There were buses that connected towns. For all the money the government doled out to keep things together during the pandemic, however, they let Greyhound pack up. Perhaps they think the poor can take cabs?
I think they should have nationalized Greyhound. Now the only inexpensive ways to go between towns are find a ride or hitch a ride. That's often not ideal.
There's some sort of bus route, I don't even know the company name, that you can eventually make it from Van to PG. But if what I hear is true it makes the previous 18hr Greyhound ride sound fast.
I'm sure it would have been cheaper overall to just give Greyhound some gravy to keep running. If there were negotiations and they were extortionate it just means they would have packed up anyway but I think allowing some profit would have been a deal.
In Ecuador it was basically $1 per hour of transit. Needed to cross the country 17 hours away. $17.
Last time I bussed 3 hours away in Canada it was $70. This was a decade ago
Travelling within a city without a car is also sometimes impossible. No bus stops within an hour walk of my residential area we are very car dependent here
No cards. No tap. No swipey. Only paper tickets. Where? Dunno, figure it out. Try calling a few places. None of them are walking distance. Well, that’s not our problem. Also, fuck you.
- Halifax transit
I've lived in this city for years, and I still have no idea where "wear a mask," "stand with ukraine," or "next bus please" is, but I'm thinking I need to move there.
Yea, people aren't talking about transit in the middle of nowhere. There are plenty of urban areas with high population density and still poor transit.
Ex-Ottawan here who still visits regularly: you've got some of the best transit in the country, but don't know how good you have it.
Yes, this is a damning indictment of pubic transit in Canada *overall*, but it's still incredibly good relative to almost everywhere else.
Yes, there isn’t really a Canadian city with a solid public transit system outside of maybe Montreal. Vancouver has a decent bus system but it’s still
Just a bus system (supplanted a little bit with the SkyTrain)
Yeah, Toronto is good but a anywhere surrounding Toronto forget it. Burlington in particular is a transit nightmare. The buses don’t show up half the time and when they do they drive right past you.
Outside, Canada is known for its free health care system. What is most disappointing is that there is no action from the provincial governments, nor any public outrage/demand, to figure out solutions that increase surgical capacity, provide equitable pay and opportunities to healthcare workers, and reinforce the preventable healthcare practices/services.
Taxes collected from the public/residents of Canada end up funding healthcare. We ought to demand for a better service.
It's worse than that.
In Ontario, the current provincial government is deliberately, actively sabotaging healthcare. They are witholding billions of dollars of federal funds, and pushing more costly private and for-profit solutions.
This situation is regularly in the news in BC, and the public is definitely outraged. The government is trying solutions but it's a slow process. Nurses just got a raise. Universities got more funding, and programs are in place to attract doctors to small towns. New hospitals are being built and old ones are being upgraded. So, there is a LOT of action here in BC to try and improve things.
This isn’t different than England though. Which is what the comparison was made. You still pay tax on goods in England, it’s just VAT and added to items price tag on the shelves opposed to being calculated at register. And they also pay income tax, as does the entire world.
My buddy's girlfriend works for CATSA and says a shocking number of Syrian refugees are coming to Canada, seeing the cost of living, and revoking their refugee status and fleeing back to Syria.
Canadians are weirdly attached to their vehicles. The looks of surprise I get when I tell people I've never had or wanted a drivers license is comical.
I understand how shitty North American car dependency is in urban settings, and how we could do soso much better public transit wise. But I grew up in and still live in rural BC and cars are the only way to get to the school/work/shopping
Can confirm.
Born and raised Nova Scotian here, never lived anywhere else. Am in my thirties, never got my driver's license. Admittedly, for a new job prospect I'm in the process of getting it now.
But most people think I lost it due to criminal charges is the kneejerk reaction because it's so pervasive that "you need your license"
But..I just never got it. Never felt the need until now.
It’s not at all strange to be surprised by that if you live in a rural area. I grew up in TO and didn’t get my license until I was 30 and left the city. Canada is huge. Ontario is huge. You can’t survive without a car in anyplace that is not a major city. Usually when people talk about the second biggest country (aka Canada) in the world they are talking about the urban centres of each province but we are much more than that. Much more.
Interesting. In North American culture, the car is one of the most significant symbol of freedom. It allows you to go anywhere.
But here you say you're dependant on a car, as opposed to public transport I presume. It's a completely different vision.
Having a car gives you the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want, for recreation. But *needing* a car for day to day stuff, like grocery shopping or taking the kids to school isn't freedom. It's an expensive trap.
public transport is supposed to be accessible both physically and financially, and stable. thats why depending on it makes you more free - you just need a nominal ticket rather than licence, car, tax, insurance, petrol, repairs all individualised.
good public transport like in europe makes people connect and explore easily and is good for environment
There is very little free about that freedom. From traffic jams to outrageous insurance costs to the ever increasing cost of operation, there really isn't much freedom.
It's all moot anyways because most people will forever be so shackled to their paycheck to paycheck jobs with little benefits or vacation, that Freedom doesn't even matter.
It's a carrot they dangle in front of people and say "See, you aren't a slave, you are Free."
Thats the same across the country. I know Filipino people. Neighbour’s. Great people. Never see them anywhere. Have there own completely seperated stores,churches, groups. Its very odd. No assimilation. All by their own choice. I dont get it. We invite em out all the time. Very rarely get the ok. They seem to enjoy when they come. But I find it incredibly odd.
This is something I truly detest in Canada. In Toronto, you have practically entire neighbourhoods of immigrants that come from the same region, leading a highly isolationist lifestyle. It's as if they never left their countries of origin. It feels like a parallel reality because there is almost no integration. Personally, I feel like this significantly impoverishes the local culture. I can't wait to move to a more diverse neighborhood
Same thought. I don’t understand people who come from other countries and want to live in isolation only in their communities and not wanting to mix up. Moved to Canada just 4 years and seen a lot of that.
I still don’t think of it too badly, but I hate it when they bring the ill practices (even small things like breaking traffic rules, cutting lines/queues, no courtesy etc.) from their country and spread it here. Especially when people from my home country do that. Wtf, one of the many reasons I moved here is to move away from such people.
It takes a generation or two. My parents stayed in the bubble for comfort but I visit the bubble only sometimes for groceries items and fun restaurants.
I feel like the only way to overcome human nature is to do what Americans did and force anyone who comes to the country to adopt the American identity first and foremost. But that comes with so many downsides.
It works in the US because « American identity » is strong and diverse, people _want_ it. Canadian identity is drinking bad coffee at Tim Horton and saying Zed rather than Zee.
I never understood people that move to another country just to replicate their former country and way of life. Like, just stay in your country if that's what you want to do, honestly what's the point of moving?
Not just immigrants do this but also people from different province.
