Why I Moved To Toronto After 10 Years in Montreal. Immigration Story

hi guys welcome back to our channel make that change where anna and i share everything you need to arrive excel and thrive in canada two years ago after 10 years in montreal i made a decision to move to toronto it was a decision made in just a span of three weeks and honestly i've never looked back on this channel so far we've shared some information that will help you make the decision on which city to move to in canada but we haven't dived too deep into any city in particular so we decided to change that and i decided to start with sharing my personal experience on why i chose toronto over montreal so this video is going to be for those of you who are choosing between toronto and montreal if you're thinking about moving to canada or you might be already in montreal and might be wondering whether or not toronto is the right choice for you and before we begin i'd like to say that this video is not to compare the two cities this video is to share my personal decision making on why moving to toronto seemed like a great idea at the time and if you can relate hopefully this video is going to help you make the right choice as well and as always i'd love to invite you to have a conversation on our facebook group about which city to choose to when you're moving to canada and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter where we share additional resources that support the videos that we make and without any further ado let's get started first i'd like to share a little bit of a back story to help you understand my decision making and hopefully relate to my story too i moved to montreal with my family back in 2009 we chose montreal for a number of reasons first we immigrated using the quebec seleccion program which is a provincial program it was the fastest and the easiest way to immigrate back then so naturally we had to land in quebec secondly we've done a little bit of research about the cities and we chose montreal specifically because it's considered to be the cultural capital of canada we come from st petersburg which is also considered to be the cultural capital of russia so we felt like montreal would feel a lot more like home and lastly the province of quebec was offering really nice and juicy social benefits for instance quebec is hopelessly fighting to preserve the french language and what that means is that they have programs that allow you to learn french and the government of quebec pays you to do that so naturally that sounded like a great way to start for us back in the day they were paying around 300 or 350 dollars per month per person for learning french so for a family of three that was over a thousand dollars in income and mind me this was a lot more than a struggling middle class family was able to make in russia so that sounded like a great deal for us so those three were really the main reasons why we decided to go and stay in montreal we didn't really consider other cities in canada vancouver didn't seem like a right choice for us because of the weather we did not really consider toronto because of cost of living and other cities were not really an option for us because they have a much smaller population and we did not want to risk not being able to find a job quick enough after we would have moved to canada why is that that i was looking to move to toronto after 10 years in montreal well please note that my decision making and my thinking process is deeply personal and another thing to note that that decision was made before covet happened which means before the whole remote work situation reason number one why i moved to toronto was career opportunities career is by far the number one reason why i wanted to move to toronto you might already know that i've built my career in the tech industry as a product manager and i worked in a handful of a lot of different startups and working at a startup oftentimes means chaos lots of work and a very steep learning curve so by 2019 i'd seemingly done it all i worked in big corporations small startups and unicorn ai companies and eventually i reached the top of anything that i could have ever dreamed of in my career and i became a head of product i was still very early in my career at the time so i tried to find some coaches and mentors that could help me grow into that role and feel a lot more confident and that's when i've realized how small montreal is i just couldn't find anyone who i could learn exponentially from i felt like i had hit my ceiling in terms of career growth and the network that i was able to build see the montreal tech scene is fairly small it's the same five or ten super exciting companies that you can work at and the community itself is very constrained it's the same people starting companies building companies selling companies and starting new companies all over again the startup community and the tech community in montreal is very tight and that means a lot of good things but it also means that the opportunities are limited so naturally toronto felt very appealing to me because a lot of the tech companies headquarters are located here it's also considered a financial hub with larger population you get more diverse people more experiences and a lot more opportunities to draw from toronto has no cultural limits in that sense so if you are someone who is ambitious career oriented wants to learn fast and to learn a lot and doesn't mind working a little bit more toronto might just be the right choice for you and toronto comes without any language limitations and languages is another reason why i decided to move out of montreal and before some french speakers start criticizing me i'll say right away that i've learned french in the first couple of years after i moved to canada and got paid to do that and i worked in french for the first three and a half years in canada so my french was sufficient to work and socialize and make friends and just have a fulfilling life in montreal and i personally enjoy speaking french and i just love languages in general but there is something to be said about the french versus english situation in montreal french is the only official language in quebec and while montreal is considered generally bilingual the pressure to preserve and protect french is real in my opinion the french discrimination does exist in montreal and it's sadly reinforced on the government level business laws are also more favorable for francophones so francophones are typically likely to be much more successful in montreal francophones also tend to trust francophones more and it's only natural to trust someone who speaks you the same native language as you do since it just means that you have the same cultural values what that means for career growth is that there's an exclusivity vibe among the french speaking community and one thing i've noticed among the francophone culture is a lot more office politics and conflict avoidance than some other cultures this is not a blanket statement rather my personal experience and observation don't get me wrong it's still possible