More Canadian Cousins

Steve and Cherie at our apartment.

Dawna and Bev.

They are first cousins, the same generation, with 30 years difference in their ages.

Recently we had our first out of town visitors. My second cousin, Steve Cullen, contacted me to let me know that he, his wife Cherie, and his mother Bev, were passing through Toronto on their way back home to Ottawa. Bev is my Mom’s first cousin and they were also neighbors as children in Montreal in the 1940s. Toni and I got to meet Steve and Cherie a few years ago when we were all in Montreal. Steve shares my interest in genealogy and it was through that common hobby that we originally connected a few years back. Steve has managed to track down some lines that I had given up on and considered dead ends.


They arrived at our apartment for the first part of our reunion. We gave them a quick tour while talking a mile a minute. From here we all squeezed into Steve’s car for a quick ride to Cousin Dawna’s house in the Beaches neighborhood.

Dawna put together a last minute cookout for us. Her husband recently refurbished their deck and they were happy to try out their brand new barbeque. She has a wonderful ability to throw something like this together but make it come out like she had planned it out for weeks. Their house is situated on the side of a large ravine and the lot is heavily wooded. We had perfect weather and the dense shade of their back 'yard' made it even more pleasant.

We are enjoying getting to know all these long lost family members. I know there are many more to come.

I don't think that I have mentioned this before, Cousin Dawna is an actress and most of her recent work has been commercials. We see her on TV from time to time and it is always a treat. Here is a short clip sampling some of her work. My favourite is the museum tour on vacation bit.

Health Care Part One

I really had no intention of writing about the health care system in Canada but I have received many requests to do so. Much of this is the result of a little article that was written about me and appeared in the Kansas City Star a week ago. So here goes. I don’t know if I will be dispelling or confirming the stories that get passed around America.

Here are some statistics comparing Canada and the US.

Canada/United States.
Longevity, 81.3/78.1.
Infant mortality per 1000 births, 4.5/6.9.
Nurses per 1000 people, 9.0/10.6.
Physicians per 1000 people, 2.2/2.4.
Per cent of gross domestic product spent on health care, 10.1%/16.0%.
This last category is important in that the US spends 16% of GDP without covering the entire population. Okay, that is out of the way. I will try to avoid dishing out numbers going forward.

I will start off telling you that this is simply our experience and I will not sugar coat anything. What I write here will include just the facts, positive, negative, or neutral.

We are in Ontario and fall under their provincial health care. I mention that because there are many variables from province to province and I will only be reporting on the one system. For example, other provinces cover optical and dental expenses that aren’t covered on Ontario.

We knew that we would not be covered until after we lived here for ninety days so we purchased interim coverage from Blue Cross. It has a high deductible but it only cost $500 for the full three months, but they had no concerns regarding pre-existing conditions. Obviously this is only for emergencies and for everyday medical expenses it would come out of pocket.

Shortly after arriving in Toronto Toni went to a nearby general practitioner who was taking new patients. Her sister had helped us find this doctor. This is one aspect that is different. You are free to go to any GP you prefer however they have caps on the number of patients they will accept and the majority of them are at their limit. I don’t know if the caps are government imposed or self imposed. If you don’t have a GP you can alternatively go to a walk in clinic and basically get your needs met. They also have lists of doctors who are accepting new patients and will help you connect with a practice. So, it sounds like a hurdle at first but it is easily overcome. The GPs are there. You just may have to go through an extra step to get one. There was some expense here as we are not yet covered. Toni paid $250 for the visit and consultation and prescription renewal. At the pharmacy she paid $12 total out of pocket for a drug that previously cost $10 for the copay in the States with her company provided insurance. This drug would have cost $35 in the US without insurance.

The next step was to get our Health Cards underway. I went to the local office for Health Canada. I showed them two pieces of identification, my lease to prove residency, and a one page form. They took my photograph and told me to expect my card in the mail the end of July, ninety days from the date of my lease. I was in and out of there in 15 or 20 minutes. Toni went in the next day and reported the same story.

