Re: So glad I made the move
 

i also wouldn't want to move anywhere else, but mainly because i'm lazy and a homebody, not cos Canada is an amazing utopia.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

More like Sanford and Son if you ask me. :rofl:

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Yep - Nottingham and been there a good few times having the wings and a beer. The servers of the female variety don't seem as friendly or 'outgoing' in Nottingham than they are in North America for some reason.. ;)

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Christmas celebrations still ongoing in Italia?
(Avatar ;))

Re: So glad I made the move
 

And if you really want to see some negativity try any form of a positive comment about NS and sit back with some popcorn :hysterical:

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Money, mate. :)

I retire next year. As soon as I've stopped earning silly amounts for doing very little, I'm outta here. Not, though, to the UK.

To be fair, I made the mistake of planning for retirement too well and now I'm finding all the things about Canada with which I've just put up over the years to be more and more annoying. That plus it's a shitty winter.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

It seems to be human nature that as you approach a much desired departure/separation from a country (job, relationship, etc) all the repressed little annoyances start to come out of the woodwork and loom large. The opposite of rose tinted spectacles, whatever they may be.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Bile tainted reality?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Or as I describe it, one's tolerance levels are shot. All those things that you try not to think too deeply about get thought about.

I like your phrase though and will bandy it about at the next opportunity

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Perhaps the Germans have a word for it, they seem to specialise in such nuances?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

You need to visit the Teatime choices thread for a virtual refresher. ;)

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Gallen verdorben Realität

says Google. it must be wrong.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Actually, it appears to be correct as a literal translation.

Frustriert Langeweile works too.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Like Dashie, I've been here 9 years, 1st few visits to the UK and it was lovely to be home in Canada, last couple, not quite so much. We have a few options for the future that we are investigating, but it is increasingly unlikely that the little bit of Canada we are in will be our forever home.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Ahh the tax man, now I understand, and yes I can appreciate there are other annoyances, maybe when I have been here as long as some of you, I may well feel the same, (im comparably fresh off the boat coming up to five years here) Everyone makes the move for varying reasons, and is happy or unhappy with the move for varying reasons, I don't think any two cases are the same.

I made the move for quite a mix of reasons, personal, emotional, financial political, at present it seems to be working better for me, may not take much to change that though; personally I think wherever you live its a matter of how the life cards are dealt to you.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I am sure this will be hotly debated but some would disagree
http://www.moneysense.ca/best-places-2013

We are 7yrs here, with lots of ups and downs. Recently my dad has been ill and this has placed excess stress on my sister which makes me feel guilty. To counter this though we just got our citizenship and passports, and felt a real sense of pride. My daughter is excelling at school, my wife is better paid and in a better position here. I am finally starting to get to grips with my job and was awarded the Canadian Queens Jubilee medal.

It has been hard, I would have moved back several times, my wife too. We have felt trapped here to some extent, financially more than anything, I would worry about employment if I left above anything else. That said this has been caused by home sickness for stupid things really.

The most important thing to us is we are happy for most of the time as a family, with good friends, a bright future for our daughter and options here we could never imagine in our old life in the UK.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Tax man? Nothing to do with it. But we still have a bit more work to do on our next home (elsewhere than Canada) and the amounts involved are easily handled on my silly money, so I see no reason to knock off early.

In addition if I "work" another year my pension goes up (annoyingly by only the maximum amount permitted under Canadian law).

Buggers.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

To be brutally honest the realization set in the moment I got my citizenship, as I stood reflecting on all those that had come from all over to get a genuinely better life for themselves from many third world nations, I realized I was now a citizen I didn’t have to stay 3 out of 5 years in fact I didn’t have to stay at all… no more shitty winter commutes, no more summer covered in DEET and sweating my balls off… started applying for job in the UK, 7 months later I was gone….

Re: So glad I made the move
 

That's pretty much how we felt at our ceremony - we can leave now! Although we're actually still here at the moment.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Not making judgments or anything (after all, getting married made the whole Sponsorship/PR much easier for me than it would have been with the alternative) but is there anything in the Citizenship process to discourage it from being such a badge of convenience?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

No..

To be fair the only reason I got it was because my wife is Canadian and so are my two boys, so aligning the passports seemed like a good idea, the long term plan was to retire someday to Europe…
However I don’t think you see the process made any more complex than it is while Canada’s population needs a boost from immigrants..
And to be honest it’s not much of a badge of convenience if you already have a bigger better badge, and for those from the third world that do come stay the time it takes to get citizenship and earn enough to take it home, well Canada got four years labor in what many would consider in a climate many consider much to cold (you should talk to South Americans in the UK who think it’s cold in Europe).. Citizenship seems a rather small reward
I will admit some part of this is based on seeing how friends of our from places such as India and the Caribbean coped or didn’t cope well with the winters, and Ontario is not as hard as some places

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I got citizenship primarily because it would make taking a job in the USA much easier should the need arise.

