgic fantasies since the UK has changed a lot.

Reasons for not returning:
The great outdoors.
The fresh air.
The good job.
The great sports.
Low taxes.
Knowing my tax dollars aren't funding anyone's alternative lifestyle.
The feeling I got watching my kids proudly sing the national anthem at the start of term school assembly.
The feeling I still get when I see the Calgary skyline out of the airplane window.
The fact that everyone I know who expresses a preference votes conservative.
I don't see Tony Blair's smug grin every time I turn on the TV.

I didn't experience any of the above when I lived in the UK and I'd be stupid to turn my back on any of it.

You do know that there are homosexuals in Canada, eh ? Toronto's full of them and they get subsidies for their "art" and they're even allowed to take their diseases and injuries to the hospital for free. Around here there's are swarms of them, marrying each other, raising children, claiming the baby bonus and tax deductions for daycare. You should come and see, but don't dress like the Marlboro man, that's a cruisable stereotype.

:scared:

Dang it Tangram, next thing you'll be a-tellin' us there's people in the east who insist on speakin' French and dag-nabbit, votin' somethin' apurt from Conservatuv.

Perhaps it'd help if you put your teeth in.

Whoa, I haven't finished with em yet!

Ditto almost all of the above, although we live in a Liberal ward so perhaps the Conservative thing may not be true.

I did say "expresses a preference" - the closest thing I've heard to an in depth political comment here was "Ralphie's great, eh?".

Unlike the media, most Albertans seem to have better things to talk about.

Let's face it, hockey is way more important than politics

How about them Hitmen eh?

Great hockey and the players by and large show up every game.

Unlike the NHL where it seems once you have that large contract in your hip pocket you no longer have to work hard every game. After all it's only the playoffs that count isn't it?

And you don't need to sell an organ to get a front row seat

Hockey as it should be

Here, have mine

I always wondered how they got the fancy edge on Cornish pasties ...

Anyone would be mad to return to the UK. It is nothing like the country you left, even if you only left in the last eighteen months.
How difficult is it for a pensioner currently living in the UK to emigrate to Canada? Are there health sevice registration problems?
Regards.

Close to impossible, as far as I'm aware. I guess you might be able to buy a house and spend a few months a year in the country as a visitor, but I doubt you could do much more than that... even if you had kids in the country to sponsor you as a parent you'd be looking at many years waiting for a visa.