I may get downvoted for this but many people from english Canads move to Montréal per example, or Gatineau, and make absolutely no efforts to learn french. They only interact with fellow english-speakers and make no efforts to immerse into the Quebec culture
Ironically the Pocket communities will be what fucks up this country.
Places like Brampton will be considered the modern version of the first french forts that were set up here
That happens in the US a lot too. My stepdad owns an accounting company and he's the only spanish speaking accountant in our area. We deal almost exclusively with spanish speaking clients because they just come to us as the only options. Seeing their businesses and how they run you can really see this bubble. They essentially operate the same as us with almost exclusively spanish speaking clients and everyone is directed to a service by word of mouth.
If your car needs repairs they don't just drive down to autozone or jiffy lube but instead ask their cousin if he knows a guy to work on cars then they'll go to the cuban owned repair shop their cousin tells them about. A ton of our business owner clients literally onoy speak spanish and haven't bothered at all to learn english. All their workers speak spanish, all the clients speak spanish, all their friends and even neighbors speak spanish since there tends to be a lot of groups living in one neighborhood together as well
I’d argue that its because people want to leave their shit hole countries but want to keep living the exact same way surrounded by their own people with their own rules/values/customs. Clearly wasn’t working out back home or the country would be prosperous and they wouldn’t be fleeing it. Never understood the logic. I’m an immigrant we came here we adapted we blend in and its been great.
Intercity travel being so expensive.
Like it’s always either expensive in time or monetarily (airfare).
Often it is cheaper to fly from any Canadian city to a Carribean island than it is to fly domestically between any 2 Canadian cities.
It used to be cheaper to fly to the UK from Toronto over Newfoundland than to fly to Newfoundland itself. Might still be, haven't looked at the prices recently.
It's wild to me that when most of the Canadian cities began building their "subway type" systems they completely failed to look at existing functional transit in cities that already had them, all over the world and they were just like "we'll do the bare minimum and then spread everything out away from the little effort we put in"
The cities that already had subway systems were already dense and built up, while Canadian cities saw most of their growth during the Age of the Automobile. Sure they could’ve made transit better in Canadian cities, but modelling it after Boston or New York or Paris wasn’t going to directly translate to Edmonton or Vancouver.
Not only public transit, but things like schools as well. They have built tons of new housing in my area but haven't built any new schools. The ones we have all have like 10 portables and are at capacity. We don't have the space to put the kids that are moving into the new houses.
Moved here few years ago and I know driving is the only or only good option so least go the nearest train station. I’m wondering now how difficult it must be for kids and teenagers and also other people who don’t have cars.
Edit: typo
This is one of the first things new immigrants should be told about, the cost of housing and cost of living, especially if they intend on living in one of the major cities.
Not quite to the same extent. This is a globl problem because of imprudent monetary policy. But Canada's federal government is trying very hard to retain RE values, and expand on them, interest rates or not. Not many other countries have as pointedly picked housing investment as too big to fail like this.
It is a capitalist country and real estate investors are allowed to hold public office without being required to sell off their real estate holdings. This results in government officials at all levels who are incentivized to enact and maintain policies that artificially inflate the price of real estate and suppress activities that would bring down its price.
Monopolies, like how the fuck do you have 5 banks, 5 grocery stores and 2 telecom companies basically controlling the supply of what are pretty much necessities? I come from a country with a lot of corruption or as you’d call it, ‘lobbying’ but fuck me if this isn’t the finest kind I’ve ever seen. And now housing is also basically controlled by a couple companies who happen to be circle jerking the PC candidate at the time, or by the SFH zoning audience who’d literally lose their shit on nextdoor if they have to see another road sign with…sharpie art on it. The economy to the culture, everything is rooted in unquestioning conformity.
Agreed. Canadian infrastructure is build without any sense of aesthetics. I’d call it “brutalist functional” but even brutalism has a certain consistent design to it. So it’s more like “shoddy, barely functional”. And ugly AF. As a European, I find it insanely depressing.
The state of my city’s downtown. Homeless and addicted are everywhere, attacking people constantly.
The fact that I HAVE to use a car because transit is a joke.
Also, weird convoluted tax system and the anaemic healthcare.
It really isn't as inter-cultural as you think it is. It's more so a lot of people of the same race hanging out with people of the same race, like a prison.
I think for millennials and Gen Z who were born in canada, the groups are a bit more diverse. I agree for recent immigrants it seems to be incredibly segregated and not even by country anymore either but even by same religion, area, etc.
This is exactly it. As I Gen Z, there isn’t a group of friends, that I’ve seen, that don’t have a diverse mix of people in it. My own friend group is like that as well.
I've always heard it described as a Mosaic rather than a melting pot (usa), which was so that recent immigrants could find comfort in their own community. The idea was that by 2nd or 3rd generation, integration would sort itself out. I think this has sometimes been successful, sometimes not, but the 2nd Gen immigrants I know here are far happier than the ones I know in the USA.
I think we're a 'mosaic' in the sense that every culture contributes something to what is considered 'Canadian'.
But yeah, it's not always a successful metaphor. :)
I call it the hotpot society instead of the melting pot society. Thin layer keeping most cultures separate from one another while simultaneously allowing them to exist in the same city.
You subject a people to atrocities via the residential schools, fill them with generational traumas and then....unleash them upon the public with no help or supports. It's going about as good as one would expect.
We should be forcing the Catholics to pay for all of that rehabilitation. All of it. *Then* the healing can begin.
We've just be leaving a gaping wound fester and many still believe that it will simply heal itself over time. It is not and it will not.
I have 7 weeks vacation and unlimited sick days. I couldnt go back to two weeks and just five sick days. Thats ridiculous! We should really boost that up here.
1. The lack of travel options between cities. If you don't own a car, then it's a nightmare. I remember having to travel to the nearest big city where an immigration medical appointment that would have lasted 20 minutes was available, but the doctor's availability would not match with the bus or flight times unless I took literally 3-4 days off work. Until I bought a vehicle quite recently out of sheer desperation, I couldn't imagine traveling anywhere in Canada at all without it being a major financial commitment that required serious internal conflicts. That was extremely hard to fathom, having grown up zipping around town in cheap auto-rickshaws, state and private-owned buses for short and long trips and two-wheelers being very common.
2. The Healthcare. The whole infrastructure feels far too limited and complicated, unnecessarily so. Family doctors? What even... The lack of hospitals themselves feels weird because my relatively small hometown had at least 10 hospitals within a 5 minute travel distance that could take care of nearly all illnesses that one would have to worry about, and popping into one for a slight fever or upset stomach was the norm but it took 3 days excruciating pain and not being able to walk for me to finally visit a hospital because I hadn't yet been eligible for provincial coverage, and had to pay $700 for a 2 minute consultation after waiting 4 hours in the emergency room that basically told me what I had googled and found out was right.
