Collingwood and Blue Mountain used to be unknown little towns and then somehow, the secret got out.  The Georgian Triangle has really become the “Hamptons” of Toronto with people moving into this area on mass from “the city.”  I’ve often wondered what drives this forceful and ongoing trend.

Although I was born in Toronto and grew up in Oakville, we moved to the Georgian Triangle back in 1986 when it was still relatively unknown.  Somewhere in the years since then, we settled into the lifestyle of small-town Ontario without ever really noticing or looking back.  Along the way, we started to drive slower, got used to planning extra time for each errand to allow for the inevitable friendly chats in the grocery store or on the street, adapted to clean air and came to feel at home with Georgian Bay and Blue Mountain as neighbours.  While we were busy living, we somehow became reflections of the town we call home. 

For those who know that we cared for our elderly mothers in our home in their last years, you know we’ve also spent most the last five years being only in one of two places:  work or home.   It’s like at times we forgot there was a big world out there as our own world was very narrow and focussed.  Until now that is.

This past week, a good friend and I ventured out for a two day “girl’s week-end’ (even though it was mid week) in the BIG city of Toronto.  Yup, we’re talking concert tickets at the ACC (Il Divo or, “The El Hunkos as my friend calls them), taxi rides, dinners, drinks, a swank downtown hotel and of course, shopping!
 
While navigating through traffic along busy Dundas Street toward Jarvis, a funny thing happened.  As there were no cars behind me, I slowed down to allow a pedestrian to cross in front of us.  He was standing in the middle of the road.  Now in Collingwood, this is considered a gesture of decency on the part of a driver and, it is entirely common.  The pedestrian completes their j-walk and waves a “thanks” as everyone goes on their way.  Well in Toronto, this fellow got mad at me!  He angrily waved his arm for me to hurry up and then he just shook his head at me as though I was the sorriest country bumpkin he’d ever seen.  No sooner did that happen when a taxi cut me off and then a streetcar came barrelling toward us.  Next block?  Fire trucks and ambulances tried to get down the impossibly congested street leaving my heart breaking with worry over the poor saps who were waiting for them.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE Toronto.  Besides the obvious advantages of having great options for shopping, dining and activities, there are lots of trees, great public spaces, parks, inspiring works of public art, gentrified neighbourhoods, beautiful architecture and neighbourhoods that I imagine are much like small villages where the residents rarely need to leave.
 
But there is another side.  There is traffic, visible pollution, poverty and sadness.  It’s expensive.  It’s noisy.  I couldn’t see the stars at night.  In some areas, it felt soulless with enormous buildings built like boxes, no trees and rows of electronics shops.  But here is what I really noticed most of all:  people are insular.  The vast majority of people we passed on the street were talking on cell phones.  Drivers were aggressive and appeared angry.  With the exception of one unforgettable waitress (I still say she was drunk) and one incredible clothing store employee, the service we encountered was impersonal, rushed and uncaring.  What I noticed is that people no longer appear to SEE.  They don’t look up.  They don’t look around.  They don’t look at others when they speak.  Eyes on the road, eyes on the phone, eyes on the pavement.

So, now I think I get it.  The urban refugees fleeing to Collingwood want to SEE again.  They want to connect to something.  Maybe they want to drive slower, maybe they want to be a little nicer. Perhaps they want someone to talk to them.  Chat for awhile.  Connect. Breathe.
 
Tell me, am I right?  Even close?

Here is another guest post in our continuing Your Stories series where clients share their reasons for choosing South Georgian Bay as their new home.  Today, Peter Dillman from Saskatoon shares his family’s story.

When Krista finished graduate school ten years ago, we moved from Waterloo to Saskatoon with our dog, a few boxes and $300 to our name.  Our criterion for picking the city we moved to were; somewhere we had never been before, and the soonest possible starting date for a job for Krista, (see previous reference to bank account)

Ten years later, we are moving back to Ontario with two children, two dogs, a cat, a houseful of furniture, a bit more than $300 (but not much more) and more stringent criterion as to our destination.

After much searching, both of the map and our souls, we settled upon Collingwood.
We were looking for; a place closer to family, but not too close (300 kms as opposed to 3000 kms), good work for both of us, close to water and amazing geography, and most importantly a family oriented place to raise our kids.  (Not to mention access to snowboarding every day of the winter!)

Saskatoon has been good to us, (who ever would have thought that our little house on the prairie would bankroll our move east).  We loved exploring the west.  We are sad to leave our awesome community of friends, but the pull of family is just getting too strong to resist.  We are very excited about our future in Collingwood.

Try as we might to live our lives in a deliberate and well thought out manner, we inevitably end up going with our hearts.  We fell in love with a house on our first weekend of looking, (thanks Marg).  The red brick Victorian storefronts, and the bustling market and Georgian Bay resonated with our Ontario born and bred psyches as we walked the streets of Collingwood and we realized we had found home again.

Related Posts:
Finding Collingwood by E.H. Scott

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When it’s time to buy or sell real estate in the Collingwood, Blue Mountain or Georgian Triangle area, contact Marg, an experienced and competent Broker who is ready whenever you are!

