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I live in rural Nova Scotia which is mostly untouched by mass immigration. When I travel to places like Toronto on the other hand, it is a stark reality. Immigration used to be the family that moved here because the dad had a trade or profession that was in demand, thus contributing to the economy. Within a generation, they are fairly well integrated into Canadian society. With mass immigration, you create enclaves where immigrants never integrate but instead exist in parallel societies. Rather than leaving the old hatreds and feuds from the old country there, they import it here and it continues. Immigration by and large is beneficial to any nation, especially when you are the recipient of the “best and the brightest”, ie. selective immigration like we used to do. Immigrants were accepted based on a matrix of traits such as education, trade or skill etc that were needed in this country. Bringing in millions of people without doing anything to improve your transportation infrastructure, housing, social services etc is just simply irresponsible. Even if we shut the door to immigration for years until we can catch up, it still would take decades. This is unsustainable.

Essentially, they are finding ways to exploit their entry into the country, unlike my parents who had to wait patiently for years to come to Canada. I belong to an ethnic group. In the 1960s, when my parents immigrated to Canada, only a limited number of people from our ethnic group were allowed in. My parents were compelled to assimilate into Canadian culture to make friends. I had hoped to marry someone from my own ethnic group, but there were few eligible women. Therefore, both my brothers and I married Anglo-Saxon women. While I take pride in my parents' background, I do not live in a segregated community of my own kind. Instead, I reside in a mixed area and have no intention of bringing over 100,000 people from my village back home to Canada. Canada needs to restrict immigration until we get a handle on our housing and social services levels. Also, not all new immigrants should be allowed to move to Toronto or Vancouver. They should be sent to live in provinces such as Saskatchewan or Manitoba for the first 10 years. I am sure they need skilled workers. Also, would be forced to assimilate like my family did back in the 1960s because there would not be a massive enclave from their own culture in one area. Also, the reason my parents moved to Canada was their former country was Balkanized into different ethnic groups that exploded into a massive civil war. Canada might be in danger of that in the future. Certain ethnic groups don't tolerate certain policies that have happened in Canada. When they get to a large enough number all hell will break lose as they will have to culture and political power to fight back.

I have lived in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and now Alberta. Toronto was beautiful in the 60’s and 70’s then it started to change to what is now overcrowded, expensive and crime ridden. I would not choose it anymore. Winnipeg, Manitoba in the mid to late 80’s was lovely. People were polite especially in winter, when driving was challenging, friendly and it is very cultural. People would say it would be the best city in Canada if it was in the mountains. Now I live in Edmonton, Alberta a dirty city with a council that puts high priced, unaffordable recreation centres ahead of services that would benefit everyone. Now they want to increase the population to 2 million when it can’t afford to sustain the existing population of 1,568,000. The taxes this year have risen to 8.9% and house prices are expected to increase 6.5% for an average price of $458,000. I lived in Calgary, in the Fish Creek provincial park area close to the C-train and a good bus service to downtown. 45 minutes from the mountains and Kananaskis, great zoo, vibrant downtown and if it is not much more expensive than Edmonton and is ranked 7th best city to live in worldwide. To compare the 2 cities, Edmonton tries to be world-class but just doesn’t have what it takes. The people seem to have very little pride in their city, the parks are a mess of weeds which also grow wherever there is green space and they very possibly have the worst and rudest drivers in the country. Very sorry if this offends anyone.

Great video…loved it! My perspective is a bit different…I grew up in Canada, I lived 4 years in Toronto, 1.5 years in Waterloo, 14 years in Ottawa and 3.5 years in Calgary…overall, just little over 23 years in Canada. I graduated from University of Waterloo and Masters from University of Ottawa. I have a strong educational foundation from Canada, which I am very proud of. I moved to Houston, TX in 2016 and my last 8 years of living in US has nothing but AMAZING!!! While living in Canada, i was never able to save any money. In my last 8 years of working and living in US, I am 90% done paying off my mortgage on a very nice 5800sq feet house in Sugarland, TX. I owe very nice 2024 Lexus and 2023 Mercedes SUV that I can only dream of in Canada…so Canada is good in so many thing (I do have a soft corner for Canada in my heart as I grew up there) but when it comes to opportunities and life style to its full potential…USA is way ahead of the game.

Guy spits the hard truths n facts, cities around Toronto are infested and overrun by minorities lol... I was shocked to see this when i came back to Ontario after only a decade or so in Alberta, looks drastically different from when i left. Best thing to do would be to just stop immigration, but the far-left Liberal mindset has already done the damage.

