I have lived in both Canada and USA for some time, and Trainspotting, you are very intelligent and insightful. You are spot on when you talk about Canadians in Toronto being highly passive aggressive. I have seen it firsthand. You noticed Canadians are cold to you in that passive, subtle way. You give them warmth, and they don't return it, something a lot of Americans and some Europeans aren't used to. People say Americans and Canadians are exactly the same, but in personality they are as different as night is to day. It probably won't get any better for you. I suggest you move back to the USA or somewhere else, where you can successsfully interact with human people..
Don't listen to the media. The economy, even in the recession, is still better than most places in Canada --with the exception of Alberta. Alberta has very low taxes, and a good economy. You have a Ph D. You could easily find a job, ie an oil-rig based job, and easily make 100 grand a year and much more--but you may end up working long hours in a frozen cold environment, with cold, subtle, banal, passive, complexed Canadians. If you only want very gainful employment, and don't care about the social aspect in Canada, you should check into it.
But if you want to be surrounded by warm, like-minded people who support and nurture your ideas, as you work at a job you enjoy, Canada may not be the place for you. Your talent and creativity will be stifled, you will be endlesly frustrated in your search for identity and belonging, you will never discover your true self. Canada just has too small a population with too many closed-minded, one-dimensional people.
You should probably just hatch an escape plan from Canada. Save up, get out, and save your sanity. Canadian mentality, sadly, is oppposed to greatness. Canadians seem to hate a success story, unlike most Americans, and people from other countries. The whole population of Canada (34 million) could fit into the State of California!
If you are a non-caucasian immigrant from another country, especially an American, you will find Canadians all across Canada (most but not all) like that --subtle and highly passive-agressive unlike anything you have ever seen, anywhere else in the world. The Canadian personality can best be described as smug, complacent, passive-aggressive, subtle, hypersensitive, and risk averse to a fault. Unlike Americans and Europeans, they are colder, and much less likely to engage you directly as a human being. It takes a while to see through Canadians' facade, much longer than a two week vacation.
The American people that don't notice the anti-Americanism in Canada are most likely naive, have something to hide, looking through rose-coloured glasses, or have a Canadian spouse or bf/gf, don't want to be seen as an ungrateful immigrant and just want to fit in.
Most people from around the world don't know anything about Canada. However, if we did know enough about canada, after living there for a short while, seeing through its insidious nature from the media, politics to experiencing the negative and malevolent attributes of a large majority (not everyone but most) of its cold hearted, inhuman people, then we'd begin to see how different they actually are. Canada is actually as different from the USA as night is to day. To sum it up for now, Canada can be a true human beings worst nightmare. Someone who has got zest for life should probably avoid canada. Not to mention, they are inferiority complex ridden to the USA which swiftly extends to virtually the entire world. My good, intelligent friend actaully said that he and many other of the people he knew, found canada to have a degree of subtlety, and passive-aggressiveness that is unconscionable anywhere else in the world.
Don't listen to the media. The economy, even in the recession, is still better than most places in Canada --with the exception of Alberta. Alberta has very low taxes, and a good economy. You have a Ph D. You could easily find a job, ie an oil-rig based job, and easily make 100 grand a year and much more--but you may end up working long hours in a frozen cold environment, with cold, subtle, banal, passive, complexed Canadians. If you only want very gainful employment, and don't care about the social aspect in Canada, you should check into it.
But if you want to be surrounded by warm, like-minded people who support and nurture your ideas, as you work at a job you enjoy, Canada may not be the place for you. Your talent and creativity will be stifled, you will be endlesly frustrated in your search for identity and belonging, you will never discover your true self. Canada just has too small a population with too many closed-minded, one-dimensional people.
You should probably just hatch an escape plan from Canada. Save up, get out, and save your sanity. Canadian mentality, sadly, is oppposed to greatness. Canadians seem to hate a success story, unlike most Americans, and people from other countries. The whole population of Canada (34 million) could fit into the State of California!
If you are a non-caucasian immigrant from another country, especially an American, you will find Canadians all across Canada (most but not all) like that --subtle and highly passive-agressive unlike anything you have ever seen, anywhere else in the world. The Canadian personality can best be described as smug, complacent, passive-aggressive, subtle, hypersensitive, and risk averse to a fault. Unlike Americans and Europeans, they are colder, and much less likely to engage you directly as a human being. It takes a while to see through Canadians' facade, much longer than a two week vacation.
The American people that don't notice the anti-Americanism in Canada are most likely naive, have something to hide, looking through rose-coloured glasses, or have a Canadian spouse or bf/gf, don't want to be seen as an ungrateful immigrant and just want to fit in.
Most people from around the world don't know anything about Canada. However, if we did know enough about canada, after living there for a short while, seeing through its insidious nature from the media, politics to experiencing the negative and malevolent attributes of a large majority (not everyone but most) of its cold hearted, inhuman people, then we'd begin to see how different they actually are. Canada is actually as different from the USA as night is to day. To sum it up for now, Canada can be a true human beings worst nightmare. Someone who has got zest for life should probably avoid canada. Not to mention, they are inferiority complex ridden to the USA which swiftly extends to virtually the entire world. My good, intelligent friend actaully said that he and many other of the people he knew, found canada to have a degree of subtlety, and passive-aggressiveness that is unconscionable anywhere else in the world.