Canadians: How bad do you feel about our winters? (crime, living in)

[ColdCanadian]

Myself, I feel like a weather-victim, but that's just me.
I know some people like to say our snowy winters make up part of Canada and Canadian's identity.

I know there are a few other Canadians on City Data who hate non-summer weather,
but I was hoping to gauge the response from a broader range of Canadians.

The way it "seems" to me is that most of Toronto's population "tolerates" or "...is able to ignore..." most of winter.

If you could erase Canada's cold snowy winters from existance, would you?
Or do you actually like the variety it gives to the year, at least on days that aren't too severe?

Thanks

[Ishouldknow]

Having run car dealerships at one time in my life I REALLY learned to hate winter. Dead batteries, brushing the snow off 100 vehicles, moving them all around to plow. Gimme one month of winter two of spring, seven of summer and two of fall.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by Ishouldknow

Having run car dealerships at one time in my life I REALLY learned to hate winter. Dead batteries, brushing the snow off 100 vehicles, moving them all around to plow. Gimme one month of winter two of spring, seven of summer and two of fall.

Even through all that you'd still like to see one month of Canadian winter?

My perfect Canadian year would start in late-April and end in mid-September.

-0.5 months early-Spring
-1 month mid-Spring
-1 month late-Spring
-2 months early-Summer
-5.5 months mid-Summer
-2 months late-Summer
-Repeat

[ThroatGuzzler]

I'd like to have one month of winter... December. The rest can go back to 25 degree days with all sun.

[Ishouldknow]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Even through all that you'd still like to see one month of Canadian winter?

It would just build my anticipation!

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by Ishouldknow

It would just build my anticipation!

Spring is good enough for me to build anticipation.

I dislike a lot of our Spring weather,
but the rapidly-changing landscape is exciting,
and the unpredictability of Spring temps can be exciting too, with bursts of summer-like days.
The beauty of Spring can be worth putting up with awkward temps imho, especially on a sunny day.

If it weren't for my interest in Spring,
I would prefer to live where all-time-record lows have never dropped lower than 13 C/56 F; that's milder than Honolulu, Hawaii.

I picked 2 months of early-Summer and 2 months of late-summer
because although lows around Toronto can easily be lower than 13 C,
it allows for a period of overall warmth that is mostly sweat-free yet mostly-absent of cold.
(like early June or late-August thru Labour Day)

The 5.5 mid-summer months would be like late Jun-early Aug;
no significant cooling and sweaty days might last for an extended period of time.

[NorthStarDelight]

Although I'm not Canadian, I have a good friend that lives in Ontario and he wishes that the climate wasn't so cold in winter, and he doesn't care for snow, etc. I guess this is why so many Canadians seek to move to "tropical" Vancouver - I presume this is the reason you about have to be a millionaire to even think about living there these days...lol.

It's too bad I wasn't born Canadian, as I love the winter and snow. There can never be too much snow in my book...lol. I'd not be too content living in the "golden horseshoe" around the west end of Lake Ontario, as that's practically in a snow desert compared to other relatively nearby areas. The city of London, for instance, gets as much snow as Ottawa, which is much further north and east, due to the lake effect snow it often receives. Newfoundland strikes me as an interesting place to live in Canada, due to the deep winter snows it gets from Atlantic storms moving up the coast of North America. But alas, I'm not Canadian, and I have to make do with what's available to me here in the United States. But thank goodness we have the wonderful state of New York I can move to (and will, hopefully within a year ), which has both cold, long-lasting winters (yeah!) and lots and lots of snow (double yeah! ).

I do sometimes wish that Canada had some territory down south, like in the Caribbean someplace, so that winter-weary Canadians could move or retire to if they wished - Vancouver just wouldn't cut it for me if I wanted to live in a warm climate - what good does having 5-10C weather in winter do? That's the worst kind of weather to have, IMO, cold, wet, and rainy, nothing to do but stay cooped up inside all the time. At least with a snowy winter, you can go skiing, hikes in the snow, ice-fishing, etc, etc.