I have lived in Toronto for over 20 years. I love this city, but I can no longer afford to live here even with a great job and decent salary. When I received a rent increase of 10% for my 1 bedroom apartment on January 1 followed by a 3% annual salary increase shortly after that, the writing was on the wall. That gap is never going to close and things are going downhill fast from here now that I'm at a point where rent eats up more than half of my monthly earnings. The 30% rule is and has been a joke for a very long time. On top of that being mandated back to the office and forced to take the TTC which is a non-stop gong show sealed the deal. I'm leaving. I have decided to move back to Winnipeg to be closer to family, where housing is still affordable and I'll still make a better than living wage. Never thought I would find myself returning to live there, but now I'm actually looking forward to it because the downsides I used to focus on no longer exist when the high possibility of ending up homeless is removed from the equation.

9:37 it's good to hear that you grew up in Germany. Maybe it was better before, but nowadays the DeutcheBahn is so unpredictable, with all the strikes etc. It became a meme. Previously the low cost airlines kinda was a choice, but these days the tax on flight deliberately increased by German government, and there are not much cheap flights left, better to cross the border and fly from there. Also I find it not fair to compare Germany and Canada as their areas are different. Definitely not to compare with Singapore.\nI heard that flight in Canada are very expensive, but if I would live in Vancouver I would prefer to go to Seattle over the border for a weekend rather than going to Toronto on the other side of the continent. Car option in Canada I assume is more affordable that Germany. The German gas price(for cars), or energy in general considered to be one of the most expensive in the World. Also the expenses to get a car license, people are just saying that it's easier and cheaper to fly over to USA get car driving license there and come back. In general with all the pros and cons, Canada seems better when compared to Germany, I saw several people left from Germany to Canada, and only 1 from Canada to Germany(his main reason was high property prices, and German were surprised because of such reason, the prices risen in Germany as well, except maybe for rural areas).\n\nAlso to make it fare when comparing Toronto better to compare it to Berlin, not just to any city in Germany. I think there will the same homelessness and drug issues in Berlin.

Most of what was reported here is true but the housing market and rents have skyrocketed all over the world since the Chinese government F'd everyone with Covid-19. At first there were supply chain issues with all goods so businesses said we have to increase prices. Once supply issues were back to pre-Covid-19 levels businesses did not & will not lower their prices on goods because , we as a society do not take matters into our own hands and boycott products\\company's etc. Now obviously we cannot boycott all goods & services but the majority we could and that is the only thing that would cause action among companies to lower bank fees, fast food prices, grocery prices, cell plan costs etc.\n\nWith that said, you picked two of the highest and most sought after city's in CAN to rent & or try to buy a home. Although rent & home prices have really jumped all over the world in the past 3-4 years, more affordable (still not cheap) housing, compared to Toronto, Vancouver, can be found all across CAN. My sister & brother in law found an apartment to rent in Winnipeg without any difficulty or waiting. \nThey are immigrants and entered on her student Visa & he is a computer programmer. They are not struggling to eat but they have to follow a tight budget since she cannot work but 20 hours a week as a student and they have 1 kid, a car payment,utilities, cell plan, etc. They have filed for their PR and I suspect they will be approved since his job is in demand and she will graduate from College there in 4 months or so.\n\nOne thing I noticed, when my wife & I went up to get them settled in, is that the government (national & local) taxes you all pay out of the wazzoo on everything! I think the only thing that wasn't taxed was air. ? I know most of this is due to the healthcare system, because the money has to come from somewhere. Don't misunderstand, I like the CAN healthcare system better than the US's, because the insurance companies stick it to us as well, but both have their pluses and minuses.\n\nCAN does have a much easier system for immigration. If my sister & bro in law could have come here we would have been glad for them to stay with us and help them get started but the backlog is just so long to wait (10 + years). I also LOVE CAN because you uphold your laws and DEPORT illegal immigrants instead of letting them pour into the Country, by the millions each year, and the majority eventually trickle into the population illegally, who get jobs & pay no taxes (other than sales tax) no driver's licenses or vehicle insurance and get 100% free medical and hospital care anytime while legal US citizen's pay high premiums, into social security and their income taxes each year.

Stop the foolishness. I had my phone check at Toronto Airport in 2006 when I flew in from NYC due to my response to questions from immigration officers. I was a resident of US and my friend in Canada was undocumented, so i was hesitant to provide information about my visit. I had similar thinking then yelling at the officer as a Nigerian, but after 20years in US, I understand reason for it. If your intention for coming into the country is good, you will have no issues responding to immigration questions. You are granted student visa or visitor visa but your true intention is to stay in the country. Guilty mind always fear the truth

They just happened to move to this area because of close proximity to Toronto and affordable housing at one time. In the early 80s, there was an influx of Indians that moved to a large housing apartment on Weston rd and st. Clair. As they got their feet on the ground with jobs, they moved to Brampton/Mississauga because there was a boom of new housing. It’s no different from other places in the gta like when the Europeans came, they congregate to certain towns and cities. Woodbridge with Italians, Portuguese in certain areas in Toronto, Chinatown, et cetera. And people are speaking their own languages in these cities I mentioned. This is truly about a visible minority. European immigrants in the 50s to 70s were told that there was too much immigration as well. It’s a cycle

When I was growing up in Toronto there were only 5 people of color in my school of 500.