Then last week Toni had something come up and opted for the walk in clinic. Here is her report that she posted on her Facebook status:

Been having a minor medical issue so thought I better get fixed: 9:30 am went to walk in clinic (no appointments), 9:40 saw Dr., 10:10 completed lab test, 10:30 filled Rx, 10:45 home. Total cost with Rx: $100, after Aug. 1 when I have provincial coverage, total cost: Free, except for $20 Rx that is not covered.

That is all there is to report for now.

Shopping

Eaton Centre

Toni takes the wheel today:

I never thought I would be writing about shopping. Plunking myself down in a different country for the long haul has put me in a perpetual hunter-gathering mode. Not only are we figuring out where to purchase food, household items and clothing, but we had to select services and providers for: banking, currency trading, cross-border accounting, cross-border legal services, medical services, and supplemental health insurance.

Groceries: I am obsessed with buying the highest quality for the least amount of money, something I honed in NYC. For most items, Grocery Gateway is the way to go…this is my online service with a good website and fast and reliable delivery. Price and quality are great and makes it worth paying the $12 delivery charge. This will be invaluable when the Canadian winter sets in. Within the overwhelming St. Lawrence Market I have found my favourite individual vendors for fresh baked bread, fresh baked desserts, raw nuts in bulk, imported cheeses, and blueberries. It’s worth a street car ride to shop for spices and health foods in The Kensington Market neighbourhood. For prepared, frozen foods like cooked, deveined shrimp the M&M Meat Market at just a block away is great. Between M&M and the St. Lawrence Market is the Metro grocery store which is a super market and is open 24 hours. The Metro is nice to know as a back up just in case Grocery Gateway is out of stock on something. I created an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of where to get what and when, like I said, I’m obsessed.

Alcohol: The local LCBO store for wine and spirits; Beer…the beer store. Yes, beer is sold in a separate store. To explain this there will be a future blog post.

House: I love Costco.ca, but if I want to see something in person or need smaller things Canadian Tire is the place. It’s kind of like Target. The Bay is the equivalent of Macy’s and we got the bedding and towels there.

Clothes: Eaton Centre has all the familiar “Mall” stores and is connected with a skywalk to The Bay. Both have their lower levels connected to The P.A.T.H. and the subway system. Like Grocery Gateway, underground shopping and transportation will be essential to survive the Canadian winter.

Cross Border: Expertise is necessary so that we know what country to pay taxes to, and to confirm the validity of our wills. Luckily my second cousin is a cross-border accountant whose office is 2 blocks away from our apartment. He recommended a currency trader in his building who we now use when we have to turn USD into CAD to pay rent, the telephone bill, stamps, and cash. For everything else we are using our American credit card which converts our CAD purchases to USD plus gives us cash rewards further saving money. Until USD and CAD are at par or if USD becomes stronger than CAD we won’t convert much of our funds into CAD. Working directly with a trader cuts the conversion fee by a third compared to letting the bank the trade, a lesson learned the hard way.

Health: Although our health insurance will be through the Ontario government starting August 1st, we still had to find a family doctor (general practitioner) and a dentist. My sister helped us find those close to our house. Government insurance does not cover prescriptions, dental, vision, and ambulance services so currently we are researching and getting quotes or if it is even worthwhile to get that coverage. We may just pay those out of pocket. Bill will post more on this later.

Finding the merchants, remembering where they are and what they have, and trusting so many new companies with private information has been a daunting learning experience stretching my flexibility to the max. I’m happy we have found what we needed so fast, but to say the least my brain and body are a little worn out. The subtle culture and business differences (more about that in future blog posts) can be both interesting and draining. Bill has had to remind me on more than one occasion it could have been a lot harder if English was not the primary language and our apartment was not almost fully furnished. I’m looking forward to having a little more routine and relaxation with shopping going forward now that the foundation work is almost over.

