₦airaland Forum

Please, can anyone help with this?

Savvypho:
Please, I need some help/advise. I am currently in Canada on a visitors visa but in the process of applying for a study permit. I intend to apply for my husband and son to come with me to Canada. Here's the issue. On the new portal, while trying to fill out my son's application, the system is requesting for "inviter's" information. Do I enter my info since I am the principal applicant or does it have to be someone else who is residing in Canada? Please help.

Bro, he knows f*ck all about Canada.

Sweetvie:
How many cities have you visited in Canada to come to that conclusion? If you have so much to say about Canada, I can't imagine how much you'd have to say about the USA

Are these your opinion of Toronto or Canada? If Canada, I'm sorry to say, many of your assertions here are totally wrong. You can't visit a tiny fraction of such a diverse country and make such generalized conclusion.

For one, Canada is big, quite right but public transit can get you to malls in so many cities in Canada. Take West Edmonton Mall for example, it is the 2nd largest shopping mall in North America. The mall opened in 1981 and has had its transit centre (like a bus stop for multiple routes), operating since 1984. The transit centre was recently moved to accommodate construction of the new valley line project; that's a new light rail route that will also cover the area. See - https://www.edmonton.ca/ets/west-edmonton-mall-transit-centre. There are malls literally in any city downtown and public transit is usually easiest in downtown areas anywhere in the entire downtown; this doesn't insinuate that only downtown malls are accessible by public transit.

Also, you said cities are built for cars and not for pedestrians. Hahaha. Again, do not make an assertion when you only saw a tiny fraction of Canada. Bike lanes, walk way (side walks), pedestrian traffic lights and signs can be found everywhere in this country except for rural areas. A country where pedestrians have the right of way on most motor ways isn't built for pedestrians? Do you know the millions of dollars most municipalities spend to promote apathy towards automobiles? Please see links for bike lane maps of different cities.
Edmonton - https://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/cycling_walking/bike-maps-and-routes
Calgary - https://maps.calgary.ca/PathwaysandBikeways/
Regina - https://www.regina.ca/transportation-roads-parking/walking-cycling/

Let's stop there for bike lanes.

For parking bans, there are areas across cities in Canada where you are not allowed to park. That is done to deter motorist from driving to such places. Some other places may allow parking but with pricey fees. Most people would generally not want to drive to such places. - They take public transit instead. Sh*t, you have people in this country who have cars but will drive to a transit centre, park and ride the bus/train to and from work.

About being segregated, I would say people like to stick to their kind but they do in fact mix. Cold? Hell yeah. Not everywhere though. No such thing as organic Canadian culture? Wow. Please, do your research on that please. No disrespect but I think that was a very ignorant take. The indigenous people of Canada are of different tribes with many different languages. That was way before the European settlers arrived; adding more cultural mix. Bros/sis, CANADA HAS ITS ORGANIC CULTURE - EVEN BEFORE EUROPE TOUCHED THE LAND.

About being expensive to live in, I agree with you. I was astonished to see they have 10pounds phone plans with unlimited internet when I visited England. Canada has some of the most expensive phone/home internet plans in the world. I guess that's the price to pay when you have to build more infrastructure to cover the massive landmass. Groceries too are more expensive compared to Europe. More grounds to cover when making those deliveries as well.

Flights inside of Canada are very expensive like you said. Its even cheaper to fly to the US, Mexico or the Carribean than to fly some distances within Canada. Again, the land big so its expected. Europe is kinda too small to be making these comparisons. Its like trying to organize your living room compared to organizing a packed stadium. Different ball game. We actually do have a train that cuts from East to West of the country though. You can travel by train from say Vancouver to Toronto with VIA Rail Canada. Cons: It is not electric supersonic trains. I think the trip takes some 2/3 days. They make several stops for extended periods I think.

As for old mega structures, a simple google search will pull up some historic building/structures for all to see. Some might not be as old as you want or as some European structures. I am not a movie fan but It might also interest you that Canada is like Asaba to Hollywood. They do in fact shoot many of their movies here.

As for weather, not disputing the diversity of European weather, you cited, but you can go from snowstorm, to hailstorm, to heat waves and wildfires in one locality in matter of days here. Canadian weather if put on a diversity scale will be on F, very far from E.

In terms of population to sell stuff to. Any good product or service especially in today's world can not be localized except you want it to be. If Blackberry can originate from a nation of say 30M persons (at the time) and make sales worldwide, you can do it too. There are businesses failing everyday in Europe even with the population there.