I remember when all of Toronto was complaining about all the homeless living in the parks and that was before the refugees so what happened back then because the homeless doesn’t like the homeless shelters is because they don’t want to be told what to do and what time to come and what time to go to bedand a lot of the refugees that apply for the refugee system. Try to hurry up and get off the system and get a job and start working, but these Canadian homeless have been homeless for a long time begging for a long time.

When I visited Toronto to see a Blue Jays game we stayed for a week in downtown. It was shocking to see so many homeless people with large set ups in the open. Prices for things were crazy high. It was very sad to see

Is this Canada or the New India. I was completely shocked when I came to Toronto Canada last Nov. 2023 from United States. I did not encounter any other nationality other than Indians from Asia. Restaurant, malls, markets, hotels, even all tourist destinations etc. IRCC is not doing a good job in picking immigrants into Canada.

I spent a day in Toronto. When visited the tallest tower, I noticed that I was the only one who was not Indian.

Brampton was nice place to live back in the day. Now it is a shithole, infested with crime, violence and everything else. Toronto has been well upon its way there for more than a decade . I guess cultural enrichment and diversity struck again. \n\nThis what happens when a country no longer controls its borders and has no say as to who comes in and how many. Canadians are living those end results and consequences in real time. The thing is that too many of them voted for this and are too passive, apathetic or spineless to say or do anything. Which isn’t necessarily all that different from the rest of Western countries.\n\nPeople who don’t care about Canada, Canadian culture, values etc. Canada has just become a port of convenience, where people, like in this case from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc., land, and are more interested in “what can you give me”, “ what can you do for me”, no forethought of hey, maybe this is a two-way street where something is also expected from me to give back to the country and society that gave me an opportunity. If this is allowed to continue it will only get worse.

When I moved to Toronto 20 years ago, it was more pleasant and people in general was polie and good manners.\nFor the last 10 years and especially the last 5 years, it’s worst and worst.\nDon’t expect someone say Hi to you in your building. Exception, if you have a pet.\nNo one will look behind in case there’s someone for the door.\nEveryone stuck with his community, don’t expect to have discussions with people if you’re not form the same community .\nTake the subway, you see people put their own bag in an empty seat. \nAnd people with feet on the seat.\nIt become a very selfish city, only for me, me, me.\nI travel in differents parts of the world and, Toronto is the most unfriendly city.\nExpensive for apartment, insurance, groceries, cost of living.\nHope it will change again but I have no hope and I prefer to be away as much as I can or move away\n\n.

Listen as a minority person who is proud of my heritage but grew up here with immigrant parents who were given refuge in Canada, I can understand immigration. But...its getting out of hand, most of them are from India, most of them have homes in India and often return there for long vacations, These are not refugees or a diverse spread of peoples coming here. I am not hateful in any way but sometimes you have to tell it like it is, A lot of these people are not adapting to the culture here, why? Because most of them are grown already and are used to their own customs, with an ever increasing population now living here they don't really feel the need to learn or adapt because there are less regular Canadians. When I was in school it was already pretty multi-cultural and diverse although yes in my area there are less asians and black people, we had a lot of European(Serbian/Romanian) in particular. Now I go to the store and it's like 80% brown/Indian people lol, even my neighbors, most have moved out and more indian families are moving in. My city is expanding into like a mini Toronto when we can't even handle it, people cant even find jobs, people need all this other stuff, Its just too many all at once, crime rates have gone up over the last few years, this doesn't help anyone, immigrants either.

I remember when Canadian Indian comedian Russell Peters called Brampton his hometown Browntown, and he's right it is a brown town, as you see in this video. I remember visiting my uncle and aunt in Brampton in the 70s when I was young and it was the whitest city I have ever seen. There were no Indians or Pakistanis or Chinese or black people whatsoever living in Brampton at that time it was known as a white suburb. Compared to where I lived at the time in downtown Toronto in Regent Park, which had a very multicultural neighborhood.

