I was vacationing in Prince Edward Island, Canada this summer when I came across this article in The Globe and Mail: “The World Would Love to Be Canadian” (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/the-world-would-love-to-be-canadian/article1612707/). The writer, Joe Friesen, cites this startling statistic: “Given the choice, 53 percent of adults in the world's 24 leading economies said they would immigrate to Canada.”
I'm teetering on the edge of joining them.
This isn't a whimsical decision on my part. It's been brewing since 1974, when my father took our family on our one and only camping trip. He rented an RV and we headed north from Massachusetts to Prince Edward Island, which he described as “a peaceful emerald isle of enchantment, where the sands are red and the waters sparkle silver.” Dad had never read Anne of Green Gables (http://www.anneofgreengables.com/), but he made PEI sound tantalizing, like the Land of Oz without the Wicked Witch and her horrible flying monkeys.
Sadly, my mother did not take to camping. “Just more chores for me!” she declared, and forced us to turn around in Maine after driving a grand total of four hours. My parents were divorced soon after that.
Fast forward to my own divorce. When my first husband and I split up, I had two young children; I was dead set on giving them a family vacation, man or no man. Affording a beach vacation in New England was impossible on my single-parent salary, so I convinced a friend and her kids to join us on a week-long trip to Prince Edward Island after spotting an ad for a cottage there that rented for just $400 a week.
We drove twelve hours north from Massachusetts with our kids making more noise in that van than most rock concerts. Between the various stops to pee and feed them all, it was midnight by the time we reached the island. (In those days, the only way to get to PEI was the ferry.) The cottage was on a rutted red dirt road (still plenty of those up there, for all of you Anne of Green Gables fans). I was shaking with fatigue by the time we arrived. It was pitch black all around us, but the sky was a bowl of stars and we could smell the sea.
We woke the next morning to the sound of fiddle music. I sat up and looked out my window at Rustico Bay, where great blue herons dotted the shore. Tall purple and pink lupins waved like some Disney cartoon animation; I half expected the flowers to sing. Across the bay was a tall white church, and that's where the fiddle music was coming from: a festival that we attended that very afternoon. I was hooked on PEI from that moment on.
I've gone back to Prince Edward Island every summer for the past 14 years, and sometimes in the fall or even winter, when the snow blows across the potato fields and the roads disappear out from under you. There is never a time when I don't love it.
Yes, there are certainly moments while driving up Route 95 through Maine (where the State motto should be “Maine, the Infinite State”) when I think, “This is so not worth it.” Even in New Brunswick, where I've come to love the Bay of Fundy's rocky shoreline and the long stretches of farmland with their big brown loaves of hay and spotted cows, I sometimes think, “Why can't I find a closer place to love?” Then I cross the Confederation Bridge from the mainland to Prince Edward Island and fall in love with the place all over again. The colors seem brighter and the air is clearer here than anywhere else on earth.
The Globe and Mail article reports that more than three-quarters of those surveyed in China said they'd prefer to live in Canada, followed by Mexico and India at nearly 70 percent. Most respondents perceived Canada as a place where rights and freedoms are respected on a deeper level than anywhere else.
Is this true? By now, I've explored most parts of Canada, including many of its cities, from Vancouver to Ottawa, from Montreal to St. John. There is urban blight, as there is in the U.S., and visible evidence of unemployment – the Canadian unemployment rate is just over 8 percent overall. Certainly Canada isn't free of crime or substance abuse. The last time I was in St. John with my mother, one drunken spacey fellow stepped onto the escalator behind Mom and rested his chin on her shoulder, passing out for a second until she barked at him to back off.
Yet, wherever I've been in Canada, there is an overall feeling of goodwill from most people – my husband calls most Canadians “pathologically friendly” because of their willingness to chat you up – and generosity abounds. Most recently, I was staying at a friend's house on PEI when another friend brought her bike over for my husband to pump up the tire. Within minutes, we were joined by two other neighbors, both asking if we needed help. They stayed for an hour.
Three years ago, my brother and I went in on a small summer cottage on PEI. It's a typical cottage, mostly porch, overlooking Malpeque Bay. I bought it online, sight unseen, and we've camped out in it happily every summer, renting out empty weeks to help sustain the costs of having an extra house. This summer, I spotted the perfect year-round house for sale in the more remote eastern part of the island, near our favorite beach. Now we're trying to decide whether to buy that one as well. This sounds luxurious, even decadent, this idea of having second homes – but neither costs more than most new cars here.