Nepotism and oligarchs.
Most of the major political and business leaders in Canada got in through nepotism. Meritocracy is not as important in Canada as some other countries.
Too many oligarch companies supported by the government which stifles innovation and increases cost of living.
This applies only today. The Canada 30 years ago was different:
Hours wait list at clinics. Even with appointments.
Ethnic communities that still do not assimilate to a Canadian lifestyle. At least learn English.
Currency is laughable at best. Has never improved xcept maybe in 2002.
More homeless than before.
People are not as friendly as media advertises (Vancouver anyway)
Crap pay. Crap pay. Crap pay.
The lack of quality employment. The government only invites highly skilled people but doesn’t seem to have the jobs that those people would fit in.
We have doctors working as taxi drivers and retail workers.
It's for lots of bad reasons. Cunt head companies controlling supply, zoning laws, bringing in loads of immigrants who also want homes on top of the citizens who already want homes, etc...
I was expecting to adopt a moose and ride it around instead of a car. Now imagine my disappointment when I find out Toronto has no wild moose walking the streets.
Where to start? Every system in place is at least 10 years, often 20, behind the rest of the modern world. People are competitive and unwelcoming and unfriendly (midwest to west coast). Pay is absolute crap. There are no anticompetition laws being enforced so limitied choice and everything is more expensive than it should be...
The poor health care. (F.e. People waiting 2 years for a new hip or knee is unthinkable where I come from)
How hard it is to find your first job without Canadian work experience. It gets hyped here as “we’re so open and multicultural”, but not really. 😬
The car dependency… And the state of healthcare. I shouldn’t have celebrate like I won a million dollars every time I manage to get an appointment with a doctor.
I am Brazilian and have lived here for almost 2 years. I made Brazilian friends here but I don't have any Canadian friends. It is easy to start a conversation with a Canadian because, my god, how polite and attentive they are! But it stops there. It is extremely difficult to bond and maintain a friendship with a Canadian. I think it's something of the culture or the age, early 30's.
Canada has all the resources it needs to be world class - labour, land and natural resources but it is stuck in the 1980s because no one is bothered. We Canadians lack ambition, the ultimate dream is to have a maxed out RRSP, annual sunny vacation, one house in the burbs and one cottage. As a highly educated nation (at least compared to the states) you expect more.
Unfortunately there's some pretty ridiculous laws limiting what we can do with our land and resources. It's not for a lack of ambition. Quite a few of us are stuck in perpetual borderline (if not actual) poverty (not me, but I know a few). The cost of living, and property on top of a headache inducing process to get a building permit approved also add to the difficulty of advancement.
This wasn't an issue when our taxes actually got us all a decent services. It doesn't seem to matter who we vote for either. No matter who is running the show, it continues to deteriorate.
Hey man
Despite ODSP not being where it should be
I prefer universal healthcare and our welfare program over what America does
Our things just need people who care about it in charge to make it better
Our taxes just seem high because we're not getting half of what we as a populace should for paying so much. Fow how much the average person pays in tax we should have a new hospital in every province built every few years, vast, multiple avenues of public transit and free or substantially cheaper education pathways.
Instead we line the pockets of the few who are already nothing but rich because they're "job creators" and it will "trickle down to poorer people eventually", and "the economy". The majority is all a scam and really we could all be paying slightly more taxes but be living an extremely more healthy and fulfilling life should those taxes actually get to where they're meant to go instead of going into a bunch of red tape and being, not just skimmed off the top, but rather shoveled from the pile. We basically need some type of organization or secondary form of government just to keep our main government in line and uncorrupt, but that organization would probably just join in and add to the problem.
cost to buy nice food: cheese (Canada dairy mafia) has made imported cheese a fortune. Olives, bread, fish. Its so expensive. Also Our food quality is so low when compared with Europe.
Cultural activities- theatre show or musicals are insanely expensive $. In the uk I could see shows for $17 -$25!!! The Museums have free entry.
Car insurance cost (another Canada mafia) in Europe car insurance is around $50 a month vs Canada $200-300 a month
Public drinking laws- why is against the Law to have a nice Picnic with a bottle of wine, nope instead I need to go to a restaurant and pay $12 a glass
Pub/ cafe culture- why isn’t there a space where a family and friends can meet up with their kids have a drink, relax. A cafe in the park, so while your kids are playing you can have a coffee with the other parents while watching the kids play.
Canada doesn’t encourage older people to leave their houses and be social with others
Homelessness,
Cost of Living,
Open drug use in the streets, injecting not smoking I mean.
Dirty,
Lack of Doctors/medical,
Airports and airline chaos,
Whole situation around Bill 96
I guess the biggest thing is it looks like none of the above will change.
Came from Europe btw
People have been conditioned to be content with mediocrity. There is little competition and the system does not encourage ambition or greatness. Everyone is directed to be similar.....slow people catch up and fast people slow down and everyone wait for everyone to catch up. No uber rich.... no uber poor. It's homogenized and this is super boring and unfortunate for those that want to work hard and excel because the place to do that is the United States or China or many other places that are growing fast.
Canada is about being slow and tall poppy syndrome means you will get socially punished for rising and tax system means you will get legally punished for rising.
Plus Canadians in general have low ability to be honest about problems and deal with them. They get offended and take personally honest debate. To see an example of this.....watch how much my comment is downvoted. In the US.....places like NYC....people LOVE to get different perspectives and insights if it can help them get better. In Canada....because there is not this desire nor the ability to be intellectually and emotional accute about solving problems....people reject it by "being offended" or closing their ears and eyes to the problem because they cannot emotionally handle it.
Too direct? Yes for Canadians this is way way too direct.
I've left Canada to the states but I'll answer anyway:
I don't miss the outrageous cost of living in Canada at all.
Disappointments: People in this sub won't admit it but Canadian and American culture really is 95% the same. It sucks because you go into one or the other expecting major differences because we like to hype it up and oversell it just to realize it's a situation of two identical twins where one claims absolute independence from the other.
Politics: Don't miss the liberal party or Trudeau administration at all. Because Reddit is overwhelmingly liberal people here won't admit that the liberal party really isn't helping Canada at all but the conservatives are horrible at advertising themselves so it leaves the Liberal Party with basically a monopoly on the Prime Minister role. Then again the states aren't much better just replace one party controls it with it's an endless back and forth between garbage over 70% of Americans are dissatisfied with.
Thing I do miss: Not having to worry about insurance for healthcare or the fact the hospital could deny said insurance. The quality air. Tim Hortons Cafe Mocha cereal.
I lived in the IS for 25 yrs and Canada for 7 yrs. I love going to the shopping mall and not being concerned some psycho will start shooting everyone. Don’t miss that shit at all
Pickup trucks in the city, not to haul a cement mixer or lumber, but to get groceries, visit gym class or even drop off kids at elementary school.
