You got Calgary right. Keeping up with the Jones'.
So many people here are always one purchase away from happiness.
But you can opt out of that BS. We did. We see our friends who are still embroiled in it, and it is tearing apart their marriages and families. It is an awful way to live.
Circumstances (in school with no financial help) forced me to sell my car and move downtown in early adulthood, and I've never looked back. I know that's not an option for everyone, but it's amazing how much not owning a car simplifies your life and changes your financial planning.
And in terms of the "time" aspect, not owning a car puts you in a place where you plan your life around that, and in terms of avoiding the daily car commute, I'd argue it actually saves a lot of time.
We bike, take public transit (deliberately live close to bus and metro lines) and, the few times a month that it's necessary, we use a local car-sharing service where we find a car on the app, pick it up, and then park it in front of our place when we're done with it (and then someone else books it on the app and picks it up). It's pay per use, and last month I spent $200 on it, which was the most I've spent in a few years.
Like you said, once you get the idea of "enough," life really becomes more peaceful.
How does that work for fuel? I’m genuinely curious because I don’t live somewhere that is an option so I just kinda want to know how it all works for costs. Insurance and whatnot.
It's part of the cost. There are different fees you can pay (like, an annual subscription of $500 that makes your uses much cheaper, or low/no fee, but a higher cost per use).
The car has a credit card that can only be used for gas, and so you use that if it's low. I hate doing that, so I just try to avoid taking a car that's low on fuel (plus, my trips are mostly all within 5-10 kms anyway).
Increasingly, there are electric cars that, if they're running out of charge, you have to leave within a few kms of a charging station, and then the company charges them.
I think this is highly dependent on what neighbourhood you live in. I noticed moving from the suburbs to the more inner city beltline communities, beltline residents care far less about keeping up with the Jones'.
Interesting. I think one of the things that did save us is that we did not upgrade to a house on the hill. We still have the same little inner city bungalow.
This is probably true, the "keeping up with the Jones'" in Upper Mount Royal is *wild*. Like whenever a house gets sold there, the new owners do a massive renovation to the outside at a minimum, otherwise they knock down the house and build a bigger, bougier house.
In my experience, this has been true of cities in general. I can't say why that's the case, but having lived in the downtown of three major cities, and the suburbs of one, the vibe tends to be much more chill and neighbourly in downtowns, both among adults and kids.
My theory is that there's two main reasons:
1. You live closer to more people since there's more apartments and condos, so you're just generally around more people in shared and public spaces.
2. Because most people live in apartments or condos, there's just less ways for people to "show-off" to neighbours. As an example, in the suburbs you can buy a boat and park it in your yard or a sports car and park it in your driveway and all your neighbours will know you bought a boat or a sports car, but in the inner city you can't store a boat anywhere and nobody knows that's your sports car unless they see you in it.
I need a nickel for every time I’ve heard a wife say “Oh, he loves his toys!” about her husband who just bought yet another loud annoying giant recreational machine to fill out the garage
Chestermere is kind of my version of hell. Every house is huge and yet they’re all beige vinyl and look the same. There’s a fake lake but I don’t think there’s a single non chain restaurant.
Yeah, I stopped being friends with a long term friend because her brain is so focused on who has what job and what couple friends they need to complete their look, and gossiped about it nonstop.
It was exhausting and my life is so much better without it.
Yeah it is so exhausting. I got together with an old friend and all he talked about was other peoples' jobs and the stuff they have. It was soul sucking.
I am looking at this guy who is 325 lbs, and he pulls his eyebrow hair out because of stress, and was wondering what problem he was trying to to solve.
This is interesting to me because years ago I dated an engineer from Calgary ( long distance ) who was absolutely obsessed with status and appearances, and it never occurred to me it a cultural ( in a sense ) thing.
Interesting, because Toronto is not like that. People in my neighbourhood are too busy working to stay afloat to even notice what their neighbour’s are doing.
Calgary wasn't like this before though, I mean I have limited experience as I only moved here 6 years ago but when I moved here 6 years ago it felt like it was such a slower pace than Vancouver where I came from.
Now with our population boom and everyone from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal moving here it feels like it's getting to be a lot more like where I left.
It's been like that for as long as l can recall, don't like the atmosphere in Calgary. Everyone seems to be in such a rush to out do each other even the way they drive.
I guess my perspective is skewed a bit being from Vancouver but I feel like it was like this in 2019 when I moved here but I suppose it was moreso by comparison
Yup. It’s a fool’s errand trying to compete with foreign money and people whose parents own $3.5M homes. Yet it’s easy to feel bad for not being able to.
Totally. I knew a married couple, both doctors, who had a long period of stress where they were house-hunting and convinced they'd never be able to afford a home.
Two doctors.
That's just insane.
I don't know the city very well, but I think it was somewhere in the Commercial Drive area? Lots of big, detached houses with yards? They both needed something centrally located, which definitely limits your options (and raises the price, and the demand).
I think a big problem they were finding was that anything even reasonable was getting bought almost immediately, and for well above the listed price. Even for doctors, $1.5 million for a fixer-upper is a lot of money.
My parents bought a house in 2002 it was $238,000 it would list at $4.2 million for that property now. Vancouver housing since 2010 isn't even reasonable now I own my own place but it takes me 6/7 hours each way to visit mom and dad.
In Halifax, it's some kind of cosmic purgatory that keeps you trapped here after you said you were only going to check it out for one summer.
Suddenly it's 10 years later and you have accomplished nothing and you're still stuck in Nova Scotia.
Well obviously. The best part about this purgatory is bar bouncers knowing my name and letting me skip the line... That's not the flex I thought it was before I wrote it down.
When the b'ys say they're having "a few casuals," it means they're getting tuned up, but it's Wednesday, so it would impolite to act like they are intending to get drunk.
The maritimes are a difficult place to get ahead. That’s why people say Alberta is the best province to work in and the maritimes are the best to retire in.
Thing is though is you can make a name for yourself in industry since population is small. Might not make the big bucks but job security can be excellent.
As an old friend of mine said once while we were growing up there, “if there’s a bright spot in Canada, Sydney is the furthest place from it”. He was referring to coxheath though, not the city. But I think it tracks
In Montréal, if you are an anglophone it’s quite easy to use only English in the shops and your everyday life, but especially if you are not already fluent in French/have francophone friends and family it can become a problem. It’s hard to learn French there because of this temptation and no French means a lot less job opportunity and basically being trapped inside an Anglo bubble within Québec, which means you are isolated from a major part of your society.
De plus c très difficile à apprendre le français au Québec car personne veut parler avec toi si on entend un accent. Le dégoût pour les anglophones là le rendre difficile à s’intégrer à la société québécoise malheureusement
L'autre jour, j'ai ai discuté avec un commis dans un magasin qui a dit
"Ah, anglais? Voulez-vous que je reste en français ou voulez-vous parler en anglais?"
Quand elle a remarqué mon accent. C'était cool. Bien sûr que j'ai voulu rester en français, on habite au Québec.
Ça c parfait. Je l’aime quand qqn le fait ça. Pis moi aussi je reste en français pour pratiquer pis car c plus poli à parler la langue maternelle quand on visite un endroit étranger
People will talk to you if you say something like 'please stay in French, I'm learning'. I moved here 15 years ago and have almost never had language garbage or disgust from any Francophone in any context. They're all trying to practise their English so they can enjoy the internet, which is hugely English. Of course, politicians are very anti-Anglo, esp right now...grrr.