The Neighbourhood: Part One

We are located in a neighborhood known as Old Town. This is a ten block area so named because it is the site of the original town of York that was established in the 18th century. There are no remnants from that era but there are lots of 19th century buildings in the area. Some of them are factories and warehouses that have converted to lofts and other uses. Directly across from us to the north is Central Fire Hall built in 1886. This was the original location of Toronto’s Second City troupe where Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, John Candy, and Mike Myers all started their pre-Saturday Night Live careers. Second City was in this building from the early 1970s until 1997. The western boundary of Old Town is Church Street so named for the three 19th century churches located within blocks of each other on this street. We enjoy seeing the steeples of all three from our windows. Most of the buildings here are two and three storeys. There are a handful of apartment buildings that are like ours at twelve or fourteen storeys and the Holiday Inn Express next door to us but those are the few exceptions sprinkled throughout Old Town.

The Old Fire Hall and Second City

The neighbourhood immediately to our south is called St. Lawrence named for the St. Lawrence Market which dominates the area. This building is a huge two storey indoor market with dozens of permanent vendors. This is open five days a week year ‘round. There is a second building that houses a Saturday only farmer’s market with regional produce in all but the winter months. The vendors spill out into the sidewalks on nice days and buskers are sprinkled throughout both buildings. Another interesting thing about this area is that it was all originally below water level and it was infilled to create more industrial area at the lakeshore.

Interior of the St. Lawrence Market



The oldest Flatiron Building in North America

St. James Park straddles the two neighbourhoods. This is a medium size park that was formerly the cemetery attached to the St. James Cathedral. The park is criss-crossed by sidewalks with areas of lawn and flower gardens between and centered around a nice fountain. This area also attracts buskers and practicing musicians who we can often hear from our windows.

St. James Park in full bloom

A couple of blocks to our west is the Financial District, the most densely built up area of Toronto, location of the tallest skyscrapers here and all the bank’s national headquarters. This is also the location of the lower end of the north and south subway lines. Having these elements and all the related support services within walking distance has already proven invaluable a half dozen times in our few short weeks here.

Our Old Town neighbourhood reminds me of a college town with all the older buildings mixed in with newer ones, the small shops, the church bells chiming every fifteen minutes, and the old park. It is really odd to see this butted right up to some of the largest buildings in North America. We have the best of both worlds it seems.

St. James Cathedral

Well, How Did I Get Here?

So, how is it that I am Canadian? I guess it goes back to the early 1750s. There was an intense mass migration to Nova Scotia organized and funded by the British, although the immigrants were all German, Swiss, and French. They arrived on a dozen ships between 1749 and 1752. I had ancestors on nearly half of the ships. They eventually settled in an area south of Halifax on the South Shore. My grandfather was a sixth generation descendant of this group and he was the first generation born outside of Nova Scotia.


The Gale as it comes into Halifax harbour. Four of my ancestors were on board this ship.

Then jump ahead to 1948 when my grandfather moved his family from Montreal to Kansas City. They came through Detroit by train on 18 Oct, 1948. My mom was only ten years old and her brother Donald was seven. Grandpa had been working at a steel foundry for the Canadian National Railroad manufacturing wheels for trains. He had put in for a transfer to their American counterpart Griffin Wheel in Kansas City, Kansas to escape the brutal winters of Montreal. They eventually settled in a house near the intersection of Mission Road and County Line Road directly behind an old lumber yard and the present day location of the Fairway North Shopping Center, about a half block from where Capers Corner was later located, and also near the former County Fair Supermarket building. All of those would come into play in my life many years later.

When I was born I was a legal citizen of both Canada and America. The only thing that had to be done was to register my birth with Canada before my sixth birthday. Of course no one knew about this and that anniversary came and went without any special notice. Some ten years or so later the Canadian Parliament responded to complaints about the short deadline for registering and enacted a bill extending the deadline age requirement to fill out the paperwork to twenty-eight years old. Once again none of us knew of this and again it came and went unheeded.

