Best invention ever for Canadian winters

This little beauty is perfect for taking advantage of the forced air furnace heating systems that most Canadian houses have.

Simply place over the vent, put your gloves, boots, whatever on the spikes and let the heating dry your gear in super quick time.

Speed limits in playground zones

Very easy to get miss these and get caught out; don't. Penalties are harsher than normal speeding fines.

Christmas in Canada

Christmas in Canada is similar to Christmas in the UK. Your first will be a tough one, what with being away from friends and family (possibly for the first time). Being away from British Christmas telly will be even tougher. Hola may or may not be of use to you. Just sayin'.

There'll be a few Canadian Christmas things that you'll experience during your new life in Canada, a few of which include:

• Bob & Doug McKenzie's 12 Days of Christmas
• Butter tarts
• The TV movie of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer from the 60s
• Watching the world junior hockey championships on boxing day

An eclectic list based wholly on my own experiences (and what came to mind while writing this entry). What is the one thing you think makes a Canadian Christmas?

Tips for Brits moving to Canada

A British friend of a friend recently asked if I had any tips for him before he started on the next chapter of his life; like me he met and fell for with a lovely Canadian lady and now he's preparing to move his life to Canada. Instead of emailing him some ideas I thought I'd start this blog so that anyone else looking for similar information could read what I have to say.
Moving to Canada, like moving to any foreign country, is a big step but the Canadians who helped me along the way are very welcoming and friendly which made the experience a very happy one for me. I moved to Calgary, Alberta so some of my experiences may be unique to that city (e.g. Stampede!) but I think most of it applies Canada-wide.
So, in no particular order, here are some of my nuggets of advice:

Things Canadians Say (and things you say but they don't)

Like the last sentence of the above paragraph, get used to Canadians starting a sentence with "so". It's a sign that they are about to embark on a lengthy story or are going to ask you to do something for them.

"So, I was walking through the forest the other day and I was attacked by a huge moose..."

"So, you know how you said you were thinking about mopping the floor?"

Tent Sale: Not a place where they sell tents. I got laughed at by my wife for that one
Shinny: A friendly, non-contact game of ice hockey.
Sidewalk:If you're like me and persist in using phrases from the old country you'll be constantly surprised at the looks you get when you come out with terms like "get stuck in" because no-one understands what you're talking about. One of the few North American words I've compromised on and started using in daily speech is "sidewalk". In Canada "pavement" means the actual tarmac that cars drive on so if you foresee yourself at some point in your life teaching your Canadian child how to cross the road then you'd better be very clear in your terminology if you're going to tell them to "stand on the pavement until it's safe to cross" :-)

Residency and Citizenship

If you like Canada a year after moving here, don't waste time; start the process of applying for permanent residency. right away. It's a lengthy process and it can take months to gather together everything you need. The CIC has a calculator that will tell you the date that you can apply for residency; I sent my application forms to arrive on that day!

If going through the application process without the help of an immigration lawyer you'll probably have some questions and will phone the CIC information line. Do not trust the first answer you get. For some reason the call centre folk at the CIC are not allowed to give any actual advice, so they can only hint at what the right answer might be. I resorted to making 3 separate phone calls to ask the same question of 3 different people and taking the average of the answers. Seriously.

If you're applying to residency and being sponsored by a spouse, consider applying through the "outside of Canada" route. Phone the CIC and ask them how it works. It's completely counter-intuitive but the government will let you  (in some circumstances) apply as if you were living outside of Canada (even, if you have a permanent address inside Canada).

 

Sliding Sports

It's not just a stereotype, a lot of Canadians really do like sports that involve someone or something sliding over something cold. Get used to calling it "hockey" ("ice hockey" makes you sound like an amateur). If you can't ice skate then learn; if you can ice skate go to some power skating lessons to teach you things like backwards crossovers. If you're going to breed some new Canadians, you don't want to be stumbling around the ice like Bambi while your offspring skates circles round you. Well, not for the first 4 or 5 years of their life anyway.

If you can find a beginner hockey course then I would also recommend you join up, although buying all the kit can be expensive. You can get stuff second hand if you know what you're looking for (get help from a Canadian!). If you get invited to a game of shinny then make sure you memorise what your hockey stick looks like; instead of the tried and trusted method of picking football teams we used in school (line all kids up against a wall, two captains alternately pick one player) the Canadians throw all their sticks in the middle and then someone randomly picks up a stick and throws it towards one goal, then picks up another stick and throws it towards the other goal, and so on until you as the token non-Canadian are left scratching your head wondering where the hell your stick is and what team you're on.

 

Finances

Are you a fine, moral upstanding citizen in the UK with an impeccable credit rating? Guess what, no financial institution in Canada cares. At least they didn't when I moved to Canada in the late noughties. I had to ask my then fiancées bank to let me have a credit card with a $1000 limit so that I could start to build up my credit rating. Even then, they would only give it to me if I put $1200 into a GIC to act as a guarantee for the loan. Get your credit card as early as possible and then after one year of good credit they will throw credit at you like it's going out of fashion.

 

Driving

As Brits we are lucky that we can simply exchange our UK driving license for a Canadian driver's licence. No need to resit any tests or anything like that. 

If you had insurance in the UK get the company to write a letter stating how long you had it for, what your claims status was, etc. as it could save you a fortune on car insurance. Insurance is also typically valid for any licensed driver who drives your car which is a very handy way of saving friends and family some money when they come to visit you in that they don't have to rent a car.

Oh yeah, learn how 4 way stops work; roundabouts are still considered in awe like some sort of mythical creature on this side of the ocean. As I've been told, don't roll through, you must come to a full and complete stop if you want to avoid being dinged by any passing police.

Accent

Never, and I mean never give up on your accent. Fight to protect it! I've seen many a Brit who's spent 10 years or more in Canada sound like some sort of lapsed Aussie. Claire Martin, I'm looking at you.

That's all I can think of for now; I'll post more tips as I think of them. If you're thinking of making this move then I wish you the very best of luck, and if you have any questions feel free to use the comments section of any post.