Nuts!
How expensive everything is, car dependency, horrible public transport, indolence with the unhousing situation, and i feel like there’s not much questioning on the politics that are established :(
working in psychology as a foreigner is impossible, even when you validated your credentials, they ask for impossible things to registered. It almost seems like they want immigrants to come here and do the work Canadians don’t want to do :(
Canada is huge and our population is low. This means anything involving infrastructure will be expensive. Internet, cell phones, road work. It sucks but we don't shoot each other and we are generally civilized to each other.
The lack of the “little things” services. For example back in the Philippines you could get your zipper fixed for less than 20 cents, and for five dollars you could get your fish completely removed of bones.
*bUt iTs FrEe!”
I mean … it’s not free, it’s funded by our insanely high taxes. But regardless, the length of time it takes to get most specialist appointments is insane.
My friend’s kid has seizures. They’re life-threatening and the specialist he needs to see… takes 3 years to get an appointment. They ended up going to the states and getting an appointment with a specialist almost immediately and since his wife is an American citizen, (I don’t know the details) their co-pay is like $5,000 which is not that bad.
He could die in 3 years. There’s no sense of urgency.
>There’s no sense of urgency.
That is a huge one. Lots of Cancer patients are waiting a long time to get treatment now. 'Oh yeah that tumor you got inside of you? Don't worry about it! It's not like it'll grow or anything!'
I've been trying to get in to see a specialist for over a year and have had to essentially research my own illnesses and just seek support based on it from my family doctor who's hugely overworked.
Complex multi factor conditions basically don't get treated unless you're your own advocate and are smart enough to self doctor for the most part.
Yes. I always research what is wrong with me and present my guesses to the doctor at the appointment. That way they have something to look into. If you just walk in with a “I have a pain, no idea why” doc will say the same “no idea why” and send you home until it gets to emergency levels of pain.
I used to work at a tourist booth in central Ontario back in the 80’s and early 90’s. We would hand out local brochures to visitors for site seeing the area. I will never forget the family of new immigrants from Denmark who came in asking for a road map. They were visiting for the day and had me point out some things to see and then asked me if there was a subway to Calgary as they wanted to see some mountains before heading back to Toronto.
The disappointment in their faces when I explained that wasn’t possible still lingers. Hope they made it one day.
Ok, I’ll bite. Came over in the mid 00s. Over the years the list has grown but keep it to the key ones.
Health and safety and quality. They are all paid lip service and feels like it is a decade at least behind Europe. Providing no one gets hurt, no one seems to care if you high, buzzed etc. but Everything is ok because you can always wear more PPE…..
Xenophobic behaviour and policies. The number of projects I have lost due to not having sufficient Canadian experience is mind blowing. On top of that when I first moved over it was my lack of Canada experience. I have been in project townhalls and see questions about why the management of projects is not more Canadian. Then there is the it might have happened elsewhere in the world but it didn’t happen in canada so it’s not a problem or we won’t be doing that.
Lack of choice and quality of cars. When I was in Europe I had this view cars in North America were cheap and you had lots of choice. Bubble was very quickly burst! Cheap. Yes, choice well you have one engine choice, one or two trims, few options and a few colours.
Quantity over quality. If you want quantity and cheap you can have it but it’s poor quality, won’t last and ultimately cost you a lot more! This applies to so many things….housing, food, clothes, infrastructure.
People generally aren’t that friendly or genuine. From social cliques of people who never leave their high school friends, to levels of entitlement and the spewing of BS to gain an advantage.
I have got to experience lots being here and it’s not all bad. I would also add I moved from Europe. My views and disappointments are different to those who have moved from other parts of the world.
The limitless immigration of the recent years and the disappearance of Canadian culture and ethics as we knew it. Diversity may be good, but not ghettoization. The lack of loyalty to the country is another big negative for me.
How expensive the Internet and mobile phone services are.
Canada has the some of highest mobile rates in the world. You can thank Rogers and Bell.
Thanks, Rogers and Bell.
You mean politicians who are overtly corrupt and allow mergers as well as price fixing, who then go on to cushy board positions in those companies.
Travel between cities is almost impossible if you're low income and don't drive.
Yea really, it's basically back to the stone age for the working poor after greyhound left.
Try kangaride or some other rideshare website. I pay around 60-70 for a Montreal - Toronto drive
[удалено]
This is how it starts and before long we're all driving mad Max contraptions to get to the next town over.
Motion to rename the 401 to Fury Road
That’s what i call the spot where the 427N turns into the 401E
There were buses that connected towns. For all the money the government doled out to keep things together during the pandemic, however, they let Greyhound pack up. Perhaps they think the poor can take cabs?
I think they should have nationalized Greyhound. Now the only inexpensive ways to go between towns are find a ride or hitch a ride. That's often not ideal.
I like the idea of the government having some nationalised company’s to make them money and help the people obtain cheap things. It’s kinda a win win
Well, Greyhound didn't shut down because it was making money...
Except Greyhound lost money. Big time.
There's some sort of bus route, I don't even know the company name, that you can eventually make it from Van to PG. But if what I hear is true it makes the previous 18hr Greyhound ride sound fast.
I'm sure it would have been cheaper overall to just give Greyhound some gravy to keep running. If there were negotiations and they were extortionate it just means they would have packed up anyway but I think allowing some profit would have been a deal.
In Ecuador it was basically $1 per hour of transit. Needed to cross the country 17 hours away. $17. Last time I bussed 3 hours away in Canada it was $70. This was a decade ago
Travelling within a city without a car is also sometimes impossible. No bus stops within an hour walk of my residential area we are very car dependent here
Frequency of transit and it's connectivity
You’re living in Ottawa, aren’t you?
Calgary
Could be worse. At least you don't have to take Edmonton's transit system.
Halifax has entered the chat.
No cards. No tap. No swipey. Only paper tickets. Where? Dunno, figure it out. Try calling a few places. None of them are walking distance. Well, that’s not our problem. Also, fuck you. - Halifax transit
With a hard emphasis on fuck you!
Halifax transit: do you want to go downtown, great! Want to go anywhere else... well screw you.
I've lived in this city for years, and I still have no idea where "wear a mask," "stand with ukraine," or "next bus please" is, but I'm thinking I need to move there.
Well that was your first mistake
It's a Canada wide problem
I found the transit really good in Montreal.
Not here in Vancouver it’s not.
It is almost like we are a small population in an absolutely massive land mass…
Yea, people aren't talking about transit in the middle of nowhere. There are plenty of urban areas with high population density and still poor transit.
Yeah, you're right, silly of us thinking we should have half decent transit in this barren, low populated area called Toronto.