I lived on the streets of Toronto for over 3 years between 1997 & 2001. I'd always been a bisexual 'loose, wild and crazy girl' as they say, and for me it was a natural progression. When I was 20 my family immigrated here from South Africa but I was way too immature so Quebec City and I didn't get along. I and a girlfriend hitchhiked out to run wild in Toronto. The fun only lasted the summer and then I spent 3 years living on the streets there. Doing 'the job' just to get by becomes a chore for sure. I spent one winter in a tent city near the lake but too many people made it a violent place. My last winter out there I spent in the Don Valley with a small group, moving our encampment every few days. I would likely have ended up dying out there but a guy I scarcely knew at the time drove all the way to T.O. and spent a week looking for me and just by luck found me when I was at my lowest and willing to go home.

Nice video. I watched it as I like to learn from other perspectives.\n\nI was born in Toronto, and I must say, this “no time for life and fun” is a new thing. This lack of access to health care is a new thing. I agree with your assessment. It now seems lonelier in Toronto. \n\nCanada used to be different because anyone with a good job could afford at least a condo, but life became unaffordable not just for immigrants, but for everyone unless you are in your 50s-60s and own a home. \n\nI have friends working double jobs supporting family back home in other countries, but for some of them the family back home sound like they are doing better than them and own a home. It’s like they are sacrificing their life to be in poverty or full of hardships and their families get to go out for dinners and drinks with friends. Not them. Not true for everyone, but for some yes and I worry about their own retirement because retirement in Canada without lots of savings means you might be homeless or forced to live with family even if it’s not your preference. \n\n without investments and savings, it will be hard to beat inflation. Getting into debt and getting bad credit can mean not getting an apartment. \n\nThe birth rate is going down because it is expensive to have kids and income isn’t enough to match with living costs. Getting help from government is really not something everyone gets access too. One person might get housing support, 10 others may get nothing. Different governments offer different things. Programs end and change often. \n\nIn Canada definitely bargain and shop around for good phone plans. one idea is to get a pay as you go until “Black Friday” then every year or two when your good offer expires there will be many others. It’s the time with the best deals saving almost half. For instance, I have 50 gigs for $25 for two years from a large provider. Telephone companies are the one place where people must bargain and even ask for better deals as a must.\n\nThe people you see living in big houses, will have kids that can’t afford the same. This is because prices keep rising. The system protects the very rich, but will also drain the middle class often within 1-2 generations. Do not link your business to your personal finance, or creditors can take your home. Some not knowing this lose everything and rich people know better. \n\nPeople live until they are very old, so inheritance is pretty much meaningless to rely on, so no matter what your parents have you must hustle in life. \n\nI do think Canada can become what we want over time. Citizens need to fight the trend of great community spaces, restaurants and bars going out of business and dumb corporations move in with bad boring restaurants. Like a McDonald’s where maybe a popular cultural hang out was. \n\nPart of the problem is a lack of mixed income housing areas, so it’s hard to stay living where you grew up. Artists and musicians help make a city great, but many cannot afford to live here.\n\nFamilies and communities staying together means more support for those with young kids and older relatives when they need help. Yet how is this possible in a city that is always pushing out lower income people when wealthier people desire the area. \n\nIn Toronto, every time you move you have to take what is available and that might mean moving an hour away from everyone you know. This weakens communities. Plus, if you live too far from your work you will have no time to socialize for most the week due to travel time. \n\nI think those who grew up in Toronto do have a certain culture of acceptance with others from many cultures, because your friends at school were from all over. But with new migrants sometimes it isn’t until the second generation that their social circles get diverse. This can be isolating and it’s even isolating as those from Toronto eventually leave dreaming of staying in one spot and not forced to move constantly when a landlord investor sells every house you move into. \n\n\nToronto really needs to protect affordability of housing for at least some housing in every section so that people can save money if they live in the city, and not have to leave their communities and be far from their friends and family. \n\notherwise eventually people get sick of the hustle and it’s too tiring to travel 1+ hrs each way to visit someone during Monday to Friday. \n\n20 years ago any professional could at least buy a condo. Not today. There is too much competition now and investors are allowed to buy up all the most affordable housing that once was a pathway to owning a home. \n\nRich policy makers got greedy and destroyed canada and hopefully diversity in leadership will help make Canada better. But they perhaps people knew to Canada can reject this lonely structure and help us rebuild Toronto into an amazing place. \n\nWe need to make sure everyone can afford housing with 30% of their income. I think that will help

I was born and raised in Ontario. Ontario should be as the least favorable province to live. Inflated home prices, lask of meaningful imployment and high numbers of car thefts. When Toronto Police tell you to l3ave your car fobs ouside your door something is drastically wrong.\nBC would be my place of choice.