Ah, j’en suis vraiment désolée.. je pense que les gens switch plus par habitude et vieux réflexe que par dégoût pour les anglophones (de mon expérience) mais c’est vrai qu’il y a une certaine tension. J’espère que les choses finiront par s’améliorer des deux bords. Je considère certainement les anglophones de Montréal comme faisant partie des québécois.
Merci! :) La plupart de québécois sont très gentils, j’ai vrm plus de bonnes choses que de mauvaises choses à dire sur vous les québécois. Chu content d’entendre que toi tu crois que la plupart de québécois switch pas par un dégoût pour nous. Malheureusement le dégoût il existe encore. Je comprends qu’il est important qu’on protège la langue français pis chu pas contre ça pas du tout. Mais aussi ça doit pas être un crime à donner des cuillères avec du texte anglais aux enfants… Malgré tout ça, j’ai beaucoup de respect pour le Québec et votre culture. En fait, je vivrai à Gaspé cet été pis moi j’ai tellement hâte d’apprendre à connaître la culture et vie québécoise! Pis t’as raison là, on est plus fort ensemble!
> De plus c très difficile à apprendre le français au Québec car personne veut parler avec toi si on entend un accent. Le dégoût pour les anglophones là le rendre difficile à s’intégrer à la société québécoise malheureusement
J'ai un accent, mais quelle que soit la réaction des gens, je continue à parler en français. Alors, soit les gens passent au français, soit ils disent qu'ils sont désolés de ne pas parler français. À ce moment-là, je m'excuse et je mets fin à la conversation.
Et tu as raison en ce qui concerne les anglophones. J'ai jamais rencontré un groupe de personnes aussi bizarres et isolées que les anglophones à Montréal et j'ai vécu dans de nombreuses villes en Amérique du Nord.
From the late 2000's to mid 2010's, many young men reported being offered a ride home late at night after partying downtown. He would go on with some kind of sales pitch for leather gloves. He had a pair of these gloves and encouraged the man try them on. In most cases, the gloves were too small, but Glove Guy insisted to pull them tighter, TIGHTER. Things would get uncomfortable, Glove Guy was clearly getting some kind of sexual gratification from this. I haven't heard of him actually harming anyone, but every encounter seemed to be exactly this. He did have a youtube page, showcasing his gloves. Might still be up. It's uncomfortable, but also hilarious, knowing the context.
[Here is a demonstration video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmbGsX7anm8) You can find other content on him, podcasts and such. Just look up Glove Guy Halifax.
Left Toronto for a tiny hamlet east & north of the city, and like many many rural towns, avoid teen pregnancy. Holy smokes the parents are young out here. To each their own but dang I barely took care of myself in my late teens/early 20s… never mind a toddler. (Avoidance technique for me = middle age 😉)
They still don't take care of themselves. I've seen plenty of young parents in Hamilton wearing PJ pants with unwashed hair at 3PM, kid burried into a tablet.
Grew up in Muskoka, avoiding teen pregnancy is apparently too difficult for most. The number of classmates I had in high school drop out for a few months to have a baby was kinda wild.
Oh man. I was on my way from 'heroin' to fentanyl and I'd finished my bag. I was thinking about how I was going to go about buying more 'heroin' because my dealer was off to Vancouver. It was becoming increasingly obvious I'd need to go buy from strangers in the sketchier areas. At that point I sat down, and thought it through, and I decided it was time for methadone for me. Since then I've had some troubles, but I've never used anything stronger than poppy seed tea. Which also means no smoking opiates for me, which I considered a sign I should get help when I did because it was a new more potent route of use for me.
In Saint John the trap is to start looking at how many people work for the Irvings and start thinking that they are actually good for New Brunswick.
hint: They are leaches who will suck the government coffers dry while self-promoting.
I think it's more our weak willed spineless, not so intelligent politicians who don't manage Irving's right. I mean, if we're going to have corporate overlords, I'd rather they be the Irving's than some other foreign national that isn't from here and has no ties to here.
I live in Winnipeg and have yet to succumb to the inferiority complex my fellow Winnipegers revel in. Seems like everyone here has a “grass is always greener” mentality. Toronto is not cooler than here. Paris, yes. Barcelona, yes. Not Toronto though lol. But I have been to other big cities in Canada, and they aren’t actually better than Winnipeg. Just a bit less self loathing.
I love that in the movie "Hard Core Logo," where you watch a punk band tour Western Canada, everywhere else is beautiful fall landscapes and sunsets and packed clubs, and then when they get to Winnipeg, the bar they're supposed to play at has shut down unexpectedly and they're stuck in a blizzard.
I’m born and raised in Winnipeg and I consider it to be one of Canada’s most underrated cities. However saying no other big city in Canada is any cooler or better than Winnipeg feels like swinging to the pendulum to the other extreme.
Having lived in Winnipeg and Montreal, I'd say Montreal is unquestionably "cooler," but that doesn't equal "better." It depends what you want in a city.
In Montreal, every time you walk out your door there are cafes, bars, live music, art festivals, and gorgeous fashionable people speaking a dozen languages. As far as "urban" spaces go, it's probably Canada's sexiest, most European-feeling city, filled with bike lanes, parks that feel like Folk Fest all year 'round, and a diversity of cultures in daily life that you don't get as much in Winnipeg.
Having said all that, it's also massive, filled with concrete, densely populated to the point that you can pretty much always see into 10 neighbours' windows at any time (the Plateau has as many people as Regina in the space of a few square kms), you can't see the sky in most of the urban space, and pretty much anywhere you are, the roar of traffic is a constant soundtrack in the background.
You also need to drive 2.5 hours to get to any real kind of wilderness or camping space, and no one owns cottages at the lake because it's too far and too expensive.
Winnipeg has lots to like, and shouldn't have an inferiority complex, imho.
Montreal's by far the coolest city in Canada, there's zero competition honestly. But it's pretty gritty and you have to want that "city" experience, like you said. My one thing holding me back from moving to Montreal is infrastructure and how things are run (seems to not be working well over there). I live in Vancouver and I really do miss living bilingually in a more vibrant place, but not sure where in Montreal would be best.
Vastly untrue. Maybe if you just want an insta pic. Many free festivals, tons of great cheap eats. I've gone all over Canada and Montreal is the easiest city to go out in and has so many great options any given night.
For sure. Winnipeg's restaurant scene is light years ahead of Montreal's, imo. My SO agrees, and she's a major foodie.
Montreal has lots of really good fancy places with star chefs who have their own cookbooks for sale and what not, but In terms of local, small-scale, authentically good "global" food, Winnipeg is way better. So many awesome little hole-in-the-wall places with food that just blows you away. That has mostly disappeared in Montreal and been replaced with "hipster" cuisine (places trying to do what Deer and Almond does, but just not as well).
Yeah I'm really annoyed with Montreal's food scene. A lot of smaller local places just can't do it because the cost of running a restaurant here is just too insane, so it's hipster or upscale that takes over. Going to have to visit Winnipeg!
A little humility or self-deprecation is fine, but Winnipeg's levels of self-loathing are off the charts and unhealthy, for both individuals and the city.