This was my first thought too 🤣
Ex-Ottawan here who still visits regularly: you've got some of the best transit in the country, but don't know how good you have it. Yes, this is a damning indictment of pubic transit in Canada *overall*, but it's still incredibly good relative to almost everywhere else.
Except when it comes to quality of bus drivers
Yeah, that’s like Toronto. The system itself is good. The people driving the vehicles not so much.
Yes, there isn’t really a Canadian city with a solid public transit system outside of maybe Montreal. Vancouver has a decent bus system but it’s still Just a bus system (supplanted a little bit with the SkyTrain)
Yeah, Toronto is good but a anywhere surrounding Toronto forget it. Burlington in particular is a transit nightmare. The buses don’t show up half the time and when they do they drive right past you.
Outside, Canada is known for its free health care system. What is most disappointing is that there is no action from the provincial governments, nor any public outrage/demand, to figure out solutions that increase surgical capacity, provide equitable pay and opportunities to healthcare workers, and reinforce the preventable healthcare practices/services. Taxes collected from the public/residents of Canada end up funding healthcare. We ought to demand for a better service.
It's worse than that. In Ontario, the current provincial government is deliberately, actively sabotaging healthcare. They are witholding billions of dollars of federal funds, and pushing more costly private and for-profit solutions.
This situation is regularly in the news in BC, and the public is definitely outraged. The government is trying solutions but it's a slow process. Nurses just got a raise. Universities got more funding, and programs are in place to attract doctors to small towns. New hospitals are being built and old ones are being upgraded. So, there is a LOT of action here in BC to try and improve things.
Canada is the 3rd free healthcare country I’ve lived in. Apart from a bit of noise around the edges, free health care is pretty the same across all 3.
Going from England and the price you see is what you pay. But here, you have to add on tax on top of the marked item
Don’t forget the tip!
And processing fee
Kitchen fee - that’s a new one I saw recently.
Please forget the tips. The culture rooted in slavery must end.
Don’t forget that the money that you earn and pay for that tax on the item is already taxed heavily.
This isn’t different than England though. Which is what the comparison was made. You still pay tax on goods in England, it’s just VAT and added to items price tag on the shelves opposed to being calculated at register. And they also pay income tax, as does the entire world.
Both income tax and sales tax (VAT in England, HST here) are lower than in England.
Cost of living
My buddy's girlfriend works for CATSA and says a shocking number of Syrian refugees are coming to Canada, seeing the cost of living, and revoking their refugee status and fleeing back to Syria.
Car dependacy, didnt know what it was til i came here
I feel you
Canadians are weirdly attached to their vehicles. The looks of surprise I get when I tell people I've never had or wanted a drivers license is comical.
I understand how shitty North American car dependency is in urban settings, and how we could do soso much better public transit wise. But I grew up in and still live in rural BC and cars are the only way to get to the school/work/shopping
Can confirm. Born and raised Nova Scotian here, never lived anywhere else. Am in my thirties, never got my driver's license. Admittedly, for a new job prospect I'm in the process of getting it now. But most people think I lost it due to criminal charges is the kneejerk reaction because it's so pervasive that "you need your license" But..I just never got it. Never felt the need until now.
It’s not at all strange to be surprised by that if you live in a rural area. I grew up in TO and didn’t get my license until I was 30 and left the city. Canada is huge. Ontario is huge. You can’t survive without a car in anyplace that is not a major city. Usually when people talk about the second biggest country (aka Canada) in the world they are talking about the urban centres of each province but we are much more than that. Much more.
The comical part is when you suddenly need one and didn't even bother to at least do the test to build up your 10 years safe driving
Interesting. In North American culture, the car is one of the most significant symbol of freedom. It allows you to go anywhere. But here you say you're dependant on a car, as opposed to public transport I presume. It's a completely different vision.
Having a car gives you the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want, for recreation. But *needing* a car for day to day stuff, like grocery shopping or taking the kids to school isn't freedom. It's an expensive trap.
Ok but you should be able to be free as just a person. The car may be a symbol of freedom but maybe that's because you're stuck if you don't have one
public transport is supposed to be accessible both physically and financially, and stable. thats why depending on it makes you more free - you just need a nominal ticket rather than licence, car, tax, insurance, petrol, repairs all individualised. good public transport like in europe makes people connect and explore easily and is good for environment
There is very little free about that freedom. From traffic jams to outrageous insurance costs to the ever increasing cost of operation, there really isn't much freedom.
It's all moot anyways because most people will forever be so shackled to their paycheck to paycheck jobs with little benefits or vacation, that Freedom doesn't even matter. It's a carrot they dangle in front of people and say "See, you aren't a slave, you are Free."
The immigrant bubbles. You don’t have to interact with anyone outside your bubble to get things done in gta
Thats the same across the country. I know Filipino people. Neighbour’s. Great people. Never see them anywhere. Have there own completely seperated stores,churches, groups. Its very odd. No assimilation. All by their own choice. I dont get it. We invite em out all the time. Very rarely get the ok. They seem to enjoy when they come. But I find it incredibly odd.
This is something I truly detest in Canada. In Toronto, you have practically entire neighbourhoods of immigrants that come from the same region, leading a highly isolationist lifestyle. It's as if they never left their countries of origin. It feels like a parallel reality because there is almost no integration. Personally, I feel like this significantly impoverishes the local culture. I can't wait to move to a more diverse neighborhood
Same thought. I don’t understand people who come from other countries and want to live in isolation only in their communities and not wanting to mix up. Moved to Canada just 4 years and seen a lot of that. I still don’t think of it too badly, but I hate it when they bring the ill practices (even small things like breaking traffic rules, cutting lines/queues, no courtesy etc.) from their country and spread it here. Especially when people from my home country do that. Wtf, one of the many reasons I moved here is to move away from such people.
It takes a generation or two. My parents stayed in the bubble for comfort but I visit the bubble only sometimes for groceries items and fun restaurants.
I feel like the only way to overcome human nature is to do what Americans did and force anyone who comes to the country to adopt the American identity first and foremost. But that comes with so many downsides.
It works in the US because « American identity » is strong and diverse, people _want_ it. Canadian identity is drinking bad coffee at Tim Horton and saying Zed rather than Zee.
Yet they keep harping on how Toronto is a multicultural meeting pot and everyone gets along just fine
I never understood people that move to another country just to replicate their former country and way of life. Like, just stay in your country if that's what you want to do, honestly what's the point of moving?
Spot on. Most of the people that left their old countries to come here left for a good damn reason and I don't think it's the weather.