I may receive a lot of criticism for my opinion, but I feel compelled to share my experience as a resident and worker in this country. I immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in 2022 and have since been living and working in Winnipeg. This country has offered me numerous opportunities, even though I do not hold high-ranking positions. My wife and I are able to save a bit of money for unforeseen expenses. Just when I started to feel settled and thought that things were going quite well, I encountered numerous videos claiming the opposite, particularly highlighting the scarcity of affordable housing. \n \nDespite the prevalence of such content, my personal experience differs. I pay $725 for housing with a salary of $2.3K, which I find to be a reasonable balance. Some might say I was fortunate, but affordable housing ranging from $800 to $1000 is readily available in Winnipeg, and this is just one city's example; there are many other cities across Canada. \nFrom my perspective, the issue of housing affordability is overstated and not solely attributable to the country's policies. Such scenarios can occur in any nation if half the population desires to reside within 4% of its land area (namely, Toronto and its vicinity), leading inevitably to soaring prices – that's simply economics. \n \nIt's not my place to dictate how Canadians should live, but it appears to me that the crux of the problem lies in the uneven distribution of the population. As the second-largest country globally, Canada can comfortably accommodate 40 million people or even significantly more. However, this necessitates a collective understanding that concentrating the population in a single city may not be the most prudent approach.

I spent a couple yrs downtown Toronto when I was in my older teen years and that was before the open drug issue and even back then it was bad u had to watch out for being robbed or r@p*d it was so bad back then I ended up going back home and choose jail over the streets. Got my shit over and done with and since then life has been good changed my life 360 and have a loving family 2 sons and now I’m up living in Algonquin (beautiful area)

This was a great video, I appreciate your complete unbiased reporting! Lived in Toronto my whole life, in my 20s and yeah, it just gets worse by the day. You should have gone to union station. When I worked in there, there was a suspicious package that evacuated half the whole station, idek how many ODs which is horrible, I couldn’t count how many I saw or how many I reported. An OD I called about, left zipped up on a stretcher, like this is only what I saw on my smoke breaks. How my store had a panic button underneath every single till, one time this guy who had been a problem was choking out a girl in the middle of the station, security on the floor above just doing jack shit to the point myself and a random stranger passing by stepped in as she was turning purple. Like, I can’t put into words how the city is deteriorating every hour…

You should have gone to the Alexandra hotel, it functions as a hotel as well as a place for cheaper living for the homeless I’ve stayed there as a guest visiting Toronto many times and have heard so many different story’s from the homeless that live there now. The park itself (Alexandra park) next to the hotel has many homeless there too. There was a time I went to stay in Toronto for the weekend and couldn’t find anywhere to stay hotels were booked up or too expensive for my budget and one of the people that were living in Alexandra park overheard me when I tried to check in and offered a tent and food it was very welcoming I stayed with them for a few hours but ended up leaving because my ex had seen my story about not having anywhere to stay for the night and busses were done for the way back to Muskoka and got to stay with her. A lot of the homeless I met at the park weren’t addicts just got dealt a bad hand and had nowhere else to go, this was back in 2020. I’ve recently stayed at the Alexandra hotel this past summer for the exhibition and smashing pumpkins concert and it’s just the same as before. Heartbreaking the stories you hear but a very welcoming hotel and great what they do for the less fortunate.

Getting ill causing a month long stay in the ICU left me homeless as living paycheck to paycheck causes once the cheques stop , I was placed in a Toronto homeless shelter 3 years ago and I can tell you that African refugees enter a shelter and no more than 3 weeks later are housed usually 5 at a time all Getting a fully paid market value 1 bedroom apartment average price $2,600 monthly that with a monthly welfare cheque and free food dental medical prescriptions clothing WIN WIN WIN the Canadian born homeless shelter residents get put on a 38,000 name waiting list for Ontario's drug infested housing ghettos the Africans are being housed under a kept secret program called COHB secret from us Canadian homeless that is and I've witnessed this now at 5 different shelters I've been in, having befriended one of the African migrants who is a little unstable drinking alcohol and smoking pot so he hasn't been housed but he has shown me the paper work that has been housing his fellow illegal immigrants and I say illegal because they all came as visitors only to claim asylum as soon as they land he also told me they all borrow the money for their plane tickets from a gang who once they land and start instantly getting welfare have to send half the proceeds back to this gang in Africa for the next two years , in this shelter donated clothing comes in everyday and two African shelter residents fold and sort the clothing taking all the name brand clothes what they didn't hand out to the other Africans they walk to the post office and ship it back to Africa I'm not making this shit up after we complained to staff which also happen to be made up from the Africans themselves yes they've hired wolves to watch over the other wolves so they now aren't walking out the front door everyday with garbage bags full of clothes at least not in front of our eyes DON'T CALL ME RACIST I know that's the go to word when this insanity is made public , what do you think is the first thing these Africans do when they walk into their free apartment? Make phone calls back to the friends they left in Africa saying Get on the next plane to Canada free apartment free food free clothing free medication free dental and free money every month Canadians need not apply