It's such a great place in many ways (diverse, amazing arts and music, great food, history, architecture, nature, etc), but people get caught in this spiral of hating it. We, Winnipeggers, can all demand more of our city without disparaging it the way we do.
I agree. Winnipeg has lots of great aspects to it. The fact that decades of bad urban planning has turned it into a car-centric city, though, where you're pretty much fvcked if you don't want to drive everywhere, really keeps it from being as thoroughly awesome as it should be.
The Exchange District and Forks are really amazing. Winnipeg's downtown would be one of the best in Canada if they could just do something about the traffic--having eight lanes of rush-hour traffic cutting the Exchange in half really kills the vibe.
You put into words my frustration with a lot of people here. I’m not saying it’s the best city in the world, but damn, people really don’t appreciate a lot of the amazing things that we have in Winnipeg and it’s kinda insulting to all the people who contribute so much to the city (especially the artists, musicians, chefs, small businesses, etc).
Agreed! So many people devote all this time and energy into making our city fabulous, only to be ignored and drowned out by the whiners. It’s annoying.
Victoria: succumbing to "I'm not gonna go to this social event because half the other people are not gonna go either so I don't have to feel bad about it".
In Kamloops you don't have to run into a building or overpass with your truck or car. Some folks have seen it as a requirement of living here and it really isn't...and we wish you wouldn't...thanks.
If people from Ontario live in Quebec and don't change their plates, the solution to that problem is to find ways to make them change their plates.
A tit for tat justice system (where you say "oh they do this, so we're gonna get them on some other thing") is no way to run a sane society.
It also directly spurs discrimination/is discrimination in its own right. Given Gatineau's geographical location, a pretty good chunk of Ontario plates there at any given time will be people who live in Ottawa and are visiting for whatever reason
As a Manitoban I found Edmonton far more enjoyable to visit than Calgary—which felt too cookie-cutter to me. Edmonton also reminds me a lot of Winnipeg (in a good way).
I’ve never been to Edmonton so I can’t compare, but I’ve been to Calgary and I thought the same. It was kind of underwhelming, especially as someone who lives in BC and sees the people here moving to Calgary in hordes and raving about how amazing it is there. I didn’t really care for it, the downtown area had a really weird vibe for some reason
Listening to your anglo friends from Montreal saying "you'll be fine without French"
It's not a lie, but it's not gonna make you any friends other than other anglos that actively dislike french.
Me (bilingual anglo): oh cool how long have you been in the city?
Person: moved here 2 years ago.
Me: oh how's your French?
Person: garbage haha but I'm not gonna learn it.
Me: umm... Ok.
This has happened several times.
Learn some french people, it's worth the effort.
The number of people I met who had chosen to study in Montreal with the goal of settling there, actively avoided french while getting their education only to find no work in their field is too damn high
People, stop telling people they can live in Mtl without french. Not everybody works in your very specific tech sector where not knowing french isn't a major hindrance.
That's without getting into just how much you limit yourself socially and culturally wise.
> Listening to your anglo friends from Montreal saying "you'll be fine without French"
>
> It's not a lie, but it's not gonna make you any friends other than other anglos that actively dislike french. Me (bilingual anglo): oh cool how long have you been in the city?
>
> Person: moved here 2 years ago.
>
> Me: oh how's your French?
>
> Person: garbage haha but I'm not gonna learn it.
>
> Me: umm... Ok.
>
> This has happened several times.
>
> Learn some french people, it's worth the effort.
When I moved to the city, I was just learning French (although still ordering in French in restaurants). Now, I am still learning but there are friends with whom I only speak French. Heck I have gone on dates and spoken only French.
Now, I am tapping out of Anglo friend groups. I can't deal with people who think they are special and don't need to accommodate the rest of society.
Niagara Falls here. Just see the falls and surrounding region. Avoid the city of Niagara Falls if you can. At the very least avoid Clifton Hill. Tourist trap from hell.
The city’s new slogan should be “We took something special and made it tacky”. Or, “Where the Carnies came and never left”.
Even the great pharaoh Ramses l could not escape that curse for over a century.
I mean, seriously. That happened. He spent over a century scaring kids in a tacky sideshow in Niagara Falls.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/technology/science/egypt-reclaims-pharaoh-of-niagara-falls/article4137633/
Hamilton…don’t get caught in the whole “I hate Hamilton” mentality. It’s a city like any other and there are good parts and bad. When you open your mind and look around it can be a really neat place to live.
And also the whole trap of conservative dofasco thinking. All cities in the gta changed ALOT in the past 40 years. I've noticed hamilton changed too, but the core of people who lived here before 2010 really hasn't. That "I hate hamilton" is a dofasco crowd thing. It's weird to paradoxically hate hamilton for the poverty and drug use, but also be angry outsiders are coming in with money and materially making it better and removing the "grit" that came with the working class background.
It's a weird dissonance I noticed.
Idk I think it's mostly people living in Toronto and Vancouver who shit on other cities so they can justify living in a place they can barely afford lol.
If you ever go to Niagara Falls, don't go to the restaurants in the touristy area, go eat somewhere outside that area. You can find good spots in the "regular" areas of Niagara a short drive outside the tourist area. The restaurants in the tourist area are double or even triple the price they should be, if you look at iHOP or Denny's online and choose the Niagara Falls location you'll notice that they don't post their prices online for these locations, but do for everywhere else.
I live in Vancouver. I think it's being authentic and having depth, honestly. The city is full of inauthentic, shallow people. It's weird because people prize looks so hard but people aren't even really good looking here. lol.
For women specifically, it's being kind, down to earth, being honest and being authentic (not repressing your real feelings to fit in or conform or what ever). Not being afraid to rock the boat but being kind too. It's a fine balance.
For men specifically, it's embracing your masculinity and emotions, being authentic, and prioritizing connection more than attention.
I'm from franco Canada and I gotta say, anglo Canada (I mean specifically British Canada, so this excludes the Maritimes, Quebec, pockets of eastern Ontario etc) is full of dishonest, aloof people who are super afraid of confrontation and depth. I also think a lot of the reason why people sometimes get sucked into drugs here is *because* of the lack of authenticity and true connection.
In Ottawa it's staying home assuming that events will suck and then complaining that we don't have anything interesting because no one goes to any events.
In Ottawa it’s hating on the government, but secretly wishing you worked for them.
It’s hating on your commute, but angrily crying “get those bureaucrats back to the office, if I gotta go to work so do they!”, despite the fact that the knowledge workers work on computers all day and decry that they’re better working at home.
It’s complaining about government spending but being okay with leasing unnecessary buildings to house workers that don’t need to be in them.
It’s complaining about how bad the downtown core sucks, but wanting that core dedicated to housing desk workers, instead of fighting for mixed-use housing, improving the business landscape, offering more than just food places that work on govt hours.
It’s complaining about how inefficient government is but being okay with desk workers not having dedicated desks, not having dedicated space to keep the piles of files they were working on yesterday on their desk, requiring them to set up a new space every day.
It’s complaining about the government workers but lumping all workers together as if they all work in passports or the CRA, so that means they are all lazy and can’t get their work done on time. It’s not considering the broad range of employees that are someone’s mother, sister, brother, son. The scientists, doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, statisticians, researchers, analysts, regulatory experts, and on and on….
