# returning to canada



## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

Hi, my husband and I are thinking of returning to Ontario after 26 years. We lived in Toronto with a young family and my husband had a great job. Why return home you might ask, well my dad passed away and I wanted to be with my mom, now she has passed I am missing canada something awful, my worries are: my children are all married with children and will not return with us, we are retired now so we don't need to look for jobs, but I'm concerned we will be lonely, and of course the big W weather??? We play golf and are hoping to get into a golf course and meet friends,we are looking at the south west of Ontario, can anyone tell me what the cost of living is like e.g. electricity, insurances, heating and anything else I may not have mentioned. We will be renting a property as I can't sell our properties here in N. Ireland due to the credit crunch. Any input from anyone would be grateful
Djam:


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

dgjamison said:


> Hi, my husband and I are thinking of returning to Ontario after 26 years. We lived in Toronto with a young family and my husband had a great job. Why return home you might ask, well my dad passed away and I wanted to be with my mom, now she has passed I am missing canada something awful, my worries are: my children are all married with children and will not return with us, we are retired now so we don't need to look for jobs, but I'm concerned we will be lonely, and of course the big W weather??? We play golf and are hoping to get into a golf course and meet friends,we are looking at the south west of Ontario, can anyone tell me what the cost of living is like e.g. electricity, insurances, heating and anything else I may not have mentioned. We will be renting a property as I can't sell our properties here in N. Ireland due to the credit crunch. Any input from anyone would be grateful
> Djam:


My advice to you would be to abandon any thoughts of relocating here at your stages of life. All your children/grandchildren are in UK and believe me you would miss them desperately. When you were here 26 years ago the cost of living was, IMO, noticeably less than that in the UK, but that is no longer the case.
Perhaps you've forgotten how severe the winters here can be and regardless of where you choose to live in Ontario you can only golf for 5-6 months of the year. As a suggestion why don't you come as visitors next Spring, rent a property for 6 months and try it out to get a good feel for the cost of living. If you find you like it stay through the winter to get the total experience, then you can make a solid decision.


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

Auld Yin said:


> My advice to you would be to abandon any thoughts of relocating here at your stages of life. All your children/grandchildren are in UK and believe me you would miss them desperately. When you were here 26 years ago the cost of living was, IMO, noticeably less than that in the UK, but that is no longer the case.
> Perhaps you've forgotten how severe the winters here can be and regardless of where you choose to live in Ontario you can only golf for 5-6 months of the year. As a suggestion why don't you come as visitors next Spring, rent a property for 6 months and try it out to get a good feel for the cost of living. If you find you like it stay through the winter to get the total experience, then you can make a solid decision.


Thanks for your advise, I know I would miss my children/grandkids terribly,so I know you are being sincere in your advise. We went back to Toronto April 2008 to have a look and loved it, this year we went to Vancouver for 5 weeks in May, again to check things out as the climate is better, but I have to admit I preferred the east coast even though Vancouver is really beautiful. I will keep in mind what you have told me, and if we decide to return go for the 6 months first (great advice). I have forgotten how severe the winters are,I remember taking the kids tobbaging all in our snow suits and going to Tim Hortons after for hot chocolate, it was beautiful, but I am a lot older now (though don't think it sometimes still think I'm 30 ha ha). Thanks again for your very honest response
Denise Jamison:clap2:


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

*any other responses please!!!!*

lane:


dgjamison said:


> Thanks for your advise, I know I would miss my children/grandkids terribly,so I know you are being sincere in your advise. We went back to Toronto April 2008 to have a look and loved it, this year we went to Vancouver for 5 weeks in May, again to check things out as the climate is better, but I have to admit I preferred the east coast even though Vancouver is really beautiful. I will keep in mind what you have told me, and if we decide to return go for the 6 months first (great advice). I have forgotten how severe the winters are,I remember taking the kids tobbaging all in our snow suits and going to Tim Hortons after for hot chocolate, it was beautiful, but I am a lot older now (though don't think it sometimes still think I'm 30 ha ha). Thanks again for your very honest response
> Denise Jamison:clap2:


I would love to hear other opinions as well do you agree with bigyin thankslane:


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## Newbie_Can_USA (Jan 17, 2009)

dgjamison said:


> lane:
> 
> I would love to hear other opinions as well do you agree with bigyin thankslane:


I would make the test period to include the winter as well. So be careful in choosing when u r coming so u dont just experience the "nicer" weather.


