I’ve read through most of the comments on this page, and I think that Mohamed quite eloquently painted a very accurate picture of Canada.

I moved here from the UK three years ago, having lived in Mexico as well prior to the move. I have to say it is quite a grim place to live in. It’s only fair to start with the pros and cons.

The pros are that the economy is quite healthy and the GDP is growing, therefore opportunity present in almost every industry. The universities and colleges across the board are at high standard, and it is a safe country to live in, with crime being relatively low. Living in Ontario, the summers are generally quite pleasant, warm and dry weather.

Now on to the cons. I’ll start with money, since that is unfortunately quite an crucial factor in all of our lives, whether we like it or not. I consider myself well traveled, particularly for my age, but I can assure you that I have never set foot in a more expensive place than Canada. The prices are absolutely astronomical, and I’m talking everything. Rent is a lot higher than it should be, I rented a one bedroomed apartment, in a really rough area and the best deal I could get was $1150 per month. Networks?? Rogers and Bell are actually regulated monopolies. Two network providers that run the show, they charge you whatever they want to. I was paying $85 dollars a month, for a very basic phone contract on a blackberry, they also charge you for caller ID haha, you need to pay extra to know who is calling you, even if they are on your phone book contact list. Car insurance?? Forget it, coming from a foreign country, doesn’t matter if you came from the UK and have driven for 25 years, without a single claim, you will still start at $250 dollars a month, for a 4 door saloon.. It is unbelievable.Groceries are a joke, restaurants, there isn’t much choice to be honest, and you’re paying through the nose wherever you go.

Nightlife.. A big part of my life since I’m a student and I love going out and dancing and having a good time. Forget it. If you live in downtown Toronto maybe you’re a bit luckier, but most university/college towns really lack variety and choices of clubs. There is one nightclub in my town, and there’s over 350,000 people there. Not to diss Canadians but their taste in music (or at least the music they play in bars/clubs) is nothing short of abysmal, top 40 and country, that’s it. Nothing from the 90s or 80s at all. No classics ever get played! I’m a very outgoing person, I speak 3 languages and I pride myself on being able to converse with literally anybody, but I struggle to make friends here, I have a few but, far less than I deserve.

Families.. If you have kids, teenagers or younger, if you want them to participate in sport, soccer, hockey, you have to pay incomprehensible fees for your kid to actually be part of a team. My friend had to pay 5 thousand dollars a year for his 8 year old son to be enrolled in the regional hockey league, and it’s the cheapest team he could’ve went to. So you do the math, what’s a parent going to do? A playstation3 costs about 300 bucks.. a season of hockey costs 5 grand.. It’s a sad state of affairs.

Dental care is another issue, a friend of mine got braces put in as he wanted to correct his bite, and it cost him 6 thousand dollars. In my country it’s free, well, it’s paid for by taxes, but not here baby!

Canada bangs on about universal healthcare, we have the same in the UK but they refuse to treat people if their cancer has progressed beyond a certain stage, there are many problems with universal healthcare, don’t get me wrong I think it’s nice that the government takes care of people, poor or rich.

The weather will piss a hell of a lot of people off, I’m not that upset about winter, but winters are a bit long I have to say. Sometimes the snow starts to fall in November, and it doesn’t clear up until mid April, now that’s a bit depressing.

Overall, it’s rather unexciting, and monotonous. Some people may very well prefer that, but I quite like an exciting horizon, I love to take on new things and seize opportunities, and Canada isn’t really the place for that.

I’ve tried to be as impartial as I can, if you’ve read all of this, I appreciate it. I have no vendetta against Canadians, I’m just telling it how it is.