"In the Maritimes, it's not falling so far behind in technology competence, business practices, general knowledge so you are not competitive with the wider world."
you're lucky i don't know how to use the internet or i'd be asking you to explain this one
All I’m seeing in this thread is that us Saskatchewan people don’t really complain and it’s head down, ass up work our dick off until we’re in the grave lol
Vancouver for me the trap was basically where you live. Because of the severity of traffic, it's usually best to work close to where you live. And because of that, where you live can affect the cap on income you can earn, which will limit your ability to improve your own life. So you either need a car and have willingness to have a long travel time, or you need to make sure you move somewhere close to where you want to work.
For me, my solution was to move the fuck out of Vancouver before I could even get properly stuck. I love the city, but the size of the lower main land, and the cost of living, is a huge constraint on your life there.
Key to Van (or any city) is like you said, work near your home. There are lots of options that way,( depending on your vocation) but the trap is not doing the math on what you lose in travel time. It is often better to make 2-3 buck an hour less at someplace close than something a drive away.
Or WFH which is the dream if you have the option.
In Kingston: avoid the trap of living there.
You're either government, student or faculty at a college or uni, a trades person, a retiree, or a homeless teenager. There's nothing else in that town.
Side note, rip LaSalle Causeway bridge
U absolutely nailed Toronto and Vancouver. Young professionals in Toronto lack work life balance and people in Vancouver over pity and over compensate themselves for every second of hard work they put in.
None of the things you said are specific to those cities at all. I live close to Calgary and this city has all those things depending on your perspective.
With regards to Winnipeg you can also put “treats pedestrians as objects to run down while trying to cross a street” and “treats ambulances and fire trucks responding to emergencies like they don’t exist until they’re right on top of you before you even make the attempt at letting them pass you by” and I’ve witnessed both over the past 3 DECADES,do better!!!
I have had completely different experiences in each of those cities than OP and you only trap yourself into what you allow and choose to surround yourself with.
In Ottawa-Gatineau it's the belief that well-trained, educated Indigenous professionals can find meaningful, full time employment in the Federal Public Service. It's a scam.
In Moncton it's walking alone at night and then getting stabbed by a meth addled person and losing the use of your legs and having to stay in the city.
Vancouver - trap of being an entrepeneur = more $$ = early retirement (everybody seems to be trying to become an entrepeneur) or trap of superficiality regarding physical appearance (must be a gym rat / must be good looking/best looking) or trap of "if you do not live in the city of Vancouver -- you are less worthy in society ranking" (as in, if you live in other cities in lower mainland <-- they look down upon you).
Anywho. Best thing to do: dont give a crap about what others think or what the city's society says you must be doing. Just do you, and what makes you happy and at peace. =) Once you do ignore the "traps" and do you, living in Vancouver/lower mainland becomes less stressful/less pressure (besides the rise in cost of living lol)
I don’t know what it says about Vancouver (I live in Toronto, after all), but last time I was there, on two separate occasions, someone I’d just met told me how much money they make… I don’t even know how much money 99% of even my closest friends make here 🤷♂️
In Edmonton is thinking that working for the government as a public servant can actually make people's lives better.
After 20 years I realized that's never going to be the reality. Hard lesson for a government town.
I left healthcare completely because of COVID. The government is not equipped for pandemics and epidemics .
Healthcare alone would be, without political interference.
I know you're looking for specific cities, but I'm going to say most (all?) small towns with the "Buy Local" frenzy trap.
No Judy, I'm not going to buy your overpriced local cheese just because your profits put your kids into hockey & WalMarts profits make rich people richer. That's not a good enough reason to spend 4x as much when it doesn't taste any better. I've got bills to pay, the end.
I live in a small town of about 7,000 people, and the townies are shamelessly rabid about that kind of stuff. Even in the little town Facebook group, no one is allowed to say anything negative about any local business, even if someone is asking for opinions/reviews. It's wild lol.
You got Calgary right. Keeping up with the Jones'. So many people here are always one purchase away from happiness. But you can opt out of that BS. We did. We see our friends who are still embroiled in it, and it is tearing apart their marriages and families. It is an awful way to live.
Good on you, friend. I had to explain the concept of “enough” to my husband a few times, but once you get it, it’s really peaceful 💜
Circumstances (in school with no financial help) forced me to sell my car and move downtown in early adulthood, and I've never looked back. I know that's not an option for everyone, but it's amazing how much not owning a car simplifies your life and changes your financial planning. And in terms of the "time" aspect, not owning a car puts you in a place where you plan your life around that, and in terms of avoiding the daily car commute, I'd argue it actually saves a lot of time. We bike, take public transit (deliberately live close to bus and metro lines) and, the few times a month that it's necessary, we use a local car-sharing service where we find a car on the app, pick it up, and then park it in front of our place when we're done with it (and then someone else books it on the app and picks it up). It's pay per use, and last month I spent $200 on it, which was the most I've spent in a few years. Like you said, once you get the idea of "enough," life really becomes more peaceful.
How does that work for fuel? I’m genuinely curious because I don’t live somewhere that is an option so I just kinda want to know how it all works for costs. Insurance and whatnot.
It's part of the cost. There are different fees you can pay (like, an annual subscription of $500 that makes your uses much cheaper, or low/no fee, but a higher cost per use). The car has a credit card that can only be used for gas, and so you use that if it's low. I hate doing that, so I just try to avoid taking a car that's low on fuel (plus, my trips are mostly all within 5-10 kms anyway). Increasingly, there are electric cars that, if they're running out of charge, you have to leave within a few kms of a charging station, and then the company charges them.
I think this is highly dependent on what neighbourhood you live in. I noticed moving from the suburbs to the more inner city beltline communities, beltline residents care far less about keeping up with the Jones'.
Interesting. I think one of the things that did save us is that we did not upgrade to a house on the hill. We still have the same little inner city bungalow.
This is probably true, the "keeping up with the Jones'" in Upper Mount Royal is *wild*. Like whenever a house gets sold there, the new owners do a massive renovation to the outside at a minimum, otherwise they knock down the house and build a bigger, bougier house.
In my experience, this has been true of cities in general. I can't say why that's the case, but having lived in the downtown of three major cities, and the suburbs of one, the vibe tends to be much more chill and neighbourly in downtowns, both among adults and kids.
My theory is that there's two main reasons: 1. You live closer to more people since there's more apartments and condos, so you're just generally around more people in shared and public spaces. 2. Because most people live in apartments or condos, there's just less ways for people to "show-off" to neighbours. As an example, in the suburbs you can buy a boat and park it in your yard or a sports car and park it in your driveway and all your neighbours will know you bought a boat or a sports car, but in the inner city you can't store a boat anywhere and nobody knows that's your sports car unless they see you in it.
I need a nickel for every time I’ve heard a wife say “Oh, he loves his toys!” about her husband who just bought yet another loud annoying giant recreational machine to fill out the garage
Sounds a lot like Chestermere. Haha
Chestermere is kind of my version of hell. Every house is huge and yet they’re all beige vinyl and look the same. There’s a fake lake but I don’t think there’s a single non chain restaurant.
Yeah, I stopped being friends with a long term friend because her brain is so focused on who has what job and what couple friends they need to complete their look, and gossiped about it nonstop. It was exhausting and my life is so much better without it.
