Souvy

Did you see the Stoffer/Duffy brawl on CBC yesterday? It was a gem. Politics at its slimiest. The presenter completely lost control.

elizabeth_action

8 weeks???!!!!

Simon Legree

Mine took about 16 weeks, from mid November 1968 to mid March 1969 ! And they paid all my expenses, fare, hotels and so on.

Aviator

That's correct. Long time ago though, when London office had a smaller area to administer. That was back when you could phone up and get straight through to speak with your case officer. I think on one occasion we called up as there were some questions and he suggested we drop by for a chat about it and sorted it out while we were there.

Keith

I had a similar experience in 1963. Don't remember the exact time it took, but everything was arranged ( interview with company, Ontario representative, Canada House and medical) in a time span from March till we left for Canada ( on the Cunard Carmania from Southampton) on the 3rd July ( our 10th wedding aniversary)

Steve_P

Ditto.

Being 16 at the time I have no idea of the mechanics of it all, but I do remember the topic came up in February 1963 and May 26th my father and I were here.

Keith

We also had to sell a new house that we had agreed to purchase. We hadn't even moved into it but sold it with a 10% profit. New houses were not so readily available. We had to move from the bungalow we owned and had sold in the November 1962 to the new house in June 1963, just a month before we left the country. But it all went off very smoothly.

That winter of 62/63 was one of the coldest on record and I spent much of the worst 2 weeks of it trying to keep the pipes from freezing. The very worst was that ridiculous storage tank in the attic. The surface froze and stopped the ball cock from working. Even with our hardest Ottawa winter I've never been so cold inside a house as that winter 47 years ago.

DandNHill

Hi. This is my first ever post on this site.
We have been wanting to emigrate for several years. The first attempt made through a lawyer fell flat on it's face as the company was too big and our file kept being passed from pillar to post and we got nowhere!
We have just started the process again and we're using a specialist who deals with everything himself. It should make it much easier and takes hopefully a lot of the headaches away from us.

But the reason I'm saying this mainly is that we have what can only be described as a gut feeling that life will be better in Canada. I grew up in France and so speak fluent French and my OH gets by very well. So it's going to be a bit of an adventure.

And what's the worse that can happen? You find that life is not what you expected and you go back to the UK! But whatever the outcome, your kids can only gain from the experience of living in another country like I did in France all those years ago.

And one last thought to leave you with. My eldest son (I have 4) will be 18 next week and doesn't want to come with us. So from my experience I would say: "do it before the kids are too old and stay behind"

Good luck and see you maybe one day in Canada

SambaDeAmigo

Welcome and good luck to you guys

Paul_Shepherd

Yes I remember my Mom telling me about that infamous winter in the UK! sounded utterly bitter....set you in good stead for your move to Canada then Keith! Mind you I remember as a kid the INSIDE of my bedroom windows icing up - that was the winter of 1981/82...that was a cold one!.....ive yet to expereince my first Canadian winter yet, im sure my windows wont ice up like that though!

wheatsheaf

There is a widely held opinion that Canada was a great place to immigrate to in the post war years and up to the 1980s. But,are the immigrants of the new millenium, coming into Canada now, mere fodder for their predecessors gold plated benefits?. One could come to Canada, once upon a time, and know that with invested effort there would be the rewards. Is this true nowadays? many say no.

Keith

That winter in the UK was the only time I wasn't able to get to work (for 3 day's) because of roads being impassable. That has never happened here in Ottawa and because of the way our houses are built in Canada, winter is kept outside and the roads are well maintained.

Simon Legree

I have never heard that. I don't think it's much different today then it was in 1969. It just takes a lot longer for some people to get into Canada. I know that the effort that I have invested over the years has paid off for me as it has for many others that I know. Obviously it hasn't been the same for some though and I feel for those whose dreams are dashed for whatever reason. I can say that I do not know personally anyone who came and left.

Keith

The big difference between now and before the 80's is that many people spend cash that could be spent establishing a life in Canada, goes into frequent ( some yearly) returns to the UK. We spent our vacations visiting places on this side of the pond and in 47 years only returned to the UK 3 times ( the last in 83).
Air fares and phone calls were much too expensive back then and the main way of communicating was by letter.

Simon Legree

A good point Keith. I did, however, manage to visit the UK numerous times. I haven't been back in the last five or six years and don't really have much desire to. There are many other places in the world that I have yet to see.
You are right about communicating back then. I bought my folks a portable cassette tape player and used to make one one hour tapes and send them once a fortnight or so. They did the same. It was state of the are way back then ! Somehow it seemed easier but more personal than letters.