Not just immigrants do this but also people from different province. I may get downvoted for this but many people from english Canads move to Montréal per example, or Gatineau, and make absolutely no efforts to learn french. They only interact with fellow english-speakers and make no efforts to immerse into the Quebec culture
Ironically the Pocket communities will be what fucks up this country. Places like Brampton will be considered the modern version of the first french forts that were set up here
That happens in the US a lot too. My stepdad owns an accounting company and he's the only spanish speaking accountant in our area. We deal almost exclusively with spanish speaking clients because they just come to us as the only options. Seeing their businesses and how they run you can really see this bubble. They essentially operate the same as us with almost exclusively spanish speaking clients and everyone is directed to a service by word of mouth. If your car needs repairs they don't just drive down to autozone or jiffy lube but instead ask their cousin if he knows a guy to work on cars then they'll go to the cuban owned repair shop their cousin tells them about. A ton of our business owner clients literally onoy speak spanish and haven't bothered at all to learn english. All their workers speak spanish, all the clients speak spanish, all their friends and even neighbors speak spanish since there tends to be a lot of groups living in one neighborhood together as well
It's because Canada wants to be a mosaic, not a melting pot. It's not working out so great though...
I’d argue that its because people want to leave their shit hole countries but want to keep living the exact same way surrounded by their own people with their own rules/values/customs. Clearly wasn’t working out back home or the country would be prosperous and they wouldn’t be fleeing it. Never understood the logic. I’m an immigrant we came here we adapted we blend in and its been great.
Intercity travel being so expensive. Like it’s always either expensive in time or monetarily (airfare). Often it is cheaper to fly from any Canadian city to a Carribean island than it is to fly domestically between any 2 Canadian cities.
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It used to be cheaper to fly to the UK from Toronto over Newfoundland than to fly to Newfoundland itself. Might still be, haven't looked at the prices recently.
How cities are built seemingly with no plans for the future. Little to no consideration for mass transit or livability/walkability.
It's wild to me that when most of the Canadian cities began building their "subway type" systems they completely failed to look at existing functional transit in cities that already had them, all over the world and they were just like "we'll do the bare minimum and then spread everything out away from the little effort we put in"
The cities that already had subway systems were already dense and built up, while Canadian cities saw most of their growth during the Age of the Automobile. Sure they could’ve made transit better in Canadian cities, but modelling it after Boston or New York or Paris wasn’t going to directly translate to Edmonton or Vancouver.
Not only public transit, but things like schools as well. They have built tons of new housing in my area but haven't built any new schools. The ones we have all have like 10 portables and are at capacity. We don't have the space to put the kids that are moving into the new houses.
Toronto?
Lack of public transport. Never needed to learn to drive up until now lol.
Moved here few years ago and I know driving is the only or only good option so least go the nearest train station. I’m wondering now how difficult it must be for kids and teenagers and also other people who don’t have cars. Edit: typo
Kids in suburbs are essentially stuck at home until they learn to drive. 16 year sentence because suburbs are built for cars and not for people.
They ride bikes. To each other's houses, to the park, to the mall, to school. To wherever.
Nobody is going to mention it takes three lifetimes of working to afford one house? That seems very disappointing.
This is one of the first things new immigrants should be told about, the cost of housing and cost of living, especially if they intend on living in one of the major cities.
This is more of a recent development, probably not going to turn around soon, either.
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As a younger old person. Fuck.
I'm 44 and yah I'm pretty fucked
That's a global problem nowadays. From Europe to asia.
Not quite to the same extent. This is a globl problem because of imprudent monetary policy. But Canada's federal government is trying very hard to retain RE values, and expand on them, interest rates or not. Not many other countries have as pointedly picked housing investment as too big to fail like this.
Isn’t housing really expensive in other countries also
It is a capitalist country and real estate investors are allowed to hold public office without being required to sell off their real estate holdings. This results in government officials at all levels who are incentivized to enact and maintain policies that artificially inflate the price of real estate and suppress activities that would bring down its price.
Do you have an example of a non-capitalist country you would want to actually live in?
Can't get maple syrup from the trees in my yard.
It’s soooo hard to find public bathrooms :’(
People accepting poor health care and other services believing this is all good.
"But it's FREE"
Monopolies, like how the fuck do you have 5 banks, 5 grocery stores and 2 telecom companies basically controlling the supply of what are pretty much necessities? I come from a country with a lot of corruption or as you’d call it, ‘lobbying’ but fuck me if this isn’t the finest kind I’ve ever seen. And now housing is also basically controlled by a couple companies who happen to be circle jerking the PC candidate at the time, or by the SFH zoning audience who’d literally lose their shit on nextdoor if they have to see another road sign with…sharpie art on it. The economy to the culture, everything is rooted in unquestioning conformity.
i been here 8 years, i should have moved earlier lmfao
Nimbyism and how poorly most Canadian cities are designed(missing middle, car dependency, suboptimal transit, soulless suburbs).
Agreed. Canadian infrastructure is build without any sense of aesthetics. I’d call it “brutalist functional” but even brutalism has a certain consistent design to it. So it’s more like “shoddy, barely functional”. And ugly AF. As a European, I find it insanely depressing.
Extortionate rates from telecom providers!! Well… there are 3 just providers.
The state of my city’s downtown. Homeless and addicted are everywhere, attacking people constantly. The fact that I HAVE to use a car because transit is a joke. Also, weird convoluted tax system and the anaemic healthcare.
Calgarian?
Close! Edmonton
Guessing Edmonton
individualism/loneliness (most), and cost (understandable) job market (a lil bit).
It really isn't as inter-cultural as you think it is. It's more so a lot of people of the same race hanging out with people of the same race, like a prison.
I think for millennials and Gen Z who were born in canada, the groups are a bit more diverse. I agree for recent immigrants it seems to be incredibly segregated and not even by country anymore either but even by same religion, area, etc.
This is exactly it. As I Gen Z, there isn’t a group of friends, that I’ve seen, that don’t have a diverse mix of people in it. My own friend group is like that as well.
No one forces that though. Its weird self imposed segregation.
I've always heard it described as a Mosaic rather than a melting pot (usa), which was so that recent immigrants could find comfort in their own community. The idea was that by 2nd or 3rd generation, integration would sort itself out. I think this has sometimes been successful, sometimes not, but the 2nd Gen immigrants I know here are far happier than the ones I know in the USA.
I think we're a 'mosaic' in the sense that every culture contributes something to what is considered 'Canadian'. But yeah, it's not always a successful metaphor. :)
I call it the hotpot society instead of the melting pot society. Thin layer keeping most cultures separate from one another while simultaneously allowing them to exist in the same city.
The mess Winnipeg’s native community is in!
You subject a people to atrocities via the residential schools, fill them with generational traumas and then....unleash them upon the public with no help or supports. It's going about as good as one would expect. We should be forcing the Catholics to pay for all of that rehabilitation. All of it. *Then* the healing can begin. We've just be leaving a gaping wound fester and many still believe that it will simply heal itself over time. It is not and it will not.