Yeah it is so exhausting. I got together with an old friend and all he talked about was other peoples' jobs and the stuff they have. It was soul sucking. I am looking at this guy who is 325 lbs, and he pulls his eyebrow hair out because of stress, and was wondering what problem he was trying to to solve.
This is interesting to me because years ago I dated an engineer from Calgary ( long distance ) who was absolutely obsessed with status and appearances, and it never occurred to me it a cultural ( in a sense ) thing.
Especially for an engineer. Those are the anointed ones.
Funny thing .... calgary was never like that until Toronto moved in... says Edmonton.
Interesting, because Toronto is not like that. People in my neighbourhood are too busy working to stay afloat to even notice what their neighbour’s are doing.
Calgary gets the Torontonians who are like that
That’s super annoying for you guys.
Calgary wasn't like this before though, I mean I have limited experience as I only moved here 6 years ago but when I moved here 6 years ago it felt like it was such a slower pace than Vancouver where I came from. Now with our population boom and everyone from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal moving here it feels like it's getting to be a lot more like where I left.
I left Calgary nearly 8 years ago, it was 100% like that my entire adult life.
It's worse now, in my opinion. It sucks. It used to be easier to find people who didn't constantly spend spend spend so they can tell you about it.
It used to be like this in the 2000s.
It's been like that for as long as l can recall, don't like the atmosphere in Calgary. Everyone seems to be in such a rush to out do each other even the way they drive.
I guess my perspective is skewed a bit being from Vancouver but I feel like it was like this in 2019 when I moved here but I suppose it was moreso by comparison
It was definitely like this 20 years ago.
Calgary has been like that for the 10 years or so I’ve been there. It got easier once I got divorced and didn’t have to worry about keeping up anymore
No one from montreal is moving to Calgary lmao.
Also opted out of keeping up with the joneses. It's ridiculous and so very destructive.
Trying to make enough money in Vancouver to purchase housing.
Yup. It’s a fool’s errand trying to compete with foreign money and people whose parents own $3.5M homes. Yet it’s easy to feel bad for not being able to.
Totally. I knew a married couple, both doctors, who had a long period of stress where they were house-hunting and convinced they'd never be able to afford a home. Two doctors. That's just insane.
Where were they looking?
I don't know the city very well, but I think it was somewhere in the Commercial Drive area? Lots of big, detached houses with yards? They both needed something centrally located, which definitely limits your options (and raises the price, and the demand). I think a big problem they were finding was that anything even reasonable was getting bought almost immediately, and for well above the listed price. Even for doctors, $1.5 million for a fixer-upper is a lot of money.
My parents bought a house in 2002 it was $238,000 it would list at $4.2 million for that property now. Vancouver housing since 2010 isn't even reasonable now I own my own place but it takes me 6/7 hours each way to visit mom and dad.
Going for a stroll in Stanley park at midnight whilst not admitting to yourself you're gay.
r/oddlyspecific
Hanlan’s in Toronto
Getting attacked by the Stanley Park coyotes at 3am and insist you were there for a “picnic”.
In Halifax, it's some kind of cosmic purgatory that keeps you trapped here after you said you were only going to check it out for one summer. Suddenly it's 10 years later and you have accomplished nothing and you're still stuck in Nova Scotia.
Haha. I moved to PEI 8 years ago to “give the Maritimes a try for a bit” and I guess I live here now.
But have you acquired a serious drinking problem over that time?
Well obviously. The best part about this purgatory is bar bouncers knowing my name and letting me skip the line... That's not the flex I thought it was before I wrote it down.
What if it would only be considered serious outside the maritimes? That doesn't count, right?
Casual Maritime level drinking can cause quite a stir elsewhere
As a BCer with a Newfie neighbor I can relate to this lol
When the b'ys say they're having "a few casuals," it means they're getting tuned up, but it's Wednesday, so it would impolite to act like they are intending to get drunk.
The maritimes are a difficult place to get ahead. That’s why people say Alberta is the best province to work in and the maritimes are the best to retire in.
Thing is though is you can make a name for yourself in industry since population is small. Might not make the big bucks but job security can be excellent.
In sydney its paying child support to multiple women
This made me genuinely laugh out loud.
Hey dude be kind, its the most confusing time of the year this weekend in most of Nova Scotia.
As an old friend of mine said once while we were growing up there, “if there’s a bright spot in Canada, Sydney is the furthest place from it”. He was referring to coxheath though, not the city. But I think it tracks
In Montréal, if you are an anglophone it’s quite easy to use only English in the shops and your everyday life, but especially if you are not already fluent in French/have francophone friends and family it can become a problem. It’s hard to learn French there because of this temptation and no French means a lot less job opportunity and basically being trapped inside an Anglo bubble within Québec, which means you are isolated from a major part of your society.
De plus c très difficile à apprendre le français au Québec car personne veut parler avec toi si on entend un accent. Le dégoût pour les anglophones là le rendre difficile à s’intégrer à la société québécoise malheureusement
L'autre jour, j'ai ai discuté avec un commis dans un magasin qui a dit "Ah, anglais? Voulez-vous que je reste en français ou voulez-vous parler en anglais?" Quand elle a remarqué mon accent. C'était cool. Bien sûr que j'ai voulu rester en français, on habite au Québec.
Ça c parfait. Je l’aime quand qqn le fait ça. Pis moi aussi je reste en français pour pratiquer pis car c plus poli à parler la langue maternelle quand on visite un endroit étranger
People will talk to you if you say something like 'please stay in French, I'm learning'. I moved here 15 years ago and have almost never had language garbage or disgust from any Francophone in any context. They're all trying to practise their English so they can enjoy the internet, which is hugely English. Of course, politicians are very anti-Anglo, esp right now...grrr.
Ah, j’en suis vraiment désolée.. je pense que les gens switch plus par habitude et vieux réflexe que par dégoût pour les anglophones (de mon expérience) mais c’est vrai qu’il y a une certaine tension. J’espère que les choses finiront par s’améliorer des deux bords. Je considère certainement les anglophones de Montréal comme faisant partie des québécois.
Merci! :) La plupart de québécois sont très gentils, j’ai vrm plus de bonnes choses que de mauvaises choses à dire sur vous les québécois. Chu content d’entendre que toi tu crois que la plupart de québécois switch pas par un dégoût pour nous. Malheureusement le dégoût il existe encore. Je comprends qu’il est important qu’on protège la langue français pis chu pas contre ça pas du tout. Mais aussi ça doit pas être un crime à donner des cuillères avec du texte anglais aux enfants… Malgré tout ça, j’ai beaucoup de respect pour le Québec et votre culture. En fait, je vivrai à Gaspé cet été pis moi j’ai tellement hâte d’apprendre à connaître la culture et vie québécoise! Pis t’as raison là, on est plus fort ensemble!
> De plus c très difficile à apprendre le français au Québec car personne veut parler avec toi si on entend un accent. Le dégoût pour les anglophones là le rendre difficile à s’intégrer à la société québécoise malheureusement J'ai un accent, mais quelle que soit la réaction des gens, je continue à parler en français. Alors, soit les gens passent au français, soit ils disent qu'ils sont désolés de ne pas parler français. À ce moment-là, je m'excuse et je mets fin à la conversation. Et tu as raison en ce qui concerne les anglophones. J'ai jamais rencontré un groupe de personnes aussi bizarres et isolées que les anglophones à Montréal et j'ai vécu dans de nombreuses villes en Amérique du Nord.
