I've been reading this forum for ages and only just started posting on the Canada forum this week, but realise this is the best place to swap info and feelings when you're in my situation. I've been here around seven years now and I've had enough. I'm so fed up with the whole Canadian thing. At first I thought it was "that time of the year", but I've felt like this for the past 18 months ago. So, I'm thinking I've got to leave this place in 2009 and sooner rather than later otherwise I'm going to end up like all these narrow-minded bigots in this one-horse town!
Phew, that feels better...........I've felt like a pressure cooker these past few months

Good to let off steam.

We're planning on leaving, too. After 30 plus years, so clearly it hasn't annoyed us as much as it has you, but it can have a weird atmosphere. What in particular is getting you down? Other than the weather.

Victoria's having horrible weather right now. Close to record horrible.

Bev

It's living in a small town; the people are very narrow-minded and shallow, and to be brutally honest really quite unfriendly. Yes, I hate the weather.....the extremes of winter and summer, but mainly it's the atmosphere in this town. I'd always been led to beieve that Canadians are SO freindly but I haven't found that, not in this area anyway. There are a lot of Dutch and Germans.....haven't met any Brits at all in the seven years I've been here!

Having visited Canada I found the people to be very friendly and very helpful but that was of course the main cities and nearby areas etc. Which town do you live in Ontario out of interest?

I live in a small town within driving distance of London, Stratford, & Kitchener

In that part of the world I know Toronto, GTA, Hamilton and Niagara region so basing my opinion of Ontario on this or at least the urban areas. Would have thought London to be quite similiar etc but suppose the smaller areas to be different though. whats so bigoted about the townspeople there? The Dutch are normally a jovial bunch and the Germans once they have gotten well away from Germany are not too bad (Those in Spain though are an exception to the rule though) Any reason why you want to be near other Brits in an English speaking country like Canada?

There was someone else who posted on here not so long ago who thought along the same lines as you...I think it was Oldbag. Find her through the member's list and take a look through her posts.

I didn't say I wanted necessarily to be near Brits, just that I hadn't met any, which in seven years is, I would have thought, unusual. Many of the small towns in this part of Ontario were settled generations ago by Dutch people, and many of them are farmers; they always want to outdo each other with the size of their farms so buy huge tracts of farmland..........this has inflated the value of land in this area, making it difficult for other farmers to expand. I neither agree or disagree...just saying how it is.
I'm just tired of the general attitude of the people in this town, and, to be fair, Canadian life in general.

Thank you Jerseygirl........I'll look her up.

If I was going to Canada I would want to be in a major urban area (Good old suburban life) and would not choose a rural setting. Saying that I would not choose a rural setting in the UK or Spain either because I know how the people are etc. Any reason why you can`t give it a go in an urban area? Or are you there for work/family reasons?

I've never lived in small town Ontario, but I know it can be odd. I remember reading The Elizabeth Stories years ago (a Can Lit sort of novel) and I said to a friend that I thought it was very peculiar. Really creepy stories about what went on in a small town. The friend was from that sort of place and she said she'd loved it because it was so true to "small town Ontario"!

Many of them are old settlements, as you say, settled by a particular immigrant groups. Near Ottawa there are a lot of Scottish ones. Renfrew etc.

Was there a reason for moving there? You might have liked London or Waterloo more. Just asking, not accusing. We all do odd things for equally odd reasons.

So is there anything stopping you from going back to the UK soon?

Bev

Give me a shout if you can't locate her.

You make these towns sound like Twin Peaks or Salems Lot..............Which actually makes them sound quite interesting in a weirdish way.

You've got it in one.

When my daughter was looking at universities we went to Kingston to take a look at Queens. OMG it was like stepping back in time...the people seemed very strange to say the least.

?????? I've only briefly lived urban in the UK - ie mostly rural - and only rural in Spain & am intrigued as to what you mean? Maybe it's as simple as some people prefer to live suburban & some don't?