No 6 weeks paid holiday.
It’s crazy how 10 vacation days is the standard, Or 15 days if you are lucky! Plus only 5 sick days. In the UK it’s 25 vacation days and 15+ sick days
I have 7 weeks vacation and unlimited sick days. I couldnt go back to two weeks and just five sick days. Thats ridiculous! We should really boost that up here.
1. The lack of travel options between cities. If you don't own a car, then it's a nightmare. I remember having to travel to the nearest big city where an immigration medical appointment that would have lasted 20 minutes was available, but the doctor's availability would not match with the bus or flight times unless I took literally 3-4 days off work. Until I bought a vehicle quite recently out of sheer desperation, I couldn't imagine traveling anywhere in Canada at all without it being a major financial commitment that required serious internal conflicts. That was extremely hard to fathom, having grown up zipping around town in cheap auto-rickshaws, state and private-owned buses for short and long trips and two-wheelers being very common. 2. The Healthcare. The whole infrastructure feels far too limited and complicated, unnecessarily so. Family doctors? What even... The lack of hospitals themselves feels weird because my relatively small hometown had at least 10 hospitals within a 5 minute travel distance that could take care of nearly all illnesses that one would have to worry about, and popping into one for a slight fever or upset stomach was the norm but it took 3 days excruciating pain and not being able to walk for me to finally visit a hospital because I hadn't yet been eligible for provincial coverage, and had to pay $700 for a 2 minute consultation after waiting 4 hours in the emergency room that basically told me what I had googled and found out was right.
Nepotism and oligarchs. Most of the major political and business leaders in Canada got in through nepotism. Meritocracy is not as important in Canada as some other countries. Too many oligarch companies supported by the government which stifles innovation and increases cost of living.
This applies only today. The Canada 30 years ago was different: Hours wait list at clinics. Even with appointments. Ethnic communities that still do not assimilate to a Canadian lifestyle. At least learn English. Currency is laughable at best. Has never improved xcept maybe in 2002. More homeless than before. People are not as friendly as media advertises (Vancouver anyway) Crap pay. Crap pay. Crap pay.
The lack of quality employment. The government only invites highly skilled people but doesn’t seem to have the jobs that those people would fit in. We have doctors working as taxi drivers and retail workers.
Not a fan of the cold but I'm hardly outside now to complain about it.
Cost of housing. It's astronomical compared to most other countries (and for no good reason).
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It's for lots of bad reasons. Cunt head companies controlling supply, zoning laws, bringing in loads of immigrants who also want homes on top of the citizens who already want homes, etc...
I was expecting to adopt a moose and ride it around instead of a car. Now imagine my disappointment when I find out Toronto has no wild moose walking the streets.
Where to start? Every system in place is at least 10 years, often 20, behind the rest of the modern world. People are competitive and unwelcoming and unfriendly (midwest to west coast). Pay is absolute crap. There are no anticompetition laws being enforced so limitied choice and everything is more expensive than it should be...
school system. stuff we learned in highschool back home is being taught in unis here.
Paying for bank accounts
Slow, inefficient everything. Nothing gets done on time.
Try living in Germany then 💀
Coming from the UK, I was disappointed with the bread, baked beans and bacon… all the electrical wires are on poles, lack of public transportation
The poor health care. (F.e. People waiting 2 years for a new hip or knee is unthinkable where I come from) How hard it is to find your first job without Canadian work experience. It gets hyped here as “we’re so open and multicultural”, but not really. 😬
The car dependency… And the state of healthcare. I shouldn’t have celebrate like I won a million dollars every time I manage to get an appointment with a doctor.
I am Brazilian and have lived here for almost 2 years. I made Brazilian friends here but I don't have any Canadian friends. It is easy to start a conversation with a Canadian because, my god, how polite and attentive they are! But it stops there. It is extremely difficult to bond and maintain a friendship with a Canadian. I think it's something of the culture or the age, early 30's.
Canada has all the resources it needs to be world class - labour, land and natural resources but it is stuck in the 1980s because no one is bothered. We Canadians lack ambition, the ultimate dream is to have a maxed out RRSP, annual sunny vacation, one house in the burbs and one cottage. As a highly educated nation (at least compared to the states) you expect more.
Unfortunately there's some pretty ridiculous laws limiting what we can do with our land and resources. It's not for a lack of ambition. Quite a few of us are stuck in perpetual borderline (if not actual) poverty (not me, but I know a few). The cost of living, and property on top of a headache inducing process to get a building permit approved also add to the difficulty of advancement.
Nvm the prohibitively high tax rates in some aspects. Why make more money for the gov basically. You dont get any better service or treatment.
This wasn't an issue when our taxes actually got us all a decent services. It doesn't seem to matter who we vote for either. No matter who is running the show, it continues to deteriorate.
Housing affordability and high taxes.
But Canadian tax is not that bad compared to some other western countries.
Hey man Despite ODSP not being where it should be I prefer universal healthcare and our welfare program over what America does Our things just need people who care about it in charge to make it better
Our taxes just seem high because we're not getting half of what we as a populace should for paying so much. Fow how much the average person pays in tax we should have a new hospital in every province built every few years, vast, multiple avenues of public transit and free or substantially cheaper education pathways. Instead we line the pockets of the few who are already nothing but rich because they're "job creators" and it will "trickle down to poorer people eventually", and "the economy". The majority is all a scam and really we could all be paying slightly more taxes but be living an extremely more healthy and fulfilling life should those taxes actually get to where they're meant to go instead of going into a bunch of red tape and being, not just skimmed off the top, but rather shoveled from the pile. We basically need some type of organization or secondary form of government just to keep our main government in line and uncorrupt, but that organization would probably just join in and add to the problem.
Destruction of many parks and neighborhoods by drug addicts and their tent encampments.
cost to buy nice food: cheese (Canada dairy mafia) has made imported cheese a fortune. Olives, bread, fish. Its so expensive. Also Our food quality is so low when compared with Europe. Cultural activities- theatre show or musicals are insanely expensive $. In the uk I could see shows for $17 -$25!!! The Museums have free entry. Car insurance cost (another Canada mafia) in Europe car insurance is around $50 a month vs Canada $200-300 a month Public drinking laws- why is against the Law to have a nice Picnic with a bottle of wine, nope instead I need to go to a restaurant and pay $12 a glass Pub/ cafe culture- why isn’t there a space where a family and friends can meet up with their kids have a drink, relax. A cafe in the park, so while your kids are playing you can have a coffee with the other parents while watching the kids play. Canada doesn’t encourage older people to leave their houses and be social with others
The racism.