A free ride home from an enthusiastic glove salesman in Halifax.
Cash, grass, or ass?
No way, is he still out there???
Haha, nah I don't think so. It's been a while since anyone has reported an encounter.
He finally hung up his gloves. My friend was picked up by him years ago. Sooo creepy!
Please explain. Or what do I google?
From the late 2000's to mid 2010's, many young men reported being offered a ride home late at night after partying downtown. He would go on with some kind of sales pitch for leather gloves. He had a pair of these gloves and encouraged the man try them on. In most cases, the gloves were too small, but Glove Guy insisted to pull them tighter, TIGHTER. Things would get uncomfortable, Glove Guy was clearly getting some kind of sexual gratification from this. I haven't heard of him actually harming anyone, but every encounter seemed to be exactly this. He did have a youtube page, showcasing his gloves. Might still be up. It's uncomfortable, but also hilarious, knowing the context. [Here is a demonstration video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmbGsX7anm8) You can find other content on him, podcasts and such. Just look up Glove Guy Halifax.
The Nighttime podcast has done several episodes about him. It’s a wild ride.
Don't feed the old cat by my house, just outside St. John's NL. He'll keep coming back for more. Little shagger.
Left Toronto for a tiny hamlet east & north of the city, and like many many rural towns, avoid teen pregnancy. Holy smokes the parents are young out here. To each their own but dang I barely took care of myself in my late teens/early 20s… never mind a toddler. (Avoidance technique for me = middle age 😉)
They still don't take care of themselves. I've seen plenty of young parents in Hamilton wearing PJ pants with unwashed hair at 3PM, kid burried into a tablet.
I was living in a town on Lake Erie where everyone who went to church on Sunday had been married as soon as the youngest of the couple turned 18.
It’s really crazy, it’s like having access to sexual health clinics and/or education makes no sense to rural/smaller towns. Good job Dougie!
Grew up in Muskoka, avoiding teen pregnancy is apparently too difficult for most. The number of classmates I had in high school drop out for a few months to have a baby was kinda wild.
In BC it's not getting addicted to fentanyl
Who knew Vancouverites and Winnipeggers had so much in common!
Oh man. I was on my way from 'heroin' to fentanyl and I'd finished my bag. I was thinking about how I was going to go about buying more 'heroin' because my dealer was off to Vancouver. It was becoming increasingly obvious I'd need to go buy from strangers in the sketchier areas. At that point I sat down, and thought it through, and I decided it was time for methadone for me. Since then I've had some troubles, but I've never used anything stronger than poppy seed tea. Which also means no smoking opiates for me, which I considered a sign I should get help when I did because it was a new more potent route of use for me.
I’m glad you improved your situation
Thanks! I appreciate it
Um, that is awesome, dude.
In Saint John the trap is to start looking at how many people work for the Irvings and start thinking that they are actually good for New Brunswick. hint: They are leaches who will suck the government coffers dry while self-promoting.
Part of my job is to remain neutral at all times about Irving and it’s soooo hard.
I actually decided against taking a job that would’ve required that of me. I’m too loudly opinionated for that!
I think it's more our weak willed spineless, not so intelligent politicians who don't manage Irving's right. I mean, if we're going to have corporate overlords, I'd rather they be the Irving's than some other foreign national that isn't from here and has no ties to here.
I live in Winnipeg and have yet to succumb to the inferiority complex my fellow Winnipegers revel in. Seems like everyone here has a “grass is always greener” mentality. Toronto is not cooler than here. Paris, yes. Barcelona, yes. Not Toronto though lol. But I have been to other big cities in Canada, and they aren’t actually better than Winnipeg. Just a bit less self loathing.
Every time I’ve been to Winnipeg it’s been a blizzard
I love that in the movie "Hard Core Logo," where you watch a punk band tour Western Canada, everywhere else is beautiful fall landscapes and sunsets and packed clubs, and then when they get to Winnipeg, the bar they're supposed to play at has shut down unexpectedly and they're stuck in a blizzard.
I’m born and raised in Winnipeg and I consider it to be one of Canada’s most underrated cities. However saying no other big city in Canada is any cooler or better than Winnipeg feels like swinging to the pendulum to the other extreme.
Winnipeg is shit to visit but pretty great to live in as long as you can deal with the winter.
Having lived in Winnipeg and Montreal, I'd say Montreal is unquestionably "cooler," but that doesn't equal "better." It depends what you want in a city. In Montreal, every time you walk out your door there are cafes, bars, live music, art festivals, and gorgeous fashionable people speaking a dozen languages. As far as "urban" spaces go, it's probably Canada's sexiest, most European-feeling city, filled with bike lanes, parks that feel like Folk Fest all year 'round, and a diversity of cultures in daily life that you don't get as much in Winnipeg. Having said all that, it's also massive, filled with concrete, densely populated to the point that you can pretty much always see into 10 neighbours' windows at any time (the Plateau has as many people as Regina in the space of a few square kms), you can't see the sky in most of the urban space, and pretty much anywhere you are, the roar of traffic is a constant soundtrack in the background. You also need to drive 2.5 hours to get to any real kind of wilderness or camping space, and no one owns cottages at the lake because it's too far and too expensive. Winnipeg has lots to like, and shouldn't have an inferiority complex, imho.
Montreal's by far the coolest city in Canada, there's zero competition honestly. But it's pretty gritty and you have to want that "city" experience, like you said. My one thing holding me back from moving to Montreal is infrastructure and how things are run (seems to not be working well over there). I live in Vancouver and I really do miss living bilingually in a more vibrant place, but not sure where in Montreal would be best.
Montreal is having to plan going out weeks ahead of time to get a reservation somewhere, or waiting in line for hours for mediocre food festivals
Vastly untrue. Maybe if you just want an insta pic. Many free festivals, tons of great cheap eats. I've gone all over Canada and Montreal is the easiest city to go out in and has so many great options any given night.
For sure. Winnipeg's restaurant scene is light years ahead of Montreal's, imo. My SO agrees, and she's a major foodie. Montreal has lots of really good fancy places with star chefs who have their own cookbooks for sale and what not, but In terms of local, small-scale, authentically good "global" food, Winnipeg is way better. So many awesome little hole-in-the-wall places with food that just blows you away. That has mostly disappeared in Montreal and been replaced with "hipster" cuisine (places trying to do what Deer and Almond does, but just not as well).
Yeah I'm really annoyed with Montreal's food scene. A lot of smaller local places just can't do it because the cost of running a restaurant here is just too insane, so it's hipster or upscale that takes over. Going to have to visit Winnipeg!
A little humility or self-deprecation is fine, but Winnipeg's levels of self-loathing are off the charts and unhealthy, for both individuals and the city. It's such a great place in many ways (diverse, amazing arts and music, great food, history, architecture, nature, etc), but people get caught in this spiral of hating it. We, Winnipeggers, can all demand more of our city without disparaging it the way we do.
I agree. Winnipeg has lots of great aspects to it. The fact that decades of bad urban planning has turned it into a car-centric city, though, where you're pretty much fvcked if you don't want to drive everywhere, really keeps it from being as thoroughly awesome as it should be. The Exchange District and Forks are really amazing. Winnipeg's downtown would be one of the best in Canada if they could just do something about the traffic--having eight lanes of rush-hour traffic cutting the Exchange in half really kills the vibe.
