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I’ve recently left Canada and noticed lots of FB ads inviting foreigners to engage a screening process to see if they qualify for residency in Canada.

I lived in Canada for 11 years, 2008 - 2019, went to university and worked in Toronto. I come from an upper-middle class family in China, went to a top university in Canada, landed good jobs and I speak English like a native. I got my PR in 2015 and I remember the painful uphill battle I had to go through just get that. All the bureaucracy, redtape, unnecessarily rigid rules, high cost and long wait I received from CIC/IRCC felt like a humiliation to me. Every document was scrutinized and every step had obstacle that fealt unreasonable (my TOEFL examiner ask me why I had to do the language test required by CIC, and I had to visit a notary to validate my Chinese national ID card). It felt uneasy but I understood that these were the rules that everyone had to go through, and moving and integrating into a new society was never meant to be easy. I went back to Canada in 2021 and 2024, and it was evident that the country I once called home had gone down the hill. The streets were screaming crime, unemployment, inflation, drug and filth, it's total social rot. As someone who went through the whole immigration process (and many of my friends who went through the same have left Canada for good, like myself), I attribute much of this to failed immigration policy. I cannot help but feel confused, angry, betrayed and humiliated when I look at the recent immigration policies of Canada and their results, and compare with what I had to go through. The feeling sums up to: Canada penalizes the hard-working and law-abiding people, and rewards the undeserved and the cheaters. Example: when the US creates wars in the Middle East, why does CANADA bear the cost of bringing in refugees? I never regretted moving back to China and East Asia, and I feel bad for those who still truly think of Canada as home, as I am one myself. When the leadership of a country deviates from pragmatism, reason and common sense, and instead embraces idealogies, hypocrisy and political optics, this is what happens. The prices are paid by everyone, immigrant or not. For this, Trudeau deserves a court trial for his incompetence and dereliction of duty; and the people of Canada need some honest and serious retrospection. I will share some words of wisdom by the late Lee Kwan Yew: “Whoever governs Singapore (LKY was the PM and founding father of Singapore) must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards, this is your life and mine. I've spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I'm in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.” I hope the clownish weakling politicians in Canada (and, in much of the western world nowadays) can be enlightened a little bit.

Trudeau and the NDP-Libs have left Canada a weakened, vulnerable and unproductive country, on the verge of economic disaster. This is all on Trudeau!\n\nWe have no leader, and the individual leading “Team Canada”, won’t be around to fulfil the commitments.\n\nThis is a group of leadership Premiers, trying but without any authority. \n\nWe have no working Parliament. \n\nAnd, they have completely ignored the issues laid before them, not just recently but for years. The border security issues (including the ports), the immigration issues, the fentanyl issues, the military issues…. overridden by woke waste.\n\nThey’ve destroyed our entire economy to reduce our supposed 2% responsibility for climate change. But we have done nothing to reduce or eliminate for our supposed 2% fentanyl responsibility. \n\nWe need Trudeau gone, Parliament restored, and an election called!

I’ve held my tongue on this long enough, but the writing’s on the wall — Canada is cooked.\n\nOur finance minister calls it a “vibecession”, as if we’re imagining the economy sputtering. But here’s the reality: GDP growth at 0.1%, per capita GDP down 0.5%, and youth unemployment at 13.5%.\n\nThere’s the recent bait-and-switch $250 stimulus cheque — an ill-disguised vote buying grift. It was scrapped when the government realized it would add $4.6 billion to an already projected $60 billion deficit. \n\nThrow in a two-month sales tax holiday announced without thinking about the logistics, leaving businesses scrambling. Some aren’t even participating because it’s not worth the headache.\n\nHousing starts are at a 10-year low, the housing accelerator fund has delivered zero new homes, housing prices have left wage growth in the dust, and immigration has blown past what our infrastructure can handle. \n\nMeanwhile, the CBSA isn’t bothering to track expired international student visas. After all, someone has to keep the for-profit diploma mills thriving and the service industry fully staffed.\n\nCanada Post is falling apart under strikes, crippling small businesses, and 47% of job growth in the last five years has come from the public sector while our capital markets and innovation stagnate. \n\nThe $CAD is currently plummeting against the $USD, as the Bank of Canada scrambles to firefight the government’s incompetence with two jumbo 0.5% interest rate cuts.\n\nAnd let’s not ignore the trade war brewing with our historical ally, the U.S.. Trump has made it clear he’ll punish our abysmal border policies, which have allowed fentanyl to flood into America unchecked, with a 25% tariff on Canadian exports.\n\nIf you’re trying to get ahead — building jobs, working for yourself, pooling capital to invest, why bother?— the proposed 66% capital gains inclusion rate over $250,000 punishes you for taking risks and succeeding.\n\nAsk yourself: are you happy with the state of Canada right now? Honestly. Because it doesn’t feel like the same country I grew up in, went to school in, worked in, served in, and built a business in.\n\nI’m done. For once in my life, I don’t want to be Canadian anymore.

I'm from Texas. As a young fool I married a Canadian woman in 79. I'm a military man, army strong. So, many deployments all over the world. Oh, wife was also military, Canadian military. Our time together was limited. She left the military in 1990, got sick with cancer in 93, died in 93. I moved to Canada then, to be with the kids. Kids grew up, and I moved away. I recently returned to Canada after roughly 30 years away. I'm also leaving. I can't stand this place. And I've learned that the insanity in Canada is worldwide. I don't recognize the UK, Italy, Poland, Germany. Everything has changed. Right now I'm in Texas panhandle, on the ranch my father and his father ran. Thousands of acres, horses and cattle and dogs. I almost never see the neighbors. I love it.