If we bought the farmhouse, I imagine one day retiring there with my second husband, or living there half of every year after the last of our five kids is off to college. I dream of raising alpacas and selling the wool; my husband is arguing on behalf of goats and cheese-making. Both are pipe dreams at this point. Sensibly, we'd probably do better just doing what we do now: writing and software engineering. But it's the simplicity of having a ramshackle farmhouse on Prince Edward Island that lures us – and the good neighbors I know we'd find there.
Should we, or shouldn't we, go for this dream? Am I fooling myself about Canada because the news headlines here are so awful (think war, oil spills, harsh immigration legislation)? Is it a purely escapist impulse, the kind we all have when fantasizing about living in our favorite vacation spots, that makes me want to flee north of the border? Or is Canada really a better place to live?
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Robin Robinson
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Comments
I grew up in Toronto and lived twice in Montreal and left Canada in 1988 with fond hopes of what the U.S. might offer. It clearly has charms (I met my second husband to be here) and opportunities professionally, but it is unrecognizable from the place I so eagerly chose then. I plan to retire to Canada and/or France. I need to live in a place where lying isn't a contact sport (got screwed again this month by yet another client; tired of hiring lawyers) and where people can attend the nation's best university for $5,000 a year, not an impossible $50,000.
Canada has its flaws, no question. So does the U.S. Everywhere does. It depends what you most value and can afford.
That said, the thing that prevents most people from pursuing their retirement fantasies is the desire to be near their children. PEI is sort of off the grid on that score.
And it's rural--very rural. Rural gets very slow in winter. But you are a writer, which is an inoculation of sorts. Learn to play an instrument and you should make it just fine, except maybe for the issue of kids.
That is the issue that would keep France forever just off the horizon for me.
But O Canada, the grass is green, very green.
I say yes, IRS greener there. In nearly every way this country is on a downward trajectory and literally half the electorate is too stupid to see it. I prefer to get off the crazy train now while I still can. We've considered France as well (as I speak French) and even Switzerland. I'm even open to countries that will be powerhouses 10-20 years from now and have colder (presently) climates. I'm liking Canada for it's wide range of choices - city, rural, suburban, wilderness, coastal, neo European... It's all there. I think it's probably our choice.
Canada has urban blight and various other problems. But these are not nearly as bad as they are in the US. Now, once we get rid of the current federal government, we will be back on track as one of the best (if not the best) places to live in the world.
Five years ago I did what you are thinking about. I retired (Toronto) bought a motor home (small, old) and spent a year touring Canada. I'd seen much of Canada from Quebec City westward before but had never been "down east".
When I got to PEI, I almost didn't leave. A planned 4 days became 3 weeks. Then I moved on. Reluctantly. At the end of that year I was in Maple Ridge, just outside of Vancouver. I'd stayed the winter on the west coast.
I found out what is wrong with rain instead of snow in winter. Mildew. Tenacious mildew. The most aggravating, won't-go-away mildew in the world! And then there was the gloomy months. Yup, I said months. Cloudy, dark, dank, day after day. No sun. Usually not even a good honest rain. Just a miserable drizzle. Wet, damp, drizzley, west-coast Canada. Ugh!
So when spring sprung I headed east. Directly to PEI. A week later I was here. Two weeks after that I was a home-owner in Tignish on the north-western tip of the island.
Culture shock! Everyone here was so friendly and polite. Even the teen-agers had manners!! (I swear!)
This little town, pop. about 900 (if you include the pets) is delicious. One supermarket (the co-op), one bank (the co-op credit uniion), two variety stores, one liquor store, two gas stations, one post office, a couple of restaurants, and a BIG friggin' Catholic church. This is Catholic country fer sure, fer sure.
I am almost done renovating my house. Ceramic floors; Ceramic counter tops & Wood panelling throughout the main floor. (Birch in the kitchen and Oak in the rest.) Over new insulation. Old stinky oil heater gone. New clean electric heat installed. It is coming along beautifully. Upstairs awaits my attentions.
But I have to sell out and move. My lungs can no longer tolerate humidity. I'll be looking for a desert home in BC. Likely around Osoyoos.