Everything you mentioned about family, Canada offer those; free education, free health care, child care benefits, dental benefits was just introduced and so much more. You can get maternity for 1year. My sister in England told me she's only allowed 6 months. Study loans to me are a good thing but if one isn't financially prudent, they get sucked in. I've seen people take student loans and live off the loans the entire duration of their studies without working. Canada is not to blame for that.

I don't know about people being fatter here but again "walking and biking infrastructure is not just a thing" is a big FAT lie. I saw cars parking halfway on side walks in the UK, I thought they were supposed to be for walking?! That do not happen here. There are walk ways and bike lanes everywhere. Makes me wonder if you just sat home through your stay. Like how can you miss that?

Anyway, like you said, those were just your opinion, I respect them but most of them were wrong.

pansophist:
Too big that everything is so far (only the province of Ontario is bigger than Nigeria but has less population than Lagos). None-existent bike paths/culture and cities are built for cars and not for pedestrians.

Huge shopping malls everywhere, that one can only visit by car. Shopping was more of a chore you planned due to lack of small family owned supermarkets and shops inside your streets. Anyone that have been to Brussels, London or Amsterdam will understand this. There are streets that cars are banned so people/cyclist can thrive.

Too segregated, and people hardly mix, too cold. Culture too americanized (no such thing as an organic Canadian culture), is too far from Africa and Europe, and too expensive to live in, to list a few.

I am not an economic immigrant, I just wanted a change in environment and was exploring Canada by visiting it, but when I was there, it was like bleh, I can't live here. Even Vancouver that is considered the warmest rains a lot. Made me appreciate Europe even better.

For example, I can be in any corner of the over 40 European countries via flight, which is really cheap. But it's not the same in North America. Europe is well built and connected, and trains leaves to other European capitals from your city.

In Europe, it's common for people to live in Belgium and work in Netherlands, or live in Finland and work in Sweden. You won't even notice that you've crossed into another country except that your phone starts sending message that you're roaming and perhaps, different language in road signs.

Also European weather is diversed. If you like winter, Scandinavia is there, or hot weather, then Portugal/Cyprus/malta/Italy/Spain are there. If you like wind and rain, Ireland and Netherlands will give you that. There is something for you.

In Europe, cultures are organic. if you drive just two hours from Poznan (Poland) to Berlin (Germany), the language, currency, culture, architecture, and everything look different. True diversity is organic, rich, and distinct.

Canada is too soulless, artificial, and the centuries old mega structures are nonexistent. Why do you think American filmmakers go to Europe to shoot movies that requires old European architecture? Canada is a newly built country.

And also, as a business person, population density is really important to me. Canada is bigger than the whole 27 EU countries twice, but the EU has about 460 Million people, compare with Canada which is about 35 million.

So if you need a huge population base to sell stuff to, Europe is better, and I am not even adding the population of Ad-hoc European countries that surrounds the EU (e.g Turkey, Serbia, Russia, etc).

And for families, the EU is better. Free education, free healthcare, generous social services, and long maternity/paternity leave. The student debt common in North America is not a thing in Europe. I once had an American classmate that owes 70k USD in student loans, and I felt sorry for her. A young adult starting life as a debtor is such a shame.

And oh, people are fatter there. It's because the food laws are not as strong as in Europe, and the walking and biking infrastructure is just not a thing. As a tourist, I felt immobilized that I can't just use public transport, unless I have a car, or use uber. So people do not walk/bike a lot, which is exercise.

And especially Canada is a hotbed for wokism, its like all the homos, radical feminists, masculine women, and feminine men moved there lol, as in, I just feel like punching people for no reason lol, just kidding

So there you go, that's my assessment of Canada when I was there. But hey, it's my opinion, and should not be taken as gospel. What is good for Ada might be bad for Adamu, so be guided.

Arizona042:
It’s because they a newly built countries. North America was not existing 300 years ago but Europe and Asia had their civilizations dated thousands of years.
Secondly, they are immigrants countries and their huge size too. Texas is like 3 times the size of UK.
But for money making, America trumps them all. People are making up to $500k/year here and they are not even the highest.

As for Canada, it’s an overhyped country. It’s economy is not up to that of Texas, let alone California. I see it as the unofficial America’s 51st State. Na America dey give them life as most of their biggest cities are located close to the US border

North America existed 300years ago. Does the history of a place start only when European settlers arrive?

And no, America doesn't give Canada life. Canadians settle to the south cos it's warmer compared to up north.