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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 2613017" data-attributes="member: 7883">Well, there are other cities in Canada than Toronto, as well as other excellent universities than the U of T (as we call it).  McGill has excellent medical research programs, as well as psychology.  The University of Alberta has a fantastic program if you're into paleontology.  The University of Ottawa has a very good law school, is very well funded for research, and is tied to the Ottawa Hospital-General Campus, which has one of the best funded and most successful heart research facilities in the country (and is known Internationally).  The University in Halifax has a very good marine biology program.  So, really, what university you'd want to go to depends on what you want to take.As others have stated, we're not all lumberjacks, hockey players etc.  And despite what some Americans believe, it's not snowy weather here 24-7.  A friend of mine visited Alberta in June a few years ago, and ran into a family from Texas or some other sounthern state who showed up with snowsuits and skis, expecting to ski and wondering why there was no snow.I haven't lived in the U.S. but I've visited often enough, and my brother works there every day, driving back and forth between Detroit and Windsor.  The richest in the U.S. are definitely richer than in Canada, but the poor in Canada aren't nearly as bad off.  We don't have the same issues with poverty related crime to the same degree, though they are there.  At the same time, the racial issues also aren't there to the same degree.  In some parts of the country, there are discriminatory attitudes towards natives, but that's improving.  But African-descended Canadians?  Or Asian?  For many of us, it really doesn't matter.  There are tonnes of inter-"racial" marriages and such.Generally people are pretty friendly.  I find we're not as "in your face" about politics or religion etc.  But we get tonnes of American cultural imports, so we're probably closer culturally to Americans than any other country in the world.  But, as others have said, we also pride ourselves on our differences.  Most of us don't want to be the next state, though we do *like* the States.  But we want to be neighbours...we don't want to move into your house.I find that in recent years, there's a far greater separation between the church and politics in Canada than there is in the U.S,, which appears to be moving in the opposite direction.  Our politics are generally left-leaning in comparison to the U.S.  Even our conservatives would be more like democrats in the U.S., from what I understand.  But there are far more than two parties....four of them have legitimate power at the moment, with a few others such as the "Green" party, being on the sidelines, without official status, but showing in the elections.  Typically, Canadians seem to be less polarized about their politics in the U.S. so if you're into getting all fired up about it in discussions, you may want to tone it down a bit, as it'll just annoy others around you.Generally, we're pretty safe.  Your chances of getting shot or murdered are far less than in the U.S.  I think my city had 8 murders last year, and another year within the last 5, we had I think 4 or 5.  For a city of a million people, that's not too high.  I don't generally feel any fear about walking alone at night.....I'm honestly more afraid because there have been cougar sightings near my city than I am of another person when I'm alone.  And of course, the bears.  In certain parts of the country, again, you need to be fairly cautious when on the outskirts of the cities.  I've got friends who have friends that were killed by bears while jogging on paths outside the city, etc.  Not that they're coming into the city or anything....just the standard problem....communities move further out into the wilderness, and the chances of dangerous encounters with wildlife increase.  It's still more likely that you'd get hit by a car or something though.As to our winters, they're notorious apparently, but really not that bad.  My city (Ottawa) had a low of about -40 celcius last winter.  But the summers get hot enough.  I think we hit about 33 celcius during June and July this year.  Maybe not as high as Florida or something, but hot enough for me.  But I personally grew up in those conditions every winter, so you just get used to it and dress for the weather.  A key in any of the areas that get colder temperatures is to learn to enjoy the cold weather for what it is.  A chance to get out and enjoy the crisp outdoors without the sweat and bugs and dirt and west nile and whatnot that we have to deal with all summer.  Many of our cities in Ontario, Alberta, BC, and Quebec are close to great ski hills, biking and hiking facilities, cross country ski hills, etc.If you plan on going to Quebec, definitely start taking French courses.  Due to political issues, some people in that province can be really ignorant if you don't speak the language.  Not that they all are....but one or two bad experiences can ruin anybody's day.  At the same time, it's a fantastic culture over there.For sports, Americans hear about Canadians and hockey all the time, but matter of fact, more Canadians play soccer than hockey.  We are very proud of hockey though.Technologically speaking, we're up there with the best.  We've got the best telecommunications network in the world, a very high rate of Internet connectedness among our citizenry, a high ratio of computers per househould, strong literacy rate, advanced medical facilities (that are unfortunately under a lot of stress at the moment), and strong aerospace industries.  The Canadian economy is currently on fire, led both by the energy industry, as well as what *was* a low valued dollar assisting our exports.  That may slow down due to the increasing value of our dollar leading to increasing pricing for those exports.Overall, though there are currently several issues that Canadians are frustrated with our neighbours attitudes about (lumber tariffs, cattle, war, politics), we generally like the U.S., and are closer to them than any other country.  There likely won't be much culture shock, you'll likely be received fairly well, as we're generally a fairly quiet and even-tempered people, and in fact, there's always the chance that you may decide you don't want to go back <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Banshee</blockquote>

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