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Keep strong Canada, free World needs you.

When I passed my Post Graduation in 70' s from London University ( in Engineering) Canadian Embassy gave me Visa and One way ticket for free. While I was in Embassy waiting .. I saw some colorful journals and green in summer mounds of snow in winter. I had grown up Central Indian Climate. 5 years in England still kept me alienated environ cold weather and Culture. Most disturbing was visible Brown skin foreigners for ever.....at 2nd tier of Society ,..... after getting 4 month Valid visa I started probing fron friends who had earlier migrated to Canada. Living, impediment of long very cold winter, 1970's Canada was still racist and Parliament had strong bill waiting to stop colored immigrants and keep country white...Then in 1975 the Bill was voted down. For the reason that old white generation was aging and demanding Pension and Health Care. Welfare Chest was showing bottom and had to be replenished by tax money. Young tax payers were needed. India, China and Black Carribian were overflowing with young workers...so they had swollow Colored immigrants. Country was the largest but most commercia cities are at border of America, because north is brutal cold. Canada could not build population. 30m (10% of USA.) And Economically behind CA$= 0.80USD. Let the Visa expire...and went back to my old country to Start my Consultancy office. Lived in upper middle class tier and retiring with comfortable cushion to survive . Saw the whole world during past decades of active life... Including Canada US China . Don't regret living among brown people where my roots are. No body looks at me as colored foreigner. This is my personal history..Others have other priorities in life.

Not so dramatic dear Canadians! It will be fine in time, one of the most beautiful countries on the planet. Blessed you are with such a vast landmass, nature etc etc. I am from the Netherlands and I do have a special place in my hearth for Canada. My granny did travel to you in the past and so will I do, Canada is absolute on my bucketlist! We Dutch will never forget what you did for our country during the Second World War, without you .....well, cannot keep my eyes dry. The bravery and fallen heroes are still buried on the military graveyards in Europe, especially the Netherlands. Believe me, time will heal the current problems in Canada no worry. Choose your next politicians wise, the Trudeau rain must end and I agree. Greetings from the Netherlands, I will visit you and I will support you. Do not give up, you are beautiful people, from the First Nations to the current latest immigrant. Be proud of who you are and raise the Maple Leaf Banner, The True North strong and free.

1) Toronto is poor value. Getting housing of any kind (buying or renting) is stupidly expensive. And the quality you get for the price is lousy. Especially the newer builds, which are just thrown up as quickly as possible and sold to investors. Policy measures generally all seem to serve to just inflate the price of housing further. The occasional lip service given to affordability is amusing, but ultimately sad. There are lots of people who really do not want the housing bubble to pop. They will fight against it with all they have.\n\n2) It has become kind of boring. There is lots to do if you have money, but it’s harder to find entertainment on a budget. Even the free stuff like parks are filling up. Stuff like sporting events, eating out, going out is very costly across the board. Even the “cheaper” stuff is expensive. It seems like a lot of local culture is disappearing. Even the cool neighbourhoods are filling up with the same chains. I think the high commercial rent and bureaucracy is deflating a lot of would-be entrepreneurs. Most landowners seem to just be banking on cashing out their land for condos.\n\n3) Canada overall has a high cost of living compared to salaries. In the US you can find lower cost of living areas that still give you a real city experience. And in Europe you can be poor but still live a decent, if no frills, life. In Canada the basic necessities are all expensive. Phone bills, grocery bills, rent, insurance are through the roof. Domestic travel is expensive. And the dollar sucks if you want to travel abroad. Health care is free but good luck finding a family doctor or waiting 8 hours in the ER these days. It’s expensive to be poor, or even middle class.\n\n4) Most of the Greater Toronto Area, outside the core, is soulless suburbs with awful transit - very “American” except with worse traffic congestion. You will need a car, which is another huge cost. Row upon row of old cookie cutter suburbs with the same crappy houses. Good luck walking anywhere, and if you do you will need to walk down boring, treeless arterial roads with cars zooming past right beside you, and cross giant eight lane intersections that were never built for humans on foot. In a rainstorm or on a fall evening you have to be really careful not to be run over by aggressive drivers.\n\n5) It is hard to raise a family in an apartment here. You can do it but it’s not very easy, and also you are still kind of judged for it. Lots of young people are feeling stuck and are deferring or avoiding starting a family. Buying any type of house, even a basic townhouse, requires pledging your soul to a bank by taking a massive mortgage with eye watering debt in a volatile market. But few apartment buildings have the kind of sensible gentle density, the family unit sizes and the common amenities, like little courtyards with jungle gyms, that you might find in Europe. No one ever contemplated that anyone would ever desire to raise kids in an apartment. It’s just a cultural thing that has worked its way into how things are planned and designed.\n\n6) The transit system is ok by North American standards but awful by international standards. There are only two real subway lines, one stub line, one line that is permanently out of service after a derailment, and another line that was supposed to open a couple years ago but still has no date for opening. The subways go out of service frequently, sometimes for the dumbest reasons, and then it is a zoo of shuttle buses. The streetcars are nice but so slow. The buses are fine if you find yourself dreaming about riding a daily herky jerky rolling tin of sardines. They are building a lot of transit but it will take decades to get done.\n\n7) There is still a lot of cool multiculturalism and opportunities to experience different foods and cultures - one of the best things about Toronto. Increasingly though it seems to be losing the fun vibe of the 90s, when everyone celebrated each other’s backgrounds and was chill. It seems the immigration is not as broad based anymore and also people are importing a lot of their “old country” grievances here. The immigration system also kind of preys on people abroad by selling them a false fairy tale, so they end up dejected when they arrive and see how things really are.\n\n8) This one might be controversial but it’s kind of an ugly city. There’s nothing particularly of historical meaning or value. Some of the older neighbourhoods are kind of nice, but the last 25 years they have only built giant glass skyboxes, one after another. There aren’t the cool “missing middle” walkups like in NY, Chicago or Montreal (or even LA). There are very few buildings with much architectural character. Some of the buildings they deem “heritage” here are an embarrassment.\n\n9) For safety, honestly on this score I think Toronto is not bad. There are not too many real “ghettos” and it’s night and day compared to much of the US. With that said, there is more vagrancy and social issues these days, with tents and such. It’s very sad but the shelters are full, lots of homeless go into the libraries, parks and transit system. It does make it harder to enjoy these public amenities safely. It is nowhere close to Europe where you might let your kids run free around town. Canadian parents still helicopter their kids and the place again is not designed to really be safe for kids, in the same way as Europe.\n\n10) Finally, a bit of a double edged sword. Toronto had a lot of youthful energy - people coming here from all over. It is definitely not as sleepy as many parts of the world. With that said, it is becoming a bit of a transient place (minus the world class experiences like London or NY). If you are from elsewhere you might find it hard making and keeping friends. I’ve seen lots of people struggle because it’s is hard to build a strong social network. We have a very “shallow” culture here - people are extremely polite but not overly warm and hospitable. We treat one another kind of like neighbours - meaning we’d like to have a cordial, drama-free coexistence and otherwise kind of stick to ourselves.