I'll be asking about $69,900 for my home. It has almost a half-acre of land. And a concrete floor garage. (Folks here call it a "barn"). I can be flexible about the financial arrangements if you have a decent down-payment. I'd like to see it go to someone who has visited here and knows "what is what" in island ways.
The dilemma of finding "place," vs. making the place work, wherever you live, is a challenge. What about "community" in this mix? R.
So, is the grass greener? It is according to your visual/intellectual/happiness equation and truth inside your heart.
BTW: as a Clevelander, I literally live on the border with Canada (the border runs through Lake Erie, which is only 90 miles across). We go to Canada a lot (or we did before you needed a bleeping passport) and a lot of Canadian are here. Permanently. Because there are more job opportunities here and a potential higher income and lower taxes (or so they have told me).
I like Canada very much, but as an interesting big beautiful "cousin" and not as a pseudo US but only liberal. Canada is almost ridiculously overpraised here at Salon and by liberals in general. That's pretty funny! Canada as a whole is not actually all that liberal. There are conservatives there. The current government is fairly conservative. There are loads of churches in Canada and plenty of very religious Catholics (especially in Quebec). There are "redneck" country types out in the rural areas (just like in the US). Not every Canadian is a liberal lefty from Toronto or an urban hipster from Vancouver.
Canada is also SMALL IN POPULATION (though huge in land mass). Most of it is almost unpopulated, for good reasons, like being Arctic freezing cold most of the year. (No, global warming will NOT turn the Yukon Territory into Miami Beach! Get a clue!) A small population lets you do things, like have single payer health care, that are far more complex in a country 10 times larger and more diverse like the US.
I actually read the Globe article, and it's a big misleading (and boosterish). Most of the folks wanting to come to Canada are from hellholes like Mexico and Japan. And anyhow, the empirical proof is that expat Mexicans (illegal) and Asians (all kinds) are coming to the US in vastly greater numbers than they are to Canada. If they hate the US, they sure are showing it in a stupid way.
Do we have problems? HECK YES. Are they unique to the US? HECK NO. Canada has pollution and acid rain. Canada pumps a vast amount of fossil fuels (and uses plenty of them). Canadians drive cars just as much as Americans do. They watch the same TV shows and eat at the same chain restaurants. Despite high taxes, they smoke a heck of a lot of cigarettes.
Back in the 70s and early 80s, I'd go to Toronto (the closest big city to Cleveland, about 5 hours away) and think it was like a very very clean version of my hometown -- pristine almost, with a beautifully maintained public transportation system and miraculously to me, a downtown free of bums and homeless people (and black people). A racist might have assumed it was so shiny and nice because it was almost entirely white and middle class.
But that was 25 years ago. The last visits I made (up to 2009) were increasingly disappointing. There are now pan handlers and beggars in Toronto. Many of the shiny shops and malls are seriously rundown looking. The quality of the merchandise in stores seems cheaper and shoddier than what you'd find in the US, and more expensive. (The bargains are long gone, since the Canadian dollar is back to almost parity with the US.)
The hotels are almost uniformly shabbier and have worse accommodations in every way -- rundown, lumpy mattresses, tiny rooms -- and I've stayed at LOADS of upscale name hotels like Sheraton, Marriott, etc.
I have also met PLENTY of rude Canadians. Canadians are mostly nice of course, but so are Chicagoans and Los Angelenos...MOST of the time. I was just in Boston, and people were just delightfully friendly and helpful to me (I get lost there easily). But you don't hear people going on and on about the niceness of Massachusetts the way you do about Canadians.
Everything is more expensive there -- EVERYTHING, gas food rents -- housing prices in Toronto rival San Francisco. Taxes are VERY high by US standards. Contrary to Salon beliefs, single payer Canadian health care is NOT FREE and most people pay for it on a monthly basis. (It's very affordable, but NOT FREE.) Those low cost universities are also paid for by HIGH TAXES.
The idea that there is a country, mostly like the US, where they speak English in Amerian accents, and eat the same food and watch the same TV, but EVERYTHING IS FREE is nonsense. There is much good about Canada, but also things that are bad or mediocre.
Lastly, Holly -- your article is mostly about the charms of living somewhere VERY VERY rural. This is fun on vacation. Not so fun when you are stranded 100 miles from quality medical care -- and you have a health emergency. Not so fun when you have a craving for Thai food and the near Thai restaurant is hundreds of miles away. Not much fun if you like symphony orchestras or art museums.