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

Newbie_Can_USA said:


> I would make the test period to include the winter as well. So be careful in choosing when u r coming so u dont just experience the "nicer" weather.


thanks, can I say that although we are retired I am not yet 60yrs my husband is 63, we had also thought about being a snow bird for a few months of the winter by migrating to florida, we are quite active and thank god not on simmers yet thanks:clap2:


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

dgjamison said:


> thanks, can I say that although we are retired I am not yet 60yrs my husband is 63, we had also thought about being a snow bird for a few months of the winter by migrating to florida, we are quite active and thank god not on simmers yet thanks:clap2:


What is your present status with Canada? Are you citizens? If not this will affect your ability to return to the country.


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

Auld Yin said:


> What is your present status with Canada? Are you citizens? If not this will affect your ability to return to the country.


Yes my whole family are citizens and so are their children, so that side is not a problem, my kids would come back except their partners all have jobs and as you said with the credit crunch I would'nt dream of them giving their good secure jobs up at the moment, my daughter is in Human resources so I know she will get a job later if she want s to come.
djam


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## MWN (Jul 22, 2009)

Hi,

My wife and I left Canada last year to move to the UK (we now live just outside London). We have found almost everything here in the UK to be more expensive. We have lived in Toronto and Vanacouver and loved both (in Vancouver our monthly electricity bill was only about $45.00 for a 1400 sq foot condo in Coal Harbour, although we had a gas fireplace and the gas was included in the rent). Our heating bill in Toronto was certainly higher than Vancouver as we were in an older house in Yorkville, but I can't remember the figure...it was certainly cheaper than the UK though). Petrol and cars are cheaper in Canada and groceries are about 15-20% cheaper than the UK. Wine is slightly more expensive in Canada. Ontario is cheaper than BC for housing but the weather is certainly better in Vancouver....so if if you are going to move back then I would suggest moving to a location where you have the most family and contacts. Of the various countries we've lived in (USA, Australia, Canada, UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Belgium) our favourite is Canada. The people are incredibly friendly (particularly in Ontario). If you can be a snow bird then you won't have the weather issues to deal with. We will certainly move back to Canada as we really miss the friendliness of the people there. During our time in Toronto we frequently had people stop and ask us if we needed help with directions (in most cases we were simply admiring a building or a landscape). I was showing a friend from Vancouver around Toronto on one occassion and as we were standing outside Union Station at rush hour I was telling him how my wife and I often had people stop and offer to help with directions (even when we didn't need help), just as I was telling him this a business woman who was clearly in a hurry stopped and asked if we needed help...he couldn't beleive it...nor could I. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. On another occassion when my wife and I were on a packed subway car in downtown Toronto a lady asked if everyone would sing happy birthday to her Mom who was with her...to our amazement the whole subway car sang happy birthday to her Mom. I can't imagine that happening in many other major cities in the world...imagine that happening in London...Toronto is a relatively short flight to Ireland so you will still be able to visit family on this side of the Atlantic quite cheaply. If I recall correctly, healthcare in Ontario was free. My wife needed to see a heart specialist and they were terrific about getting her an appointment quickly. Here in the UK she has been waiting for months to see a specialist. Good Luck with the decision. Cheers. Mark


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

MWN said:


> Hi,
> 
> My wife and I left Canada last year to move to the UK (we now live just outside London). We have found almost everything here in the UK to be more expensive. We have lived in Toronto and Vanacouver and loved both (in Vancouver our monthly electricity bill was only about $45.00 for a 1400 sq foot condo in Coal Harbour, although we had a gas fireplace and the gas was included in the rent). Our heating bill in Toronto was certainly higher than Vancouver as we were in an older house in Yorkville, but I can't remember the figure...it was certainly cheaper than the UK though). Petrol and cars are cheaper in Canada and groceries are about 15-20% cheaper than the UK. Wine is slightly more expensive in Canada. Ontario is cheaper than BC for housing but the weather is certainly better in Vancouver....so if if you are going to move back then I would suggest moving to a location where you have the most family and contacts. Of the various countries we've lived in (USA, Australia, Canada, UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Belgium) our favourite is Canada. The people are incredibly friendly (particularly in Ontario). If you can be a snow bird then you won't have the weather issues to deal with. We will certainly move back to Canada as we really miss the friendliness of the people there. During our time in Toronto we frequently had people stop and ask us if we needed help with directions (in most cases we were simply admiring a building or a landscape). I was showing a friend from Vancouver around Toronto on one occassion and as we were standing outside Union Station at rush hour I was telling him how my wife and I often had people stop and offer to help with directions (even when we didn't need help), just as I was telling him this a business woman who was clearly in a hurry stopped and asked if we needed help...he couldn't beleive it...nor could I. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. On another occassion when my wife and I were on a packed subway car in downtown Toronto a lady asked if everyone would sing happy birthday to her Mom who was with her...to our amazement the whole subway car sang happy birthday to her Mom. I can't imagine that happening in many other major cities in the world...imagine that happening in London...Toronto is a relatively short flight to Ireland so you will still be able to visit family on this side of the Atlantic quite cheaply. If I recall correctly, healthcare in Ontario was free. My wife needed to see a heart specialist and they were terrific about getting her an appointment quickly. Here in the UK she has been waiting for months to see a specialist. Good Luck with the decision. Cheers. Mark