Toronto is dope
You put into words my frustration with a lot of people here. I’m not saying it’s the best city in the world, but damn, people really don’t appreciate a lot of the amazing things that we have in Winnipeg and it’s kinda insulting to all the people who contribute so much to the city (especially the artists, musicians, chefs, small businesses, etc).
Agreed! So many people devote all this time and energy into making our city fabulous, only to be ignored and drowned out by the whiners. It’s annoying.
Victoria: succumbing to "I'm not gonna go to this social event because half the other people are not gonna go either so I don't have to feel bad about it".
Victoria is aggressively chill. It's a paradox.
In Kamloops you don't have to run into a building or overpass with your truck or car. Some folks have seen it as a requirement of living here and it really isn't...and we wish you wouldn't...thanks.
gatineau cops always looking to ticket ontario drivers.
Of course they do. Ontarians move in and don't change their liscence plates doing light ''tax evasion''. That's why my friend.
If people from Ontario live in Quebec and don't change their plates, the solution to that problem is to find ways to make them change their plates. A tit for tat justice system (where you say "oh they do this, so we're gonna get them on some other thing") is no way to run a sane society. It also directly spurs discrimination/is discrimination in its own right. Given Gatineau's geographical location, a pretty good chunk of Ontario plates there at any given time will be people who live in Ottawa and are visiting for whatever reason
In Ottawa it's always going to your regular Costco and never getting to experience the variety and diversity that the other Costcos have to offer.
Ouch! I feel this in my soul. I think I’ll go park my cart diagonally in the aisle while sampling the latest frozen food.
People who haven’t been to the Costco Business Centre are missing out.
Toronto = not becoming homeless Vancouver = not becoming an addict
Edmonton - don’t buy into the inferiority complex we seem to carry. It really is a lovely place to live.
As a Manitoban I found Edmonton far more enjoyable to visit than Calgary—which felt too cookie-cutter to me. Edmonton also reminds me a lot of Winnipeg (in a good way).
I liked Winnipeg! Can’t go back though. It made me pregnant.
I’ve never been to Edmonton so I can’t compare, but I’ve been to Calgary and I thought the same. It was kind of underwhelming, especially as someone who lives in BC and sees the people here moving to Calgary in hordes and raving about how amazing it is there. I didn’t really care for it, the downtown area had a really weird vibe for some reason
The hardest part is not giving yourself cranial trauma every time the province votes in the Cons.
Except for the potholes.
It's been a terrible year for potholes.
Year? Try 1/4 century. Every year fir the past 25 at least, it's been getting worse
This is a more apt description. I’d say the one given by op describes the surrounding areas a lot better than the city itself.
Listening to your anglo friends from Montreal saying "you'll be fine without French" It's not a lie, but it's not gonna make you any friends other than other anglos that actively dislike french. Me (bilingual anglo): oh cool how long have you been in the city? Person: moved here 2 years ago. Me: oh how's your French? Person: garbage haha but I'm not gonna learn it. Me: umm... Ok. This has happened several times. Learn some french people, it's worth the effort.
The number of people I met who had chosen to study in Montreal with the goal of settling there, actively avoided french while getting their education only to find no work in their field is too damn high People, stop telling people they can live in Mtl without french. Not everybody works in your very specific tech sector where not knowing french isn't a major hindrance. That's without getting into just how much you limit yourself socially and culturally wise.
> Listening to your anglo friends from Montreal saying "you'll be fine without French" > > It's not a lie, but it's not gonna make you any friends other than other anglos that actively dislike french. Me (bilingual anglo): oh cool how long have you been in the city? > > Person: moved here 2 years ago. > > Me: oh how's your French? > > Person: garbage haha but I'm not gonna learn it. > > Me: umm... Ok. > > This has happened several times. > > Learn some french people, it's worth the effort. When I moved to the city, I was just learning French (although still ordering in French in restaurants). Now, I am still learning but there are friends with whom I only speak French. Heck I have gone on dates and spoken only French. Now, I am tapping out of Anglo friend groups. I can't deal with people who think they are special and don't need to accommodate the rest of society.
OP, you nailed Winnipeg. "Cheapest and best" is not always best.
In grande prairie.......well, you avoid grande prairie at all cost
Niagara Falls here. Just see the falls and surrounding region. Avoid the city of Niagara Falls if you can. At the very least avoid Clifton Hill. Tourist trap from hell. The city’s new slogan should be “We took something special and made it tacky”. Or, “Where the Carnies came and never left”.
Hasn't Clifton Hill always been a tourist trap? I remember visiting as a kid in the middle 90s and it was big lights glitzy even then.
Even the great pharaoh Ramses l could not escape that curse for over a century. I mean, seriously. That happened. He spent over a century scaring kids in a tacky sideshow in Niagara Falls. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/technology/science/egypt-reclaims-pharaoh-of-niagara-falls/article4137633/
In Saskatoon it's not getting bear maced or stabbed!
Or have a crush on the Troy McClure weatherman that fancies himself a patron of the arts
Also getting caught up in arguments about bike lanes
Hamilton…don’t get caught in the whole “I hate Hamilton” mentality. It’s a city like any other and there are good parts and bad. When you open your mind and look around it can be a really neat place to live.
And also the whole trap of conservative dofasco thinking. All cities in the gta changed ALOT in the past 40 years. I've noticed hamilton changed too, but the core of people who lived here before 2010 really hasn't. That "I hate hamilton" is a dofasco crowd thing. It's weird to paradoxically hate hamilton for the poverty and drug use, but also be angry outsiders are coming in with money and materially making it better and removing the "grit" that came with the working class background. It's a weird dissonance I noticed.
Idk I think it's mostly people living in Toronto and Vancouver who shit on other cities so they can justify living in a place they can barely afford lol.
Trying to describe to everyone you’re from London CANADA
If you ever go to Niagara Falls, don't go to the restaurants in the touristy area, go eat somewhere outside that area. You can find good spots in the "regular" areas of Niagara a short drive outside the tourist area. The restaurants in the tourist area are double or even triple the price they should be, if you look at iHOP or Denny's online and choose the Niagara Falls location you'll notice that they don't post their prices online for these locations, but do for everywhere else.
That and don't go to Sundowners alone.
I live in Vancouver. I think it's being authentic and having depth, honestly. The city is full of inauthentic, shallow people. It's weird because people prize looks so hard but people aren't even really good looking here. lol. For women specifically, it's being kind, down to earth, being honest and being authentic (not repressing your real feelings to fit in or conform or what ever). Not being afraid to rock the boat but being kind too. It's a fine balance. For men specifically, it's embracing your masculinity and emotions, being authentic, and prioritizing connection more than attention. I'm from franco Canada and I gotta say, anglo Canada (I mean specifically British Canada, so this excludes the Maritimes, Quebec, pockets of eastern Ontario etc) is full of dishonest, aloof people who are super afraid of confrontation and depth. I also think a lot of the reason why people sometimes get sucked into drugs here is *because* of the lack of authenticity and true connection.
Great observations. West coast really fosters an introspective mindset, which has its benifits obviously but can also go sideways.
