Monday, August 27, 2007

Emigration To Canada

Here is my second post in my Emigration to Canada advice blog, on a subject close to my heart, driving and cars

Canadian people are nice, you can say something to someone in the pub on a Friday night that would land you in the casualty ward in the UK. In Canada it would lead to a reasoned argument and shaking hands. However all of that niceness has to vent somewhere, and it does.

Canada doesn’t follow the book on types of bad drivers it completely writes it’s own. If you get angry at a sales rep in a Mondeo Tailgating you on the M6, wait until you almost get run over by a blonde woman putting on lipstick, driving a Hummer in Canada.

I view each car trip in Montreal as a failed suicide attempt. Despite this, Canadian Roads and cars are designed in perfect harmony together. Your car hits a pothole, and a bit falls off. My car is of average engine size for these parts and leaves a carbon footprint the size of a 20 year old 747, so despite the Canadian’s love of skiing, their glaciers will be gone in about 3 months

Bit’s also fall of the questionable elevated expressway system on a fairly regular basis, sadly government investment is minimal, in fact local rabbi’s have made a new blessing. Prayer for siting in a traffic jam under highway 720 and not getting hit by a chunk of concrete. I’m not kidding you the highways look like they have been put together with double sided sticky tape

However, no one ever lets you in onto the highway, drivers here would rather run you into a (crumbling) concrete barrier than give way to you. In fact the only plus point about driving here compared with England is that when you get out of the car for some road rage, you won’t get a punch in the mouth

Post 2

Emigration To Canada

We’ve all seen those TV programmes encouraging you to start a new life abroad, and had numerous surveys shouting how many people want to leave England. I am a Brit who has been living in Canada for 2 years. I may not be as articulate as some of the TV presenters but I can give people some valid advice as I have walked the walk, I’m definitely qualified to give advice on emigration to Canada

C’mon all those grey skies in England, high profile crime all over the front pages, it’s enough to make you want to escape good old blighty . Of course crime never happens in other places and it was so cheap to eat out and stay in Canada, hmm and think of all that snowboarding in the great Canadian outdoors, you'll be doing that all the time won't you?

I’m not here to tell you whether Canada is better or worse than the UK, just to relay some experiences I have had here, and hopefully make a few people laugh a bit, maybe even give a bit of balanced advice.

Sometimes I love it here, other times I pine for home and feel like a square peg in a round hole. It's just not as simple as either the shows or the headlines make out. Maybe this blog will put you in the picture about life in another country.

Remember these are just observations and my opinions, I'm not out to offend anybody, maybe you will soon be in a position to decide whether Emigration To Canada is right for you.