It wasn’t until I was in my fifties that I started thinking of my citizenship and really considering living here for a while. Toni and I had spent a few weeks working remotely in Europe and this appealed to us much more than visiting as tourists. We wanted to experience living in different places on a long term basis. Canada seemed like a logical place to test this out. When I started looking into this in earnest I found out that the windows for getting registered had closed. However, someone at the Canadian Consulate mentioned off hand that there was a bill before Parliament to repatriate people in my situation and to keep an eye out for the results. I did just that and about six months later the bill did pass and was put into effect a year after that. The bill reinstated my citizenship and even made it retroactive to birth. I still had to fill out tons of forms and provide original documents to prove my lineage. It took yet another nine months for me to get my citizenship card. You can’t imagine what it felt like to get that in the mail one day.

So I was Canadian and then I wasn’t, then I was and was not again, and now finally I am Canadian for good and always have been. I need to mention that I do not feel 50/50 Canadian and American. Rather I am 100% Canadian and at the same time 100% American. There is no political component to my desire move to Canada. There are a hundred other reasons for moving here but the primary one is the same as for moving to New York before. That is to live in places that have good enough public transportation so that we don’t need to own cars.

Last night we had dinner and drinks at an Irish pub in our neighbourhood. We saw that next week they will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of operation. I was thinking that was quite a long time. Then I got to thinking about it and realized that when I first came to Canada and Toronto on our one and only family vacation in 1963 the pub had only been in business for two years.

Stand Up And Be Counted

May 2nd was the date for a national election in Canada. I was told that I would be able to register to vote on the spot at the poll. All that was required was a photo ID and proof of residency such as a utility bill or a lease, something with my address. As it happened my lease just went into effect the day before. That Monday I went over to the polling place for my riding (district) and sure enough they signed me right up. Well, there was just a moment of discussion while the official looked over my lease. I placed my paper ballot in the cardboard box and I was back home within fifteen minutes.









When I got there Toni had our first batch of mail in hand. There was a lot of junk mail but there was also a census form in the pile. Canada conducts a head count every five years, on years ending with 1 and 6. What are the odds that within just a couple of days of living in a new country that these two national events would coincide? That is instant immersion.

If you think about it, the election and the census are both forms of a national snapshot. I feel very lucky to be included.

I am pretty sure I was smiling.

The Apartment

From Toronto Condo

We have now lived in the new apartment for two weeks and we have been busy tweaking it. Unlike the last time around this one is fully furnished so no trips to Ikea so far. We have only had to make a couple of trips to Canadian Tire to flesh out the dishes and other kitchen needs. We also made a run to Future Shop (Canada’s version of Best Buy) for a flat screen TV, DVD, printer and phones. Earlier this week we got the last major piece of the puzzle which was a Lazy-Boy sofa/sleeper for the solarium/guest room. Nearly everything else we need came with the place.

The unit is about 1100 square feet, almost 50% larger than the NYC apartment for about 20% less $$$. I promise there will be no more algebra or story problems after this. The fourteen storey low rise building was built in the early 1980s but our space was totally gutted and reconfigured a couple of years ago. They took out a couple of walls to create a modern open concept. The kitchen has all high end appliances and the washrooms got all new fixtures to match. The floor plan is unusual in that it is sort of shaped like a W which gives it more interest and really makes it seem even more spacious. There are windows in every room giving us great views and lots of light. We are on the twelfth floor which not only gives us a view of Lake Ontario but we are also high enough to actually see across the lake on clear days. The building is situated just outside the areas of really tall skyscrapers which is a good thing. Our views aren’t blocked by taller buildings yet we get to see them, nearly 180 degrees. The best views are from the corner solarium with floor to ceiling windows on both sides.

This has been our third apartment since we got out of the house business. We had a year in the loft in downtown Kansas City which was too big. Then the year in Midtown Manhattan where the apartment was well located but way too small. This time I really feel that we got it right. We feel like we are home in this one.