As a prospective PR I would like to know about Canada, how is it like, what are people like. My most immediate experience is the US but even there I live in LA where there are a lot of Latinos so it looks quite a bit like a sophisticated Latino city.

In order to appease my curiosity I have gotten hold of two books called "How to live like a Canadian" by Will Ferguson and Ian Ferguson and "Souvenir of Canada" by David Copeland. They are very good books and give a great insight of what the country is like and what are the general people like, what interests them, what do they like to eat, what is their idea of fun etc etc. The first book is hilarious and speaks of all Canadian wit and humor and how people of each province pass jokes and names on the people of the other province. The first book is a must read!!! I must say that if you ever catch hold of these books you must and try to see what makes Canadians so different even when there is a lack of a common character.

I also saw the recent movie that won an Oscar for the being Foreign Film which is called, "The Barbaric Invasions". It is a story of a (Francophile) man who is in conflict with his son and the story is set in Chicoutumi and Montreal. The man is a school professor but his son is a software engineer doing well in London and supposedly earning well enough to have a splurgable size of disposable income. This old man is dying and he has got a terrible illness which requires comprehensive medical attention. The scene opens in a hospital. They show a long corridor in the hospital which is quite dark and dingy all lined up with patients suffering and rather ill. The son is informed and comes in to discover that waiting times for a scan is 12 months. Unperturbed by this (the son is shown as having a deep insight into the workings of a medicare) the son takes his father to Burlington crossing the border into Vermont and getting the scan done. The image is shown as entering into America with beautiful lush green gardens and a friendly nurse opens the door of the van and welcomes them: "Welcome to the USA"!! And they get the scan done and head back to the dark, cloudy and gloomy Montreal. In all this, I felt, whoa, is this what Canada is like. Curious and kind of depressed I asked my relatives in Toronto and they dismissed this off as rubbish and said that what they showed in the movie was utterly wrong and misleading. Nevertheless I thought I'll put the information in this forum. So folks, if you ever get a chance, go to your nearest Blockbuster video outlet and rent the film. It is in French but has convenient English Subtitles. It is worth a watch!

Also, as a consumer in the US I have always wondered will I ever have a Wal-Mart, a Target, a Starbucks etc etc in Canada. Can someone please throw some light on how similar or different the shopping experience and variety is there in Canada compared with the US???

Let me know. I'd love to kickstart discussions on how we find Canada as a place to live apart from the general grievances we have spoken of in the past. Like how is the weather, how beautiful the place is? How are the houses like? How is it to drive? What sort of recreational activities can one enjoy? How are the public libraries, shopping malls, universities, communities, public transport, shops, etc etc. I think by now you must have understood what sort of discussion I'm trying to spark off.

Have a nice day!

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