Ontario is the Best Place to Live in Canada

[Boges]

16 minutes ago, Shady said:

Ontario's the best place to live if you disregard our crippling debt.

Thanks mostly to the Ousted Ontario Liberals. That being said, it seems Ontario doesn't have the appetite for curbing that debt as DoFo may be a one-term Premiere. He's very unpopular. 

[Nefarious Banana]

Humid and flat . . . what more could you ask for ?  Oh yeah, I forgot about transit . . . . please stay there. 

[Moonlight Graham]

2 hours ago, Boges said:

You mean barren and isolated? 

You can't have it all. If you like Rural communities then you sacrifice amenities an access to transit. 

Many of these suburban communities have it all. 

It's just a personal preference.  I'd live in Cambridge or Guelph or even a place like King City.  I need some space to breath.

I don't have interest in working in downtown Toronto but many do, so commute is irrelevant to me.

[Moonlight Graham]

21 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/best-place-to-live-1.5244158

So that seals it.  We can now thankfully stop hearing from the West, Maritimes and Prairies.The conversation is now concluded.

You being a person from Toronto, probably not the best post if you want people from the rest of Canada to stop hating people from your city.

[Michael Hardner]

13 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

You being a person from Toronto, probably not the best post if you want people from the rest of Canada to stop hating people from your city.

It's not my fault if provincial idiots don't understand irony.

[Nefarious Banana]

1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said:

It's not my fault if provincial idiots don't understand irony.

Your original post wasn't ironic . . . . nice attempt at deflection though. 

You deserve Toronto, and Toronto needs you . . . please stay there.  

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, Nefarious Banana said:

Your original post wasn't ironic . . . . nice attempt at deflection though. 

Wow.  Read it again.

[Nefarious Banana]

Ontario is the Best Place to Live in Canada . . . . by Michael Hardner

No, it's not the best place to live in Canada . . . . 

Sums up your thread . . . . 

[OftenWrong]

10 hours ago, Boges said:

Thanks mostly to the Ousted Ontario Liberals. That being said, it seems Ontario doesn't have the appetite for curbing that debt as DoFo may be a one-term Premiere. He's very unpopular. 

Sure he is. He's so unpopular, they gave him a majority.

[J4L]

On 8/12/2019 at 8:04 PM, bush_cheney2004 said:

Top 16 Worst Major Cities in Canada by Crime Rate 2019

....how many in Ontario ?

 

https://www.immigroup.com/news/top-16-worst-major-cities-canada-crime-rate-2019

Not a very reliable source.  Vancouver ahead of Winnipeg in crime?  Victoria at #3?

LOL.  C'mon.

Edited August 14, 2019 by J4L

[J4L]

On 8/12/2019 at 8:08 PM, BubberMiley said:

Southern Ontario is God's country but I'd still pick BC for the mountains.

Actually, the official slogan of Alberta is God's country.  I'd still prefer Alberta over Ontario, due to Edmonton and Calgary, and their close proximity of the mountains, the relatively low cost of living compared to BC, and it's similarity to other prairie provinces. 

 

I admit I've never lived in Ontario, but the GTA is far too big a place to live for myself.  Personally, I felt it just had a cold and unfriendly vibe to it.  I liked Ottawa though...

Edited August 14, 2019 by J4L

[Michael Hardner]

7 hours ago, Nefarious Banana said:

Ontario is the Best Place to Live in Canada . . . . by Michael Hardner

No, it's not the best place to live in Canada . . . . 

Sums up your thread . . . . 

Fine but the OP is ironic, even if you can't see it.  Read the last sentence again.

[cannuck]

5 hours ago, J4L said:

Actually, the official slogan of Alberta is God's country.  I'd still prefer Alberta over Ontario, due to Edmonton and Calgary, and their close proximity of the mountains, the relatively low cost of living compared to BC, and it's similarity to other prairie provinces. 

 

I admit I've never lived in Ontario, but the GTA is far too big a place to live for myself.  Personally, I felt it just had a cold and unfriendly vibe to it.  I liked Ottawa though...

Our ancestral homes were Dunnville and Port Colborne, I was borne in Welland, raised in several locations on or near Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, all smaller towns until moving out to Southern MB with parents.  Wife is from MB (Selkirk settler family), and we have lived in small towns, Winnipeg and the far North before CAREFULLY choosing to raise kids in close proximity to Saskatoon SK.  My sister lived in Hamilton and Grimsby before downsizing to Binbrook.  I have family and friends all over the province (including GTA) and my wife had lived on both coasts before we met.  I have also traveled extensively on business for a half century all over Canada (and much of the world), so my opinions about Toronto are not abstract.  I would never live there, much less inflict such a horrible fate upon my children.

