OK peeps, please keep to the topic of the thread and try and avoid the 'my dad's bigger than your dad' arguments which seem to develop on these threads.

Just looking for peoples experiences and of course 'il va sans dire' that it will be their own opinon, so please don't diss them for having one.

Paul.

Well then relocate elsewhere in Canada. Most Canadians are quite mobile. I've lived in Montreal, Guelph and Toronto.

Please keep to the topic and leave personal observations about other peoples situations out. Note the topic title.

Cheers guys.

1) No character whatsoever, it's just a 'generic' North American city with a few boxy skyscrapers surrounded by a vast suburban sprawl. Crap compared to places like Halifax, Montreal & Ottawa.

That's a fair description of Toronto but the idea that Halifax can be compared to cities is very silly, the population of Halifax is less than that of the Toronto suburb, Oakville. There's very little ethnic or cultural diversity in Halifax which is reasonable enough for a small town but rather dull for a city. I like Montreal well enough but one must speak French in order to get the best out of it.

2) People here think Toronto is the centre of the universe.

I don't get this feeling at all. Most people in Toronto think of themselves as belonging somewhere else, 50+% of the population were born elsewhere, many of the rest have parents born elsewhere. Asked "where are you from" no one says Toronto, very few name anywhere in Canada.

3) The air quality is terrible.

Yes.

4) Torontonians are rude and stuck up.

If you find that all these diverse people treat you in the same way I suggest that you have unified them somehow. When you meet these people are you approaching their cars at the traffic lights, bucket and squegee in hand ?

5) It's supposedly 'multi-cultural' accept all the 'cultures' live in their own areas and seemingly want nothing to do with eachother. London is far more integrated than this place.

The existence of ethnic neighbourhoods and the tension of ethnic groups all hating one another is the essence of multi-culturalism and is, I think, the best feature of the city. London doesn't have the ethnic diversity of Toronto (note that I was born in Lambeff and mainly lived in Brent so I do have some idea) and London is a melting pot. Toronto is about maintaining one's original status, people here are not trying to be Canadians, they're trying to be whatever-they-are but living in Canada. I like it that in Chinatown people speak Chinese, in Greektown Greek and so on. I like it that Indian food comes from someone who was born in India and is easier to order if you speak the language. Integration in Canada would imply people of all colours wearing plaid, drinking lager and saying eh a lot, a horrible thought innit ?

6) People here think Toronto is the best city in the world but most have never been anywhere else.

It's true that Canadians tend not travel, I'd say they generally know less about the world outside their county than even Americans, but this is obviously not true of Toronto since more than half the people came from somewhere else.

7) Much of the city is horrendously ugly.

Yes. The absence of beauty is one of the striking features of the city, aesthetic considerations count for nothing here.

8) It's mind numbingly boring.

Well, it's not London or New York, but there's as much here as in, say, Chicago and more than in cities of smaller populations. There's an opera, many theatres, professional sports franchises, "holistic" knocking shops, drag shows every night, lots of live music venues, what is it you'd like to see ? Specifically, what on earth do you think Manchester has that Toronto does not ?

9) Torontonians have a big downer on every other part of Canada, especially the maritimers and 'Newfies' who they slag off for being welfare scroungers.

I lived with a Newfie in Toronto for nine years ending three years ago, before that I was five years with a Bluenoser. I never heard anyone knock Nova Scotians. I went to Newfoundland many times and formed the opinion that Newfoundlanders are mainly supported by welfare. However, I haven't heard this opinion expressed in Toronto. What I do hear often is that Newfies are stupid, the same stuff one would hear about the Irish in England but I only hear this from "real" (see below for definition) Canadians, to me that's like the Greeks mocking the Macedonians, the Minnesotans the Swedes and so on, just one minority mocking another.

Again, most people in Toronto are primarily concerned with events in their home countries, Newfoundlanders or other locally born people come to that, tend not to register at all; they're certainly not a major concern to most people here.

10) Most people here are dull business types who have a no sense of humour whatsoever.

I would accept that white, born-in-Canada-to-two-people-born-here Canadians don't seem to have a sense of humour (they seem to like the American show, Red Green, which baffles me) but these people are a tiny minority, everyone else is up for a laugh.

11) The traffic here is dreadful.

Oh yes. I love driving in America, even LA has better drivers and faster flowing highways. Whenever I can, I drive around the M25, giggling excited at the speed and the, relatively, wide open lanes.

dbd33 , please keep to the topic as requested immediately above your post and elsewhere in the thread and if you haven't .... and I quote ... " Returned from or regretted going to Canada " then why post anything in this thread.

Many thanks for your cooperation.

I have regretted going to Canada. I imagine everyone has. As requested, and in accordance with the very narrow theme of your thread, I shall refrain from further discussion as to why people may or may not regret moving to specific parts of the country.

I wish you luck in dealing with "regret" independently of individual situations.

"everyone", do you personally know everyone who has ever emigrated to Canada?

I don't regret moving to Canada at all, and I know many ex-pats who feel the same way.

Non, rien de rien
Non, vous ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait, ni le mal
Tout ca m'est bien égal
Non, rien de rien
Non, vous ne regrette rien
Car ta vie
Car tes joies
Aujourd'hui
Ça commence avec suburban Calgary...

Good for you then. I thought most people would pause to reflect and might miss something. I envy you your fulfilment.

No offense mate, but you know how these threads can womble off away from the original purpose. Thanks for your replies so far.

Same here. As someone pointed out previously, most ex-pats don't even use this forum so statements about all of them being unsatisfied is a bit of a stretch.

It's also a bit of a stretch to get from the occassional regret to being generally unsatisfied. One may, for example, rue not being at the deathbed of one's parents or that one's children will not be exposed to art or history, without feeling that, overall, life abroad is unsatisfactory.

I don't regret coming here, I had absolutely no problems finding a job, and I don't find Toronto to be a hot bed of white collar accountants. But then I hang out with people in the film and TV industry and work in advertising.

I enjoy the diversity and lack of overpowering racism that I encountered in London.

I like the fact that Toronto is small, yet large enough to support Gucci.

As to the rest of Canada. Well there is Tim Hortons...
I love Canada, and while there are some days that I miss home, most days I thank God that I no longer live in the UK.

It was.
Just goes to prove you have no idea what a place is actually like until you live there.

I think there are good reasons for the rudeness of many people here.

1) A lot of people in Toronto are very rich, hence suffer a superiority complex.
2) Many people here are immigrants from countries which don't put a high priority on manners and politeness.
3) Torontonians delude themselves into thinking they live in a fast paced edgey metropolis and therefore they tend to act accordingly.
4) Many people here cannot tolerate the hot summers, it makes them grumpy and bad tempered.

Seriously, I find notoriously rude Londoners to be friendlier than people here.

Yes, exactly. Small and pretencious!