to get wildly successful in montreal as an anglophone and there are some aspects of the french culture that i deeply appreciate but there's some that i don't so overall if you're an anglophone in montreal toronto and the english-speaking community might definitely feel like a breath of fresh air and talking about culture it's probably worth zooming into it a little bit more well culture will probably take an entire video to unpack so i'm gonna try and make it quick here for me there's a difference between big cities and the small cities vibe for me montreal always felt too small with a population of just under 2 million you're bound to encounter the same companies the same people the same neighborhoods and the same restaurants and cafes to go to but apart from the population it's also worth zooming into the kind of population and who the population is montreal is known as the canada student city thanks to cheap education and low cost of living quebec in general has great social benefits for families with low income and families with kids and these are the types of people that the city generally attracts folks who love to party and chill or families who want a stable work life balance less career focus and more laid back and for me it felt a little bit off i knew i had to hit the ground running because after all i came to canada to achieve succeed and build a much better life than i could have in russia so the laid-back lifestyle didn't quite suit me i did not want to slow down while i'm young and ambitious and ready to conquer the world everyone around me was either having parties or starting families while i wanted to learn more learn from the best and eventually start my own company so naturally when i moved to toronto i felt like i was finally home i was surrounded by like-minded people with a similar lifestyle and the similar goals and ambitions that doesn't prevent me from missing my friends and family in montreal and i still try to visit very often but toronto is definitely my jam so if you are too focused on building your career building network and learning a lot toronto is probably going to be very appealing to you another thing you should expect from the big city is also big money and there's a few things that were appealing to me first the incomes tax and the sales tax in ontario are lower than in quebec and at the same time the average income in toronto specifically is at least 30 percent greater than in montreal and as a young professional i wasn't just looking to optimize for my career opportunities i was also looking to optimize for my financial situation of course the cost of living in toronto freaked me out for a while after all this is the main reason that everyone in montreal yells about toronto is unreasonably expensive and rightfully so it is expensive you will pay around 60 more for rent than you would in montreal but on the flip side there's a number of things that are actually cheaper than in montreal like some groceries for instance so when i did my math i've learned that i would actually be able to save more money if i were to live in toronto than in montreal that's right i'm saving more money living in toronto than i would have in montreal i will put a very huge asterisk on that statement moving to toronto made a lot of financial sense for me because of the industry that i'm in as a product manager in the tech industry i could count on getting a really lucrative salary in toronto so if you are too in a high demand industry or work in technology overall then you might want to do your own math and see if toronto has the right financial climate for you as well talking about climate if you've seen some stereotypical pictures about canada you've probably seen pictures like this and this picture was taken in montreal so after several years living in cold ice and cold wind and high humidity you kind of want a bit of a change at some point it gets more dangerous to drive there's construction everywhere and the roads constantly get destroyed and have to be fixed every six months i was looking forward to moving somewhere with a much more mild climate and toronto had that to offer toronto is located on the shore of lake ontario and it creates a nice mild microclimate the summers are warm hot and sunny and winters are a little bit more mild with a lot less snow and ice on the roads that means that i can save some money on my car suspension and warm clothes in toronto and the beauty of lake ontario deserves a separate video so overall if you're not a fan of freezing temperatures and tons of snow toronto might be the right place for you to start and talking about starting over that's probably another very big reason for me to move to toronto the novelty of a new city was certainly appealing to me after 10 years in montreal everything felt same and kind of boring after 10 years in montreal i felt like i exhausted all my options careers jobs cafes people to meet and there's just something refreshing and exciting and having a blank canvas to start with where every new day means meeting new people discovering new cafes and getting lost in neighborhoods i've never been to you know my immigration experience was hard and challenging especially in the first three years but it's also the best thing that could have happened to me it opened up new horizons and it made me a better person so looking back at that experience i kind of wanted to experience the same thing again i really wanted that oomph of being the new kid on the block knowing that it will launch me into new and exciting experiences and opportunities and i wasn't wrong it turned out to be a great choice so if you are too have been in montreal for a while or maybe for your entire life and you're wondering what if well your thoughts are probably really valid and you might just make that step and make that change and launch yourself into something great and it might really be the next best thing you can do with your life all in all all those are my personal reasons why i decided to move to toronto after living in montreal and these reasons are deeply personal it depends on your current life situation your goals and your ambition have you moved cities before and how did that go was that the right decision in the end let me know in the comments below or maybe spark up a conversation on our facebook group and if you found this video valuable please hit the like button and subscribe to our channel this helps us immensely and motivates us to make more videos like that and that's it for today guys see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: Make That Change

Views: 19,278

Keywords: immigration canada, newcomer, canada, new to canada, first year in canada, life in canada, expat life, career growth, personal growth, русские в канаде, иммиграция в канаду, переезд в канаду, canada immigration, toronto, montreal, quebec independence, moving to canada, ontario, choose a city in canada, express entry, canada immigration 2021, study in canada, canada pr, canada visa, product manager

Id: 9R2q8itEt3E

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021