AB was on our short list, but I did not particularly like the flavour of either Edmonton nor Calgary, and we wanted to live close enough to a University with every possible faculty so kids to live at home when going there.  Both AB big cities were simply too big to fit our profile of things we wanted.  We needed to be outside of a city, but with easy and quick access to facilities, so 250,000 was our limit to be near.  Our youngest now lives in Edmonton, but they (also extensive world travelers) are trying to get back to Saskatoon. 

The Guess Who got it right (Runnin' Back to Saskatoon), pretty much my/our theme song.

I agree with J4, though.  Most large cities, while very diverse and dynamic are cliquey - essentially assemblies of ghettos.

Edited August 14, 2019 by cannuck

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, cannuck said:

Our ancestral homes were Dunnville and Port Colborne, I was borne in Welland, raised in several locations on or near Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, all smaller towns until moving out to Southern MB with parents.  Wife is from MB (Selkirk settler family), and we have lived in small towns, Winnipeg and the far North before CAREFULLY choosing to raise kids in close proximity to Saskatoon SK.  My sister lived in Hamilton and Grimsby before downsizing to Binbrook. 

I know that area well.  Sadly, Binbrook is unrecognizable now as it's a bedroom community for the GTA.

[cannuck]

21 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

I know that area well.  Sadly, Binbrook is unrecognizable now as it's a bedroom community for the GTA.

Yeah, same thing happened as far out as Peterborough.  My Mother retired there, and the city moved in - so she moved out - to Saskatoon area.   Said those were the best years of her life (being close to grandkids and great grands - but also returning to her Mennonite roots - her Dad Amish from PA).

[Domitian]

Every province has their ups and downs. That being said Canada is the best nation on the face of the planet. Let's not forget this!

 

[Argus]

4 minutes ago, Domitian said:

Every province has their ups and downs. That being said Canada is the best nation on the face of the planet. Let's not forget this!

And you know this how?

[OftenWrong]

21 hours ago, J4L said:

I admit I've never lived in Ontario, but the GTA is far too big a place to live for myself.  Personally, I felt it just had a cold and unfriendly vibe to it.  I liked Ottawa though...

Well, you're a poor guy if you liked Ottawa. Or maybe you were there long ago. Today if you like Ottawa it means you like the smell of shit and piss everywhere, and sun-browned rubbies sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. But at least they have nice shoes.

[Dougie93]

Lovely evening here, cool, clear, full moon lighting up the woods, no sound but the crickets chirruping.

Having grown up in Toronto,  I know you'd pay millions to live in this subdivision,  if it was in Toronto.

Thing about the Toronto real estate market, if you don't take your profits and move out to where land is still undervalued, then you never actually profit in the end,

If you sell a million dollar house in Toronto, it costs you that million to buy another one, and inflation adjusted, home prices don't yield much profit at all.

The trick in Toronto is to make your mint as soon as possible, then take the money and run. 

[Zeitgeist]

Toronto is a great city to live in and around.  Vibrant Victorian villages, gritty warehouses, and modern steel and glass.  It can be edgy and rough, but that’s big city life and where the action is.  You have to pay for it though and the original pre-amalgamation city of Toronto is becoming unaffordable for average Canadians, which is a worry.  I live on the edge of a suburb by the escarpment and wouldn’t trade it for anywhere.  I’m in the country in 10 minutes or downtown in 30. I do worry about the speed of population growth because the infrastructure is straining to keep up.  You can have just about anything in the GTA, but traffic and home prices are the downsides.  At least you know your investments will gain value.  

It depends what you’re looking for.  I like to be near a city for the culture.  I wouldn’t want smaller than about Ottawa, so for me it’s the Sherbrooke/Montreal to Toronto/KW corridor, but my French probably isn’t strong enough to live in Quebec.  BC’s lower mainland or Calgary would work for me but my family are in Ontario.  I like Halifax, but there isn’t as much opportunity.  I think sometimes about cottage country, but it’s a very different lifestyle.

I think if you want a quieter city life in Ontario with most of the amenities, somewhere like Guelph, Kingston, Waterloo or London would work.   Barrie if you want quick access to cottages and don’t mind colder weather.  Cold is always the issue with Canada.  That’s why I won’t move farther north.  Otherwise Ottawa would be the clear choice.