Citizenship gives you options, and has little downside (jury service....???)

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Does it really make it that much easier? I thought there was still a "specified professions" list and various other hurdles. Could really do with a move to a sunshine state at this point. :confused:

Re: So glad I made the move
 

That was a thought that passed through my mind... right up to the point when my 'Candian' wife stated quite cleary she'd never ever move to the States, I wouldn't understand its a Canadian thing?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Healthcare is one of the issues. I think plenty of Canadians would move the US if that was not an issue, there are certainly enough snowbirds dotted around Florida and Arizona.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

The some of the others for my wife in no particular order
The republicans
Right wing Christians
Gun laws

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I enjoy my winters here in Arizona but wouldn't consider staying full time and these are some of the reasons why.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Yes, that too. Mind you NY and California are relatively liberal.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Do you find yourself biting your tongue a lot in AZ?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Occasionally yes. However, my fellow inmates here are mostly from BC so it isn't usually a problem. I have learned over the years though that you can't have a sensible debate with someone who watches Fox and that some folks are just plain stupid politically and are unable to think for themselves. They believe what Fox tells them. A bumper sticker that says "I don't believe the liberal media" is usually a good indicator !

Re: So glad I made the move
 

As I understand it Engineers can move pretty easily under the NAFTA provisions. Its not a permanent move though, only ever temporary, and it needs renewing periodically.

But its a lot easier should the option come up than trying to do it as a Brit.

Assuming you have a decent job, with health benefits, I dont imagine day to day living in most of the US is so very different to day to day living in most of Canada. And as you have to leave if the job craps out under the NAFTA visa requirements the nature of life on US welfare doesnt really apply to the circumstances. Plenty or right wing loons and christian conservatives in Canada too. More guns per person, but better regulated I guess.

Its not something I plan to do, but never say never. I didnt plan coming to Canada either until it fell into my lap.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I always think statements like this are basically brainwashing of Canadians because there are plenty of right-wing nutters in Canada, super religious types and lots of people who own guns. Admittedly Alberta has more of them than where you lived. And on the flip side there are super liberal left-wing places in the US.

People who say that seem to have no actual practical experience of it by and large.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Hence Bill C-24, which requires you to declare an intent to remain in Canada in order to get citizenship.

How they plan to enforce that one will be interesting to see.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

It is interesting, because we used to travel down through the states to North Carolina to see my cousin's every year
Now I'll agree some parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia are desperately poor and a bits right wing scary in places, certainly a visit to walgreesn or Walmart didn’t inspire, but when we got to Asheville it really was a very nice place.. and so are so many other (in the wealthy states)
And I’ll agree Alberta and to some degree Saskatchewan has a good selection of right wing nut jobs, but not the poverty

Having just driven south across the mountains form Strasbourg to Zurich… I think it’s easy to understand why Europe feels safer
It just doesn't have the poverty the states seems happy to live with?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

No, they just hide it better. I doubt you'd feel very safe in a French ZUS. Heck, I didn't feel very safe wandering around the Chav Zone near where I worked in Surrey.

Keep thinking of buying me a Tavor, but the next non-Conservative government will probably ban them for being too scary-lookin'. Maybe if I paint it pink and put a Hello Kitty sticker on the side...

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I live near to some of the areas in the US you described, but I have never seen a bunch of families living in freight containers scattered on waste ground, ....... as I have done in Italy. That's not to say there aren't people living in abject poverty in the US, because there are, but Europe is not immune from the problem.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Weren't there stories a while back about people in Slough who'd turned their garages into dorms for immigrant workers?

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Wouldn't surprise me at all, especially if it was a rented house. Equip the larger bedrooms with two bunks, the smaller ones with one bunk, two bunks in one of the rooms downstairs, and another three bunks in the garage, and you could easily get 20 people living in a "three bed" house.

Re: So glad I made the move
 

I saw people living in containers near Cut 'n Shoot TX. My daughter lived in a railroad car for a while in NM. It does happen. So, of course, does abject, starving and freezing on the streets, poverty in Canada.

Oh, and not just in North America: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...um-rents-barge

Re: So glad I made the move
 

Not saying Europe is immune
I'd be lying, even today outside our plant in Strasbourg there ware two gypo caravans, and I'm sure I saw a young boy taking a sh1t outside...

However I've yet to see the same level of poverty in western Europe that I’ve seen in the US, now I have seen (but not as bad) similar on trips to parts of Poland (Lodz, Poznan), but nobody there is claiming to be top of the 1st world nations..

The worst I have seen in Europe was around 10years ago with eastern Europeans camping just outside of the French EuroTunnel area.. Bad by our standards.. But not that different from the hill side trailer you find off the beaten track in Virginia, bear in mind one is supposed to be transitory.. the other is a home