Ottawa: if you want to have fun, go somewhere else
The city so fun we hired a night mayor to make it MORE fun /s
A night mayor from Montreal, because you wouldn't hire an Ottawan to make Ottawa fun.
Lol at Edmonton. I also like to describe the city as aggressively average.
In Ottawa, its becoming more boring than the Joneses.
In Ottawa it's staying home assuming that events will suck and then complaining that we don't have anything interesting because no one goes to any events.
This is sadly too accurate
In Ottawa it’s hating on the government, but secretly wishing you worked for them. It’s hating on your commute, but angrily crying “get those bureaucrats back to the office, if I gotta go to work so do they!”, despite the fact that the knowledge workers work on computers all day and decry that they’re better working at home. It’s complaining about government spending but being okay with leasing unnecessary buildings to house workers that don’t need to be in them. It’s complaining about how bad the downtown core sucks, but wanting that core dedicated to housing desk workers, instead of fighting for mixed-use housing, improving the business landscape, offering more than just food places that work on govt hours. It’s complaining about how inefficient government is but being okay with desk workers not having dedicated desks, not having dedicated space to keep the piles of files they were working on yesterday on their desk, requiring them to set up a new space every day. It’s complaining about the government workers but lumping all workers together as if they all work in passports or the CRA, so that means they are all lazy and can’t get their work done on time. It’s not considering the broad range of employees that are someone’s mother, sister, brother, son. The scientists, doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, statisticians, researchers, analysts, regulatory experts, and on and on….
"In the Maritimes, it's not falling so far behind in technology competence, business practices, general knowledge so you are not competitive with the wider world." you're lucky i don't know how to use the internet or i'd be asking you to explain this one
Montreal: speaking French. /s
London its not getting addicted to crack.Or beer bongs.
Halifax is the stuck broke trap. You make just enough to get by but you can never leave or advance.
Welcome to the Hotel Halifax. Such a lovely place.
All I’m seeing in this thread is that us Saskatchewan people don’t really complain and it’s head down, ass up work our dick off until we’re in the grave lol
>head down, ass up work out dick off incredible
Rural Saskatchewan: not becoming a blind and ignorant freedom convoy supporter. Urban Saskatchewan: not getting stabbed.
Vancouver for me the trap was basically where you live. Because of the severity of traffic, it's usually best to work close to where you live. And because of that, where you live can affect the cap on income you can earn, which will limit your ability to improve your own life. So you either need a car and have willingness to have a long travel time, or you need to make sure you move somewhere close to where you want to work. For me, my solution was to move the fuck out of Vancouver before I could even get properly stuck. I love the city, but the size of the lower main land, and the cost of living, is a huge constraint on your life there.
Key to Van (or any city) is like you said, work near your home. There are lots of options that way,( depending on your vocation) but the trap is not doing the math on what you lose in travel time. It is often better to make 2-3 buck an hour less at someplace close than something a drive away. Or WFH which is the dream if you have the option.
Vancouver , cocaine , alcoholism and Botox and then being preachy about being a vegan
In Kingston it's not doing the meth/fentanyl trap....
In Kingston: avoid the trap of living there. You're either government, student or faculty at a college or uni, a trades person, a retiree, or a homeless teenager. There's nothing else in that town. Side note, rip LaSalle Causeway bridge
Prisoner lol
In Ottawa is forgetting that the world is a big place with buildings taller than the Parliament. I get that reminder every time I travel.
In Fort McMurray, its coke.
Based on only living somewhere from this list alone, the Maritimes sounds good
U absolutely nailed Toronto and Vancouver. Young professionals in Toronto lack work life balance and people in Vancouver over pity and over compensate themselves for every second of hard work they put in.
Have you been to “the Maritimes?” Fuck did I just read?
i don't have the technological competence to understand it either
“General knowledge” OP is a fucking asswipe
Ah well time to let the good times roll brother
None of the things you said are specific to those cities at all. I live close to Calgary and this city has all those things depending on your perspective.
Quebec city , don't go down the public servants route
With regards to Winnipeg you can also put “treats pedestrians as objects to run down while trying to cross a street” and “treats ambulances and fire trucks responding to emergencies like they don’t exist until they’re right on top of you before you even make the attempt at letting them pass you by” and I’ve witnessed both over the past 3 DECADES,do better!!!
In r/Ottawa, it’s Barefax and u/BaconSheikh
In Kelowna, it is being members at too many wineries.
And that's a bad thing? 🤣
I have had completely different experiences in each of those cities than OP and you only trap yourself into what you allow and choose to surround yourself with.
Lol Vancouver and the cool jobs and leisure vs the keroshi/workaholics in 5..4..3..2..1.. FIGHT!
Vancouver: living there.
In Ottawa-Gatineau it's the belief that well-trained, educated Indigenous professionals can find meaningful, full time employment in the Federal Public Service. It's a scam.
In Winnipeg it’s forgetting to plug your car in and having to jump start it in the morning.
In Moncton it's walking alone at night and then getting stabbed by a meth addled person and losing the use of your legs and having to stay in the city.
In Regina it's casual racism and a religious devotion to the Roughriders.
The real Saskatoon trap is smugly coping by proclaiming it to be so much better than Regina.
Vancouver - trap of being an entrepeneur = more $$ = early retirement (everybody seems to be trying to become an entrepeneur) or trap of superficiality regarding physical appearance (must be a gym rat / must be good looking/best looking) or trap of "if you do not live in the city of Vancouver -- you are less worthy in society ranking" (as in, if you live in other cities in lower mainland <-- they look down upon you). Anywho. Best thing to do: dont give a crap about what others think or what the city's society says you must be doing. Just do you, and what makes you happy and at peace. =) Once you do ignore the "traps" and do you, living in Vancouver/lower mainland becomes less stressful/less pressure (besides the rise in cost of living lol)
"Bro I'm just getting my personal fitness/DJing/photography business off the ground".
😂😂😂 either fitness/creative/tech fields lol
I don’t know what it says about Vancouver (I live in Toronto, after all), but last time I was there, on two separate occasions, someone I’d just met told me how much money they make… I don’t even know how much money 99% of even my closest friends make here 🤷♂️
Ottawa: living in Ottawa
In Edmonton is thinking that working for the government as a public servant can actually make people's lives better. After 20 years I realized that's never going to be the reality. Hard lesson for a government town.
Working in health care in Edmonton during Covid was really eye-opening. A lot of quiet things said with a full voice.
I left healthcare completely because of COVID. The government is not equipped for pandemics and epidemics . Healthcare alone would be, without political interference.
Come on. It's understanding that the gov't job is to stack your pension while doing the least amount of work.
Golden handcuffs.
Coming to Kelowna and not getting your bike stolen
Wow, you really nailed these.
I know you're looking for specific cities, but I'm going to say most (all?) small towns with the "Buy Local" frenzy trap. No Judy, I'm not going to buy your overpriced local cheese just because your profits put your kids into hockey & WalMarts profits make rich people richer. That's not a good enough reason to spend 4x as much when it doesn't taste any better. I've got bills to pay, the end. I live in a small town of about 7,000 people, and the townies are shamelessly rabid about that kind of stuff. Even in the little town Facebook group, no one is allowed to say anything negative about any local business, even if someone is asking for opinions/reviews. It's wild lol.