Hi Mark, lovely to hear from you, we just returned from Vancouver on June 5th, we went for 5 weeks to have a look round to make sure before deciding on Ontario. We found Vancouver beautiful, but I have to say not nearly as friendly as Ontario, like you the previous year we had gone back to Toronto to have a look and found people coming up to us to see if we needed help with directions, they are so helpful, I also found they tend to take you under their wing when you first arrive. We are older now so I hope it will not have changed as we will not have children to break the ice, but we are hoping to join a golf club and meet people. We have decided we want a smaller town (near a large city within 30-40 miles) as we want to integrate with the community . I have become so dissillusioned with GB as a whole (that includes Ireland) we have just gotten back to a little normality after the troubles and now we have drunken louts both male and female running round creating havoc,drugs, disrespect everywhere, I have come to hate it and don't know where it will end. I know there are problems with every country but the british isles to me is one of the worst. The whole family circle has broken down now. Sorry to go on, I think you know what I mean, I'm hoping my family will consider coming over when we settle.
Hope you make the move back.
, will let you know how we get on
regards
Deniselane:


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## MWN (Jul 22, 2009)

Hi Denise, I wouldn't be concerned about meeting new friends. My wife and I are in our 40's and don't have children but we had no problems meeting people. Joining a golf club should be a great way to meet new friends. There are many smaller towns in the SW of Ontario that would be great to live in, so I'm sure you'll find one that you like. Once the economy turns around I'm sure your family will find the opportunities are much better in Canada overall... and the cheaper cost of living is a bonus (it's particularly good once you get outside of Toronto). Good luck with the move!! 
Cheers. Mark



dgjamison said:


> Hi Mark, lovely to hear from you, we just returned from Vancouver on June 5th, we went for 5 weeks to have a look round to make sure before deciding on Ontario. We found Vancouver beautiful, but I have to say not nearly as friendly as Ontario, like you the previous year we had gone back to Toronto to have a look and found people coming up to us to see if we needed help with directions, they are so helpful, I also found they tend to take you under their wing when you first arrive. We are older now so I hope it will not have changed as we will not have children to break the ice, but we are hoping to join a golf club and meet people. We have decided we want a smaller town (near a large city within 30-40 miles) as we want to integrate with the community . I have become so dissillusioned with GB as a whole (that includes Ireland) we have just gotten back to a little normality after the troubles and now we have drunken louts both male and female running round creating havoc,drugs, disrespect everywhere, I have come to hate it and don't know where it will end. I know there are problems with every country but the british isles to me is one of the worst. The whole family circle has broken down now. Sorry to go on, I think you know what I mean, I'm hoping my family will consider coming over when we settle.
> Hope you make the move back.
> , will let you know how we get on
> regards
> Deniselane:


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## dgjamison (Jul 6, 2009)

MWN said:


> Hi Denise, I wouldn't be concerned about meeting new friends. My wife and I are in our 40's and don't have children but we had no problems meeting people. Joining a golf club should be a great way to meet new friends. There are many smaller towns in the SW of Ontario that would be great to live in, so I'm sure you'll find one that you like. Once the economy turns around I'm sure your family will find the opportunities are much better in Canada overall... and the cheaper cost of living is a bonus (it's particularly good once you get outside of Toronto). Good luck with the move!!
> Cheers. Mark


thanks again Mark, am getting excited about going back, will keep everyone posted as to how we get on
Good luck
Denise:wave:


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## SuzanneT (May 18, 2009)

I grew up in Connecticut but have lived the last 20 years in Nova Scotia. I have just spent 3 months in Connectitut and am moving back home again in a few weeks. I can't wait, I'm dying of the heat here! As far as winters go, it seems to me that Vancouver or Victoria would be the easiest. But even in Nova Scotia all you need do is get yourself a wood stove and take up a hobby or discipline (rug hooking, hockey, bingo, meditation...). You can always put on another sweater, but there is only so much you can take off! And Canada does have excellent health care. In my experience it's better than the US. There are long wait times everywhere. Just my 2c!


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