The National Post - Immigrants survive wet and wild Canadian wilderness

Parks Canada has a program that aims to teach recent immigrants the wonders of Canadian camping. Depending on which part of the country you're camping in, "wonders" can mean all sorts of things. In the case of some new campers, it meant, "I wonders when its going to stop raining!"

Read the story here

Summer doldrums

It's Summertime. Finally. And as usual for this Expatriate Mind, it means it's time for me to take a little time away from the blog and actually, well, relax. So don't despair over the lack of posts in the coming weeks.I'll be travelling on vacation and preparing for my move to Toronto too. I'll be sure and keep you up if there's something I simply can't ignore sharing, but other than that, the next couple weeks might be a little quiet.

I have an idea - why not take a little break from all this immigration stuff yourself?!

I'll be back, recharged and with the first exciting news of the landing in Toronto to share sooner than you know. 

Canadians win The Stanley Cup!

Are you a hockey fan? If you aren't and are planning to immigrate to Canada, I suggest you check the sport out. Only because it's Canada's national sport, AND simply the best sport of all.

So tonight is the last night of the 2010-2011 NHL hockey season. It's also the last season that I will enjoy in the U.S. as when the next starts up, I'll be in Canada. I've enjoyed many seasons since I fell in love almost a decade ago with my Love and she reintroduced me to the sport I had loved as a child. From that point, hockey became a family affair - my brother and I spending many nights watching games together. I'm certainly going to miss those nights (like tonight) when I am far away.

Tonight, after 80 regular season games that start in October and then a three-month playoff run beginning in April, it came down to game 7 in Vancouver, B.C. between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. And when all was said and done, a group of Canadians won the Stanley Cup - the greatest prize in sport.

But wait a minute (I hear you say) - BOSTON won the Cup! You know, Boston, MA, in the U.S.A. Well, that's right too, Boston did win the Cup. But they won it with a team where 16 of the 22 players were Canadian!

Now, I was pulling for Vancouver (being the closest Seattle has to an NHL team), but when it was clear that despite a magical year for the team, the Cup would elude them, I tried to gain some perspective. And that's when I realized that there were more Canadians playing for Boston than for Vancouver. And I realized that the best professional hockey team in the world was one that was dominated by Canadian players.

The Cup will come home to Canada - as each player gets their own day with it to do whatever they'd like. It will spend more time in Canada than anywhere else on that particular tour. That makes sense: Canadians did win the cup after all!

Toronto Life - 50 Reasons to Love Toronto Now

Great article in the online edition of Toronto Life Magazine. Please check it out and enjoy! I happen to always love Toronto, yesterday, today, NOW and tomorrow too!

A different sort of limbo

Here it is, the beginning of June. The plan as it stands is that I'll land in Toronto in the first days of August. Between now and then, despite all the little things that need to get done, I have this feeling of being in a sort of limbo. I've started looking for work in Toronto, but I really can't go too deep until after I land. On the other hand, I can't take on anything long term here in the States right now either as far as work goes. There are just some things that I wont be able to get going on until I've made the first landing. I have to admit, it's a little unsettling. I know its just a temporary feeling, however: events that have to happen in the next couple months will begin to have their own momentum and then all this will be forgotten. But just thought I'd let you know how I was feeling tonight!

The packing list - update

A few entries ago, I was writing about what I might bring to Canada when I immigrate at midsummer. I was going through my spreadsheet again, and I think I've reached a conclusion: I'm not going to take much. I think it comes down to just a couple basic categories of things that are going to make the cut: clothes, tools of my trades, and memories (photos, archives). I don't even think a lot of my Canadian library is going to make the cut. Media (CD's, DVD's)? Not sure. But I am sure that lots of household things are going on the block. It's sort of a freeing feeling. Whatever my love and I might need that we don't have and I don't bring, because let's face it, shipping is expensive - we can use the cash from the sale to purchase in Toronto. So now I have a plan - and a much shorter list.  

The National Post - Kenney outlines changes to Canada's citizenship guide

Newcomers referring to Canada’s citizenship study guide will find new changes including sections that include an emphasis on Canada’s democratic principles, recognition that gay and lesbian couples have access to marriage and that forced marriage is not tolerated in the country, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced Monday.

Read the entire article

Fraser Institute gets it wrong on the value of immigrants

Academics. Sometimes they just get it wrong. According to a recent report in the National Post, The Fraser Institute, in its just-released report on the impact of immigration in Canada, concludes that immigrants no longer represent a net economic gain to the country, and in fact, represent a cost of $25 billion per year to the Canadian economy.

But the National Post wisely points out the many flaws in the limited logic of the report's authors, as well as posing the question of how the recommendations of the authors for curing this deficit would play out if they were applied to native Canadians as well.

"What of the many people born in Canada who never pay any taxes, yet use our healthcare system? By the logic at play in the Fraser study, a stay-at home mother or elderly married woman who was born in Canada but never worked outside the home should also be regarded as a drain on our economy. In fact, if state benefits were tied to income taxes, 40% of Canadians would not receive them, because they don't pay any. Yet these Canadians generally contribute to society in other ways -by raising children, doing unpaid work inside households or as future taxpayers."

Read the article here

The National Post - Waive immigrant fees, court rules

"The Federal Court of Appeal has opened the doors to indigent immigrants by forcing the government to consider requests to waive application fees from would-be immigrants who claim they can’t afford to pay."

Read the article here

What I'll miss

This morning I got to thinking about what I'm going to miss once I immigrate to Canada in just over two months. Some of the things are going to be profound, no doubt - some, more everyday; but in thinking about them I'm realizing the scale of the adjustment I'll be making in my life.

The low-hanging fruit have to be family. I've lived near my mom and dad, brothers, sister, cousins all my life. Never more than an hour or so away. If something came up and I was needed, I could be there in a flash. That wont be the case soon. I expect to deal with a lot of feelings around not being here to help when called upon. I just wont be called upon. It's the same with friends...you just can't help but lose touch when you are 1750 miles away, and in another country.

I'm going to miss Seattle and everything familliar about it. I've lived in or near the city my entire life and I've been both a participant in and witness to its changes over the years. Now I won't be aware of these things. I'll become a time-traveler - a Rip Van Winkle. I'll awake every few months to a new city that I'll see as changing dramaticly while I'm away.

I'm going to miss America. Yes - that's right. I like this country a lot. But I am not insensitive to the fact that I will soon be what was best termed by Garrison Keillor as "illiterate in two cultures". I'll be learning Canadian culture and losing touch with American culture. While there's more and more in my mind to dislike in a country as profundly unjust as America, it is my home, and its highest ideals are some of the best that I hold.

More mundane things? Dick's Drive In...Frisco Freeze...the teryaki place down the street; the Vietnamese market; the view of the Olympic Mountains on a clear day across Puget Sound; the quiet of Pike Place Market on a weekday morning.

I am excited about the future. I love Toronto. But there's a lot I'll be missing here.