Many of my real estate clients move to the area from somewhere else; some near and some far. I’m always interested to know why they chose South Georgian Bay and the stories they tell are always fascinating. So, I’ve decided to start a new section on the blog called, Your Stories.

Today, we have a guest post from clients of mine who have moved here from the U.K.  Here is their story.

How do you emigrate from one country to another? I’m not talking about the mundane, technical aspects of paperwork and visas, I’m specifically asking: how do you find where to live?

I mean, really think about it. Canada is the second largest country in the world. It’s enormous! How do you narrow down the vast choice of locations to one region, let alone a specific town to call home?

The waiting time in Britain for a Canadian Permanent Resident Visa is currently approximately 4 to 5 years (yes, really!) This gives you a lot of time to ponder, and research, the question of location.

Having lived in London (England!) for most of our lives, we knew that we didn’t want the big city life any longer. Initially, we had been fairly fixed on Alberta. Somewhere near Calgary, in the foothills of the Rockies, snow in winter, sun in summer, streams, brooks, rolling hillsides of pine trees – the picture postcard Canada that we all think of. What could be better? So we concentrated all our research on Alberta. Ask me a question on Alberta, go on – any question and I’d bet I answer it and then reel off a whole bunch of statistics about it too!

But, to us, there’s one problem with Alberta – its economy. In the time since we applied for our visas, the rising price of oil has meant that it is now economical to process the oil sands in Alberta (did you know that there’s more oil in Alberta than in Saudi Arabia?). This has lead to a booming economy with negative unemployment. “Great”, you might think, “the perfect place to live”. But wait: boom economics is cyclic – with every up, there eventually comes a down. Did we really want to move to somewhere that in 10 or 20 years is going to be in depression, with mass unemployment?

The massive influx of workers to Alberta has led to a housing shortage. Inevitably, this leads to a rise in house prices. What was selling for $250k when we applied for our visas 4 years ago, is now selling for $700k! To illustrate the housing problem, here’s a story I read in an Edmonton newspaper. Police in Edmonton recently raided a bunch of vagrants who were sleeping in tents in a local park. During the raid the police found many kit bags, full of professional craftsmen’s tools. They thought that they had uncovered a major burglary ring. But no: the “vagrants” were actually construction workers employed in the huge amount of new buildings going up in and around Edmonton. They were forced to sleep in the parks because there was no rental property available, other than the major hotels!

So, we decided against Alberta.

But where now? We still wanted somewhere that was a bit like Alberta: mountains, lakes, snow, good summers.  Vancouver? Too wet. The Prairies – Saskatchewan, Manitoba? Too flat. Quebec? We don’t speak French! The Maritimes? Too stormy and remote. The North? Too cold. I know that we generalised, and I’m sure some will take issue with those labels, but it worked for us, as it left only Ontario.

So, after nearly 4 years of researching Alberta, we switched, and started to research Ontario. But, having narrowed it down to Ontario, there was still an issue. Let me try and put some perspective on the situation. At over a million km, Ontario is over 4 times the size of the whole of Britain. And with a population of 12 million, Ontario has less than a fifth the population of Britain (which is currently over 60 million)!

So, where to live? We went through the same process as we did for Alberta: looking at physical geography, proximity to a major conurbation, near a lake, near “mountains”, employment prospects, infrastructure, etc. After a while, Barrie started to move to the top of the list. It ticked a lot of our boxes (this is still all just on paper, you understand).

As we had not yet even visited Ontario, after our visas were eventually issued, we flew from London Gatwick into Toronto, officially landed as Canadian Permanent Immigrants, and went to Barrie for a 2 week reconnaissance trip. We literally stuck a pin in a map, drew a 1 hour circle from Barrie, and then visited every town from Owen Sound to Peterborough and from Huntsville down into North Toronto, and everywhere in between.

Including Collingwood.

Boy, did we fall in love with Collingwood! It ticked every box. Close to the lake, close to the “mountains” (nice though it is, I think that we can all agree that Blue is not quite the Rockies!), close to a big city, good infrastructure. And, let’s face it, Collingwood is a really attractive town, with such great people! The Canadians are generally nice; but Collingwooders just make you feel so welcome! Any time we went into a store, we’d end up having a 30 minute conversation with people. You just can’t imagine that happening in England!

After the 2 week trip, we went home, and excitedly made the final arrangements for our permanent departure, looking forward to the next step of our amazing adventure. We successfully emigrated from England to Canada last October.

Since we moved here, many people have asked us how we chose Collingwood, and I always tell them this story. Without even one exception, each and everyone in Collingwood who has heard the story has been immensely proud that out of the whole world, we chose their town (now our town too!)

We found Collingwood. We found Home.

Do you like what you’re reading?  Click here to subscribe and we’ll send new blog posts directly to your email inbox.  P.S.  Bloggers like comments!

Related Posts:
South Georgian Bay Growth Continues In Record Numbers
Then and Now: Two Decades of Change

When it’s time to buy or sell real estate in the Collingwood, Blue Mountain or Georgian Triangle area, contact Marg, an experienced and competent Broker who’s ready whenever you are!