[Dougie93]

Having grown up in Toronto the Good, Glenn Gould's Toronto, I can say that it is not that anymore.

Mind you, if you didn't grow up in Glenn Gould's Toronto, you won't notice that it is no longer that anymore, and besides, Millennials embrace the global monoculture.

Well, except for the ones who are domestic terrorists that is. Incelter Skelter probably doesn't know who Glenn Gould was.

It's more like Toronto the Good was, out here in Wellington County now, for example if you live in Guelph, that's basically like living in the Annex in the 1970's.

If you don't want to live under the rule of those lefty dingbats, you simply live right next door in Guelph Eramosa Township which encircles Guelph and keeps them in check.

If you like it a bit more country you can move slightly north to Fergus, or slightly south to Puslinch.

Wellington County has it all, from the urbane to the rednecks, all within a twenty minute drive.

Moreover, highway 6 to the 403 to the 427 makes it well situated to access Toronto without having to use the 401.

More people are arriving out here from Toronto every day, because for what you pay in Toronto for a 600 sq ft condo, out here buys you a 12,000 sq ft property with fully detached house, deck, patio, big back yard, two car garage, all the feexins.

So again, if you own a fully detached house in Toronto, as I did, you sell that house for a couple million, then you come out here and buy a nicer house for half a million, then you pocket the difference, and that's how one takes their profits from the Toronto real estate market, if you stay in Toronto, you won't make any profit from it, inflation will eat any margins you would make on a house over twenty five years.

Toronto still has its charms, but it's always there if you want to visit, so If you are sitting on millions of dollars of equity in Toronto with sub 3% mortgage rates in a debt bubble, right about now would be a good time to cash out; sell high, buy low.

The trick to equity investment, is to take your profits as you go, because of course; you can't spend it when you're dead.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Dougie93

[Dougie93]

Case in point, a real estate agent just came to my door, lovely man actually, from Guatemala, came to Canada to make something of himself, working for himself, as work is bullshit and jobs are jails and being your own boss is the only way to go.

Thus I welcomed him as a fellow traveler and gave him the tour of my property, to which he said "my God, it's a paradise!"

He says there is a buyer from Toronto, who would offer me $800,000 for it, right now, that's double what I paid for it in just five years, 20% year over year return,  to which I said, "let me know when they are offering $1.2 million, then perhaps I will take my profits again."

Not that I'm looking to sell, as he's right, it is a paradise here, on the other hand $800,000 is a tidy profit in just five years, and I could move ten minutes further out and just pocket the $800K, so I would have to consider it.

If they went to $1.4 million, now that would be hard to turn down, as I am wealthy, but not really rich  by global standards, so a million dollars is still a lot of money to me.

Once you have a million cash on hand, you can live off that for the rest of your life; equity, fixed income, gold, forex, REITs, and direct investment property.

Mind you, I'm already there, which is why am perfectly inclined to just live in this paradise to the day I die, rule number two in real estate; when you go big, make sure you can live there for the rest of your days quite happily, then you never have to sell into a correction.

Furthermore to that; happy wife, happy life.

Make sure to get on well with your wife, because divorce is most likely reason you would be forced to sell into a correction. Thankfully, I literally married the girl of my dreams, so once again the God of the Hebrews apparently has my back on that too, praise Him.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Dougie93

[Zeitgeist]

That is a nice area.  I really like Elora.  Very quaint and European.  Full of artists.  Still shooting distance from the Six.  

[Dougie93]

It's also quite affluent here, when I lived in Toronto I used to think of this area as being the hicks from the sticks, but in actual fact, it's more like Rosedale or the Bridal Path, the "farmers" around here often own horse farm estates, and people drive tight whips round here, Mercedes, Bimmers and I even see a few Ferrari's about.

I had a Nissan GT-R, but the insurance company was gouging me, so I traded it in.

[Zeitgeist]

40 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

It's also quite affluent here, when I lived in Toronto I used to think of this area as being the hicks from the sticks, but in actual fact, it's more like Rosedale or the Bridal Path, the "farmers" around here often own horse farm estates, and people drive tight whips round here, Mercedes, Bimmers and I even see a few Ferrari's about.

I had a Nissan GT-R, but the insurance company was gouging me, so I traded it in.

Western Ontario is quite affluent.  The Mennonites around St. Jacobs do very well.  Good work ethic in the tri-city area.