My parents threw me out when i was 15 so in 1998 and i was living in bus shelters in Toronto and under tarps and i was the only person doing it then lol, i remember seeing drug addicts talking to themselves or trying to stab me lol but it was rare like 1 here or there. Anyway i have kids now, am 40, and living a great life, i wish everyone all the best, you can do it! Things will get better even if you can't see how right now ❤

I’m a Canadian who lived in Toronto during and after the pandemic (and now moved abroad). The city is not what it was when I was a kid. Completely run down, escalated crimes, homelessness outside my apartment building. Also many immigrants are given more opportunities to fill company’s quota of diversity. Good journalism on this video, thank you for showing the real Toronto. Many foreigners think Canada is a dream country and it’s simply not. Canadians are struggling in our own country, it’s just sad.

Born here and sadly spent a few years homeless in Toronto after both of my parents died (orphaned) when I was younger. I remember being told I had to be at least 25 years old to get help from Streets to Homes in Toronto and was homeless at 17 with no living parents (orphaned). It wasn't until the beginning of Covid that I moved away and another city helped me get off the street in 4 months. Have my own wonderful place for the past 3 1/2 years.\n\nSo glad I never gave up, and so glad I never started drugs.

As a university student who visits Toronto often, it’s sad to see such a beautiful city in this state. It wasn’t this bad when I was a kid. I’m shocked to see a veteran is homeless

It's so bad Toronto has always been like this when I was 7 I rember being scared of the homeless in the subways but it's gotten so bad than they allowed immigrants now rent is over 1000 for a room. People have started to cry at my job begging for work it's insane.

Lived and worked in Canada from 2002-2007, in Toronto from 2004-2007 as an immigrant. I have Canadian citizenship, passport... Returned from Canada to my country of birth in late 2007. Those 5 years in Canada were the worst 5 years of my life, even then, when I was there in Canada - it wasn't as bad as today - today it is much worse (there is now a homeless camp five hundred meters from the block where I lived, it wasn't there then). Here, where I am now, I do not have a permanent job and a stable income, however, I live much better, much easier, with less effort, and most importantly, much healthier and peacefully than in Canada. I never even thought about going back there. Despite the false propaganda (because the Canadian state makes a lot of money from immigration - in order to legally immigrate to Canada, I had to spend 2000-3000 for administrative costs and show $10,000 in cash when entering Canada, plus a $1200 plane ticket) that Canada is one of the best places to live, my experience is that it is one of the worst places to live (and I have lived in both Germany and Cyprus and in my native country which has been devastated by Western sanctions and NATO bombing. Never in the 16 years since I left Canada have I thinking of going back there. I'm sorry, my experience was extremely negative.

Lived and worked in Canada from 2002-2007, in Toronto from 2004-2007 as an immigrant. I have Canadian citizenship, passport... Returned from Canada to my country of birth in late 2007. Those 5 years in Canada were the worst 5 years of my life, even then, when I was there in Canada - it wasn't as bad as today - today it is much worse (there is now a homeless camp five hundred meters from the block where I lived, it wasn't there then). Here, where I am now, I do not have a permanent job and a stable income, however, I live much better, much easier, with less effort, and most importantly, much healthier and peacefully than in Canada. I never even thought about going back there. Despite the false propaganda (because the Canadian state makes a lot of money from immigration - in order to legally immigrate to Canada, I had to spend 2000-3000 for administrative costs and show $10,000 in cash when entering Canada, plus a $1200 plane ticket) that Canada is one of the best places to live, my experience is that it is one of the worst places to live (and I have lived in both Germany and Cyprus and in my native country which has been devastated by Western sanctions and NATO bombing. Never in the 16 years since I left Canada have I thinking of going back there. I'm sorry, my experience was extremely negative.

even canadian medical system is getting worse and worse. \nwalk in clinic doctors dont wanna see patients \nI visited 3 different walk in clinics and they all said no\nWhen i visited Toronto one homeless guy tried to hit me, boyfriend and our friend. \nthe homelss guy told us to leave his park so we did and 5 mins later the same homeless guy was hitting one of the bikers in the driving lane. All the other bikers started to punching the homeless guy and started kicking him brought him to the opposite side walk and kept hitting him. seriously, canada's becoming very dangerous even in Vancouver being very much ghetto place.\n\nI think the PM should be focusing fixing Canada instead of getting more people in. When most of the middle class citizens are becoming more of a poor class. There's no balance in the country. Middle class is now poor class and I dont know what poor class is anymore. The rent is fucking crazy cant buy anything seriously organic lemon is over 5 dollars i mean i dont eat anything organic but this is crazy. especially when you try to buy something like a coffee the workers want you to pay at least 20% tip and if you dont they fucking glare at you. I really wanna leave Canada i dont wanna live here anymore. Its getting dangerous every day. More killing, theft, scams its so disgusting. 20 years ago was so nice. even though it was still expensive at least everyone wasnt mad at each other.\n\nYou should do Vancouver theres so much tents in the parks police officers dont do anything. Those people who needs to stay in the mental hospital doesnt get those help they're out in the streets.