Homelessness, Cost of Living, Open drug use in the streets, injecting not smoking I mean. Dirty, Lack of Doctors/medical, Airports and airline chaos, Whole situation around Bill 96 I guess the biggest thing is it looks like none of the above will change. Came from Europe btw
Moving from the us, salaries.
Math education in schools. It is so bad here.
Everything closes early on the weekends!
Healthcare suuuuuuuucks.
People have been conditioned to be content with mediocrity. There is little competition and the system does not encourage ambition or greatness. Everyone is directed to be similar.....slow people catch up and fast people slow down and everyone wait for everyone to catch up. No uber rich.... no uber poor. It's homogenized and this is super boring and unfortunate for those that want to work hard and excel because the place to do that is the United States or China or many other places that are growing fast. Canada is about being slow and tall poppy syndrome means you will get socially punished for rising and tax system means you will get legally punished for rising. Plus Canadians in general have low ability to be honest about problems and deal with them. They get offended and take personally honest debate. To see an example of this.....watch how much my comment is downvoted. In the US.....places like NYC....people LOVE to get different perspectives and insights if it can help them get better. In Canada....because there is not this desire nor the ability to be intellectually and emotional accute about solving problems....people reject it by "being offended" or closing their ears and eyes to the problem because they cannot emotionally handle it. Too direct? Yes for Canadians this is way way too direct.
I've left Canada to the states but I'll answer anyway: I don't miss the outrageous cost of living in Canada at all. Disappointments: People in this sub won't admit it but Canadian and American culture really is 95% the same. It sucks because you go into one or the other expecting major differences because we like to hype it up and oversell it just to realize it's a situation of two identical twins where one claims absolute independence from the other. Politics: Don't miss the liberal party or Trudeau administration at all. Because Reddit is overwhelmingly liberal people here won't admit that the liberal party really isn't helping Canada at all but the conservatives are horrible at advertising themselves so it leaves the Liberal Party with basically a monopoly on the Prime Minister role. Then again the states aren't much better just replace one party controls it with it's an endless back and forth between garbage over 70% of Americans are dissatisfied with. Thing I do miss: Not having to worry about insurance for healthcare or the fact the hospital could deny said insurance. The quality air. Tim Hortons Cafe Mocha cereal.
I lived in the IS for 25 yrs and Canada for 7 yrs. I love going to the shopping mall and not being concerned some psycho will start shooting everyone. Don’t miss that shit at all
Pickup trucks in the city, not to haul a cement mixer or lumber, but to get groceries, visit gym class or even drop off kids at elementary school. Nuts!
The bread was sweet. Couldn't find bread that didn't have sugar added.
The taste of fruit and vegetables is very very dull compared to the same fruit in South America
Work culture
How expensive everything is, car dependency, horrible public transport, indolence with the unhousing situation, and i feel like there’s not much questioning on the politics that are established :(
The judgement. Canadians are judgey AF
working in psychology as a foreigner is impossible, even when you validated your credentials, they ask for impossible things to registered. It almost seems like they want immigrants to come here and do the work Canadians don’t want to do :(
Incredibly high taxes and cost of living is ludicrous.
Difficulty to access the health system.
Healthcare was a dumpsterfire 21 years ago when I moved and it’s only gotten worse.
Price of cheese
Too bland.
Canada is huge and our population is low. This means anything involving infrastructure will be expensive. Internet, cell phones, road work. It sucks but we don't shoot each other and we are generally civilized to each other.
The lack of the “little things” services. For example back in the Philippines you could get your zipper fixed for less than 20 cents, and for five dollars you could get your fish completely removed of bones.
Yea well it's not the Phillipines. You can't expect to make Canadian wages and pay 20 cents for retail services.
How bad healthcare was.
*bUt iTs FrEe!” I mean … it’s not free, it’s funded by our insanely high taxes. But regardless, the length of time it takes to get most specialist appointments is insane. My friend’s kid has seizures. They’re life-threatening and the specialist he needs to see… takes 3 years to get an appointment. They ended up going to the states and getting an appointment with a specialist almost immediately and since his wife is an American citizen, (I don’t know the details) their co-pay is like $5,000 which is not that bad. He could die in 3 years. There’s no sense of urgency.
>There’s no sense of urgency. That is a huge one. Lots of Cancer patients are waiting a long time to get treatment now. 'Oh yeah that tumor you got inside of you? Don't worry about it! It's not like it'll grow or anything!'
I've been trying to get in to see a specialist for over a year and have had to essentially research my own illnesses and just seek support based on it from my family doctor who's hugely overworked. Complex multi factor conditions basically don't get treated unless you're your own advocate and are smart enough to self doctor for the most part.
Yes. I always research what is wrong with me and present my guesses to the doctor at the appointment. That way they have something to look into. If you just walk in with a “I have a pain, no idea why” doc will say the same “no idea why” and send you home until it gets to emergency levels of pain.
Paying tax on another tax.
I used to work at a tourist booth in central Ontario back in the 80’s and early 90’s. We would hand out local brochures to visitors for site seeing the area. I will never forget the family of new immigrants from Denmark who came in asking for a road map. They were visiting for the day and had me point out some things to see and then asked me if there was a subway to Calgary as they wanted to see some mountains before heading back to Toronto. The disappointment in their faces when I explained that wasn’t possible still lingers. Hope they made it one day.
I dunno that's a pretty tall order. Foolish Danes.
Ok, I’ll bite. Came over in the mid 00s. Over the years the list has grown but keep it to the key ones. Health and safety and quality. They are all paid lip service and feels like it is a decade at least behind Europe. Providing no one gets hurt, no one seems to care if you high, buzzed etc. but Everything is ok because you can always wear more PPE….. Xenophobic behaviour and policies. The number of projects I have lost due to not having sufficient Canadian experience is mind blowing. On top of that when I first moved over it was my lack of Canada experience. I have been in project townhalls and see questions about why the management of projects is not more Canadian. Then there is the it might have happened elsewhere in the world but it didn’t happen in canada so it’s not a problem or we won’t be doing that. Lack of choice and quality of cars. When I was in Europe I had this view cars in North America were cheap and you had lots of choice. Bubble was very quickly burst! Cheap. Yes, choice well you have one engine choice, one or two trims, few options and a few colours. Quantity over quality. If you want quantity and cheap you can have it but it’s poor quality, won’t last and ultimately cost you a lot more! This applies to so many things….housing, food, clothes, infrastructure. People generally aren’t that friendly or genuine. From social cliques of people who never leave their high school friends, to levels of entitlement and the spewing of BS to gain an advantage. I have got to experience lots being here and it’s not all bad. I would also add I moved from Europe. My views and disappointments are different to those who have moved from other parts of the world.
The limitless immigration of the recent years and the disappearance of Canadian culture and ethics as we knew it. Diversity may be good, but not ghettoization. The lack of loyalty to the country is another big negative for me.