There are also TONS AND TONS of very lovely, wild rural places in the US. Did you look in Maine? Vermont? Heck, here in Ohio my oldest son took a job in Southeastern Ohio -- as rural as you could dream of. He bought a farm with a century barn on 20+ acres of pristine acreage, with a mountain covered in timber and two creeks, and 2500 square foot home. There is even a swimming pool and hot tub. It didn't cost much more than your cabin.
Being out there (we just got back) is peaceful and lovely -- stars all over the sky at night (no city lighting of course)....crickets chirping...we built fires and sat outside roasting marshmallows. The creek is full of fish and turtles. There are deer everywhere. You could live off the grid quite easily there. My son is growing corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, etc.
Only....I'm a city girl. By Sunday, I was craving some Chinese takeout. The nearest place, he tells me, is 46 miles away...that's 30-some miles of rough country roads (no lighting) until you hit the main highway. Don't even ask about the hospital systems. And he works for one of two main employers; outside of those, you are talking about working either for Walmart or farming. At least half the population is on welfare and food stamps.
If you are wealthy or retired, yes you can retire to any rural place you like, in Canada or wherever. But it IS going to be as isolated and provincial as it is beautiful and serene. There are trade offs. You may accept them, but many people will be sick of it and bored in a few months.
I'd also say that migration of US citizens to Canada (outside of people who have married Canadians) is vanishingly small. Do you have stats? Canada has plenty of immigrants, but they are from poor third world nations, not the US. (They WELCOME immigrants, because unlike the US, Canada is MOSTLY EMPTY...also they are not faced with massive illegal immigration.)
Also, I'll bet the majority of Americans who move to Canada fantasizing it is a liberal lefty paradise, end up moving back here. It's not as simple as you think to give up your nation and your heritage, especially when it's over a few politically charged issues, issues that change frequently.
The Atlantic Provinces are very inviting to me too, although I lived most of my life in Montreal. ~R
The island is really different from summer to winter, when even many locals go south to Florida and our population shrinks over winter. It probably doubles every summer with RVs and license plates from everywhere.
My brother in law from Louisiana summed up PEI in a word: quaint.
I think also that what people say here is true in general... we have conservatives but they are more like John McCain than George Bush and we are generally very liberal - hence the moniker "Soviet Canukistan" afforded by some genius of a bygone era. We are also very rural (we have rednecks but they don't have nearly as many guns), cosmopolitan where necessary, nationalist - only about hockey though in general, we have homeless and addicts and are not progressive as some countries in helping them. What makes our country a great place to live however (aside from the stunning natural beauty) is that we are multicultural and not a melting pot. Pierre Trudeau, one of our greatest Prime Ministers, helped define the notion and make it a part of our identity. Whether a person is American, Indian, Chinese etc etc they can find a place here and retain their culture and help make the country even more rich. And if they come across a citizen with less than a welcoming attitude, other will quickly step in to help set the situation right.
Canada does have a religious fundamentalist group, but they are mostly marginal. The current government is run by these kind of conservatives and they are a sneaky lot. So far, they have been successful in hiding their more frightening characteristics from most Canadians. But this is the point: the religous fundamentalism is something they need to hide. They can't run on it - they would alienate the vast majority of Canadians, including the roughly 5% they would need to lose in order to be defeated in the next election. (Here' s hoping the idiots finallyhang themselves).
And, BTW, while there are lots of Catholics in Quebec, it is one of teh least Catholic places in Canada. When Quebec turned away from the Church, it did so in dramatic fashion. Now, most Catholic Churches in the province are supported by the state and have too few parishioners to sustain themselves.
Anyway, let me leave with a final comment: like most Canadians, I am not crazy about visiting the US. I find it dirty, dangerous and mean-spirited. I get the sense that many Americans are coming to feel this way too. Hopefully, in Canada, we will find a way to avoid becoming more like the US.
Not an Islander, but from next door in Nova Scotia. While I can't say with 100% certainty that you're being crazy, I hope you're being crazy. So long as you're good people Maritimers will adopt you in a heartbeat. I'd be ashamed to call myself a Maritimer if you were met with anything less than open arms. Come live with us and bring a coat eh, it gets nippy in the winter.