Really BBC? I didn’t expect such a bias and poorly reported piece from you guys. What editor for the reputable BBC would even sign off on such a direction? \n\nYES it’s normal to see a drop in citizen application when the government made it much more difficult for permanent residents to do so. There was an intent there to naturally filter out what had become a burden on government funds and resources. I’m sorry but if you are living in Canada’s largest city [Toronto], don’t be shocked that cost of living is ridiculously expensive. The same will apply to every other western nations largest city. And yes Canada’s second largest city [Montreal] is ridiculously cheap, but good luck trying to get in when you not only need the Canadian federal governments approval for citizenship but the Quebec provincial governments as well where fluency in the French language is now a requirement. \n\nAt the end of the day, your education abroad provided you with tools and resources that helped implement your vision. It allowed you recognize the changing dynamic of the global economy, the bygone era of easy opportunity and progress in the western world and the significant leaps and growth that your own “developing” nation has made, allowing you to easily break into your own market with much success than struggle surrounded by red tape, by laws, bureaucracy, expenses and competition while balancing yourself in a culture with societal norms and customs that are unfamiliar and new to you.

I'm a 1.5 gen Canadian from Toronto, immigrated here with my parents when I was 5, I'm 24 now and making over 100k annually but I cannot afford to buy a home here. Accepted a job offer in Pennsylvania because I can actually afford to buy a home there, settle down and actually have a life - goodbye Canada.

I remember when McDonalds was begging people to apply for jobs. I was a teenager in Toronto in the mid 2000's. Well done Trudud - you've made this country unrecognizable.

Never trust the average « house price » on Internet…856k in Toronto? That was a price 20 years ago. Today, this is a condominium and not a house. If you Google average house price in Montreal ut say 500k… impossible. At least not on Montreal island. You can get a 1 bedrooms condominium for that price.\n\nI grewup here in Montreal and even if our city is very multiculturalthere there is still less visible minority here: 32% compare to 57% in Toronto. Employers can be more selective. I have a immigrant name, and my husband is a native French Quebecois, we both have the same bachelor degree and I even have better grade than him, but he always get 10 times more interviews than me. People change their attitude instantly when they heard that I have the local accent. « Oh, you are from here! » If you don’t speak perfectly French and master English, you can’t find a job in a big corporation. The language is also a natural barrier that protect the local job to be exported.

Toronto resident here. I do agree with everything that Alina pointed out. Those thing exist. But the only REAL problem is the high cost of rent. It now equals and even surpasses the cost of a mortgage. If the rent problem were resolved, and they can do this by simply building more housing (which they are now starting to do - with government programs and incentives), then most of these problems Alina reported on would recede or disappear completely. \n\nAlso, the homelessness is not visually worse than anywhere else I've visited. Homeless encampments are visible in every city I've been too. However, in Toronto, a LOT of homeless people come from other parts of Canada. \n\nThe violence that Alina referred to was just a snapshot in time. She made her video around 4 months ago, and at that time there were several truly shocking incidents on the subway (which even made international news). Those incidents have not continued. The subway system, and Toronto, is still a very, very safe city. We are the third largest city in North America, after LA and NYC, and we had something like 50 homicides last year. Chicago has like 500. Just by way of example. \n\nI love Toronto, even though it is very expensive to pay rent here. But there is so much to offer that I wouldn't consider living somewhere else. Not a chance. It's great that you can live somewhere else if you work remotely, but when you're not working, what do you do?...Toronto is safe, clean (except in tourist season), with limitless opportunities for career and lifestyle. Wouldn't live anywhere else.

Grew up in Toronto in the 70s. It was lush with trees and flowers. Tons of rabbits, foxes, raccoons and squirrels roamed the streets. It was safe, quiet, clean, friendly, and when I went to uni, I lived in a 4 bedroom Georgian house I shared with 4 friends. I left in the 90s, and recently returned. Horrible! Little greenery, tons of ugly condo high rises everywhere. No one talks to anyone anymore. So sad.