I've thought about moving to Canada from the US, at least for warmer months of the year, but decided against it for some of the reasons you list and one you didn't list. The amount owed in taxes and cold, dreary Winters, while prices are still pretty high for necessities all makes me think I'm better off just staying where I am. Also I learned recently that you have this thing called Self ID, where any man can decide he's a woman and just fill out a form and pay a fee, then has access to all women's spaces, programs, etc. That sealed the deal. I like some liberal things about Canada, but the country is just too far into the extreme left for me. Good luck to all of you up there though. I hope the coming Winter is a mild one.

Canada is what you make of it. You can arrive rich and end up poor and you can arrive poor and end up rich. In between that, you can have a great life that balances your needs. I’ve seen immigrants succeed simply because they see the opportunity in front of them . They worked hard in their own counties to stay just above the poverty line ,but when they apply that same effort here it pays off ten times greater. I feel that compared to a lot of immigrants, natural born Canadians come across as spoiled and a little lazy…we are. We haven’t had to struggle the same way someone from a poorer country might have. I’ve talked to people who’ve worked ten to twelve hours a day just to stay afloat. If you did that here you could make plenty of money to live and have some left over. As far as owning a house goes,yes it’s expensive . I feel that homeownership in any country is relatively expensive. Here is a tip; use that soaring home prices to your advantage. Houses are expensive but you can make a lot of money buying and selling. I recommend putting together a buyers group and share the house for a few years, then sell at a profit, buy a bigger house or two smaller houses.try to buy the worst house in the best neighbourhood and fix it up slowly . That house could double in value in five or six years in the Toronto market. This is nothing new of course ,the people from India and China seem to do this a lot here ,it drives up prices and profits. On the downside to this ,you are now part of the problem. As the housing prices are driven up the non wealthy can no longer afford to own a house . They are at the mercy of high rents with no rewards of ownership. They are caught in a cycle of hard work and (relative)poverty. This could also be you if you can’t keep up the house payments and are forced to rent.\nHow well you speak English is important but your native language is also useful here because Canada is half immigrants . As a Canadian that speaks only english (Irish descent)I have to say to all newcomers that I’m very impressed that you have learned a new language and that you may even speak more than two! Don’t be embarrassed about your abilities . I find that in my experience , Canadians do not look down on people just because they don’t know English. In fact ,I’ve known people that have lived here for decades and still know very little English. They are comfortable in their communities and they function just fine. Learn as much English as suits your needs and be proud of any gains you make.\nOutside of Toronto are other cities that you might consider when looking at southern Ontario.From my experience,most are generally the same, just not as big . There are large immigrant communities in London Ontario, Hamilton and just outside of Toronto where housing is just a little bit less expensive but the commute to work is probably longer. This is just my opinion but in the small towns there are less people of colour , (which is what people of no colour call everyone else . I wonder if I’m called a person of no colour in some other culture ? LoL ). That might make it harder for you to feel integrated ,if that’s what you want. I’m not saying that people from other cultures can’t make it in a small town , I’m just saying that it’s definitely not Toronto . Here, people of any nationality can feel like they have a place where they can belong . It seems that no matter where you are from ,there is a community already here that’s set up restaurants and stores and clothing shops and newcomer support systems. And if your from Portugal or China or India or Africa or the Middle East, there are large groups of your kin here that have established roots for generations and you probably know this already.\nToronto means meeting place and that becomes evident quickly. I was born here and it’s one of the things I love the most about my city. I’m not going to say that there isn’t systemic racism here ,the people of no colour still kind of keep the top position , but as we become a minority in a decade or so ,I hope that will shift to a broader spectrum. It’s certainly happening already. One good thing is that the police department tries to hire people of colour so that racialism may play a smaller role. We’re getting used to seeing our politicians more and more reflect their constituents.\nI have to talk about the weather. Because I’m from here I’m used to the extremes of minus thirty and plus thirty . Eventually you get used to it (somewhat). Dressing in the right clothes is important. Summer is easy , but winter is different. It’s trying to kill you. Spend the most that you can afford on winter cloths . If you can afford a quality parka you should get one. The hood can be drawn around the face and stay out of the wind.\nIf not ,think of layers with a outer layer that blocks the wind. We have things called long Johns that are basically full length thick cotton or nylon pants that go on under your pants and a pair of extra thick socks. Buy your boots to fit your thick socks. Try to get the best boots you can afford ,it’s something that you might spend a little extra for but never regret.\nAll in all we are a fairly organized and peaceful society. Most people are friendly and will give you a chance . We have a good social safety net here and you don’t have to be homeless or starving if you don’t want to. There are people and organizations set up to help ,that truly try to get people back on their feet. It’s a good investment that pays off in ways that matter for the quality of life in a big city. I’m not putting my American neighbours down when I say they do things differently. They have their ways ,we have ours. This is just something that we do because we’re trying to learn how to help those that society has discarded or can’t find their place. Sure we have one or two areas where the homeless have pitched tents and we have some resources for them if they want. Unfortunately The mayor recently forced a small camp to move from a very visible place to more scattered locations. There were social workers involved as well as protesters trying to protect them. I didn’t like that happening and I want to see even more resources dedicated to them ,but on the other hand ,we are trying to avoid something like what happens on the streets when it’s just ignored. When I see YouTube videos of the streets of Philadelphia I’m extremely saddened. I thank the lucky stars that I was born in Toronto Canada.\nFor all it’s pollution and expense and crowds ,I think it’s a great place to do almost anything your heart desires . For every ugly building there is a beautiful park ,for every honked horn there is a birds call , for every cold and dark day there is beautiful sunny one around the corner.