One very interesting aspect of living in Ft Lauderdale (lived there 1993-2005) was all the snowbirds from Quebec taking up residence in Hollywood for the winter months - I recall hearing that something like 700,000 (out of like 7 million) folks from that part of Canada make it down to south Florida at one point doing the winter - talk about a lot of winter-haters...LOL.

[ColdCanadian]

^^ I wouldn't call the Golden Horshoe a "snow-desert"
with about 3/4 of the winter you see something frozen on the ground.
If you had your heart set on continous winter snow cover, the GTA would be slightly-disappointing.

But it does have other drawbacks; snowmobiling is illegal on public property here,
so unless you have a LARGE yard there's almost no point in owning one.

Whereas if you lived in Guelph or Barrie there are probably plenty of places to go snowmobiling,
with smaller towns letting you drive anywhere in a snowmobile.

Probably why I've never been on a snow-mobile.

[deneb78]

Originally Posted by NorthStarDelight

Although I'm not Canadian, I have a good friend that lives in Ontario and he wishes that the climate wasn't so cold in winter, and he doesn't care for snow, etc. I guess this is why so many Canadians seek to move to "tropical" Vancouver - I presume this is the reason you about have to be a millionaire to even think about living there these days...lol.

It's too bad I wasn't born Canadian, as I love the winter and snow. There can never be too much snow in my book...lol. I'd not be too content living in the "golden horseshoe" around the west end of Lake Ontario, as that's practically in a snow desert compared to other relatively nearby areas. The city of London, for instance, gets as much snow as Ottawa, which is much further north and east, due to the lake effect snow it often receives. Newfoundland strikes me as an interesting place to live in Canada, due to the deep winter snows it gets from Atlantic storms moving up the coast of North America. But alas, I'm not Canadian, and I have to make do with what's available to me here in the United States. But thank goodness we have the wonderful state of New York I can move to (and will, hopefully within a year ), which has both cold, long-lasting winters (yeah!) and lots and lots of snow (double yeah! ).

I do sometimes wish that Canada had some territory down south, like in the Caribbean someplace, so that winter-weary Canadians could move or retire to if they wished - Vancouver just wouldn't cut it for me if I wanted to live in a warm climate - what good does having 5-10C weather in winter do? That's the worst kind of weather to have, IMO, cold, wet, and rainy, nothing to do but stay cooped up inside all the time. At least with a snowy winter, you can go skiing, hikes in the snow, ice-fishing, etc, etc.

One very interesting aspect of living in Ft Lauderdale (lived there 1993-2005) was all the snowbirds from Quebec taking up residence in Hollywood for the winter months - I recall hearing that something like 700,000 (out of like 7 million) folks from that part of Canada make it down to south Florida at one point doing the winter - talk about a lot of winter-haters...LOL.

Yeah, I live in Vancouver and this place is hyped up weather-wise a lot more than it should be. You're right, 5-10C with rain for days on end in the winter is hardly what I'd call "warm" or "tropical" but I guess it's close to as good as Canada gets. While it is quite expensive here, you don't have to be a millionaire to live here fortunately. There are other drawbacks besides the cost (and to some weather) of living here. Vancouver I also read has the highest incidence of property crime in Canada and one of the highest in North America. I personally have been broken into and had my car vandalized last year. Also, there is some gang violence a lot of organized crime. The gap between rich and poor here is probably higher than anywhere else in Canada.

Canada at one point entertained the idea of annexing the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean but that fell through. Canada did not want to be seen as a "neo-colonialist" imposing its views on other countries/territories
Too bad for us.. as I'm sure the population of those islands would probably at least triple or quadruple if they had become part of Canada.

[lucknow]

I don't mind the winter at all. It's the heat I don't like. I could never live in the south.