I lived in Canada for over 20 long suffering cold years. My rent in 1982 in Kamloops for a large two bedroom appartment was 105 bucks a month. Then when I moved back to Toronto and got an apartment right on Young at Grosvenor our rent shot up to a tough 620 bucks a month (all utilities included) but I was making a lot of money so it seemed like the good life. I wonder how expensive that luxury high rise is today? Probably about $4500 per month would be my guess. Canadians don't like to talk of the negatives in Toronto, but I feel really sorry for some of my family still there. My mother in law broke her back. All they could do is give her pain killers for the four months before she could get penciled in for surgery. And that was before it all went to hell. It's nice to see so many shots of places that were once so much a part of my life, but in all honesty moving to the States was the best thing I ever did. It was in fact like an escape from madness. Now similar crazyness is here, even on the South East coast of the US. Time to look for another escape. Any suggestions?\nOh, and my friends cousin got murdered in the Jane and Finch area years ago. Just a guy with a gun that nobody is supposed to have - shot him in the chin.

I have been in Toronto recently for holidays and it was one of the worst places I have ever been to. The whole city is simply full of cars, it stinks everywhere, you get watched by security all the time when you go shopping (even for clothes), which, as a european, was just a major cultural shock, and once when I used the subway to go somewhere, we could not continue because someone got shot on a street so that is was blocked. The combination with a total lack of any nice place like some nice parks or something (there is the lake, but somehow they managed to literally build an airport on an island opposit of the promenade, which is simply loud and disturbing), I would liteally be depressed after a few months if I had to live there. I am not really sure why people go there despite these high rents. In my opinion, rents would need to be lower than average in such a city...

All of the GTHA has changed... I grew up in oakville / burlington, used to go into Toronto a lot, have lots of friends in mississauga, but just within the last I'd say 5 - 7 years nothing is the same as it was. The entire region gentrified or simply went through a rapid social, economic, and culture change. Oakville where I grew up has absolutely nothing similar to what it was when I was a living there, and pretty much my entire age group had to move somewhere else to afford to move on with our lives or stay stagnant and stuck in renting situations. \n\nIt's quite shocking and sad. I could go on about Hamilton too, but I hope you get the picture.

I lived in Toronto for more than a decade and def thought it was a wonderful place esp through the 2000's and early 2010's. I noticed a huge downturn around 2013-2014. It was getting harder and harder for normal folks to get by even back then, and that people were becoming very frustrated. I ended up leaving in 2017 in order to have a higher quality of life elsewhere - tbh when I left I thought I was just getting old, and I wasn't cool anymore, but I moved to a different larger city and went back to having a great time, and the folks around me were happier. I can't say I'm surprised that it's gotten worse since.

I lived in Toronto from '95-2000, 2003-2004, and finally from 2010-2019, and watching its slide has been terrible. But I'm old enough to remember what it was like in the late '70s when it was still functional and people had no yet become miserable. It's astonishing what greed and stupidity can do. Having lived in Calgary and on both coasts as well as Australia and Japan (where I'm on my second stint) I now see Canada as no longer designed as a home for citizens but rather a holding pen for the fleecing of inmates.

Everything cycles from better to worse, then from worse to better again. Remembering Toronto in the mid-80s, when I was a teenager, it feels to me as though the city was in much worse shape back then. Or maybe it just felt that way because about 50% of the downtown real-estate footprint was taken up by parking lots. Such a wasteland.

Every time I go back to Toronto, I see how dead all my old friends are inside. They should've followed my lead and gotten the fuck outta there a decade ago (when things were already pretty bad). No amount of therapy can help you if you're living in a rat cage. You want to improve your mental health? Start with a healthy environment. (I believe it was a black latino psychologist who first said that, though, which might explain why said advice is \ngenerally ignored in mainstream culture. Also, keeping people stressed and hopeless means more money in psychologists' pockets. ?)

You want to live in Toronto, the third largest city in North America on average salary? I think that’s an unrealistic expectation when you compare the rent to cities like New York and Miami. I think given its current size and growth trajectory, Toronto is still on the affordable size and it will get much more expensive in the future. I visited Toronto and the GTA area, all you can see is new construction, businesses packed with people. May be Canada bit more than it could chew and the economy has not grown since COVID making inflation pinch even more. My only problem was due to the rapid expansion, the city seemed to lack a soul which comes through organic growth. All I could see was broad highways, residential areas packed with housed and large shopping complexes.

i found toronto exciting at first ,back in early 1990s when I left the North to find mechanical work . Getting an entry level job took only 1 day. Finding a 1 bedroom apartment at $700 /mo took almost a month and that was a noisy cockroach infested highrise.\n3 different employers and skilled trades licenses later ,I was about to abandon Ontario for the oilfields in 2010 but got a job in a public utility downtown paying skilled wages , however by then , starter houses cost + 3/4 million , so I bought a reno gut out in Durham region and commute through the now horrible traffic. I'm selling high after i retire soon and taking my part pension to a lower tax jurisdiction not populated by Leftwing lunatic voters.