The results of the last elections here in Quebec, late on Monday Oct 5th, has got my spouse and I thinking about moving out of the province again. We are fed up with Quebec’s language laws and even though, for the most part, I speak fluent French and I write it decently enough, and the same goes for my spouse, but we just don’t like the fact that it’s being shoved down our throats. The party that won the election, The “Parti Quebecois”, has at its very core of their platform, the separation of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada. I for one am completely against this, I am a proud Canadian and Quebec is better off staying in, and being part of Canada, period! I love Montreal, where we live, in fact I’ve lived most of my life in this city except for four years where I lived in the Toronto area. My spouse, who was my fiancee at the time moved down to the greater Toronto area in 1998 and we tied the knot in Mississauga in March of 2000. We both missed Montreal very much and about a year later we decided we’d try to go back to Montreal. Lucky for us both are jobs were flexible enough to allow for this. I must admit that even back then, 25 years ago now, I wasn’t really excited about going back to Montreal, I had started making a life in Ontario and had started coming to grips that I would make my life elsewhere. You see, I had moved to the Greater Toronto Area, specifically, a little sleepy town of Burlington, nestled between Oakville and Hamilton a year or so before my ,then fiancee, had joined me, so I kind of got used to living away from Montreal. Now as we are both looking down the tunnel to retirement we’re both wondering if we should move to a smaller, more rural town for peace and quiet. For many years it’s been in the back of our minds but with the PQ winning the election and talks of a separation referendum looming again, we are seriously starting to think about moving.
In part 2 I’ll look at the cost comparison between Ontario and Quebec, and the feasibility of moving.
Category: Retirement
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Moving to Ontario – Part 1, The Trigger
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Four years and counting
According to the date calculator on timeanddate.com I’m due to retire in 3 years, 11months and 5 days, but hey who’s counting, I’m looking very much forward to retirement, there are so many things I want to do, projects I want to work on, things I want to learn. During the next few years I will be slowly preparing for retirement by purchasing those tools and items for many of my past-times and interests, this might include specialized measurement tools for my electronics hobby, woodworking tools, mechanics tools, etc… Perhaps a nice new synthesizer is in the mix as well, we’ll see. I both anticipate my retirement but I’m also a little leery of it as I worry that I’ll have enough to do, enough things to fill my time. Then again, there are many things I haven’t thought of, like perhaps some meetups I could go to, some social events or perhaps other outside activities. I’ve always loved the theater, so perhaps something like that is in order. Who knows really, I just hope that I’ll be healthy enough to enjoy my retirement years. This brings me to another point, physical fitness, which unfortunately I’m sorely lacking at the moment. You see I have a life partner that is an avid fitness guru. She loves to exercise and has the discipline to do it, alas it’s not my case at all. I’m not so much a couch potato, as a desk potato and spend untold hours on the computer doing a myriad of things. I really need to find a hobby/interest that gets me moving, gets me out of the house at least and doing something physical. I was thinking of getting back into photography and maybe doing urban photography or hiking in the forest to do some forest bathing, etc… That is a possibility, I just wish I had more discipline. In any case, I’ve got a little less than four years and in that time I have to get my ducks in a row as they say…
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…and what if…
The company I work for ships most of its products to the United States, meaning if the 25% tariffs are put in full force on February 1st the repercussions could be disastrous. Am I worried? You bet! I could stand to lose my job or at the very least see my salary and/or my hours cuts drastically in a bid for the company to recoup their losses. The company itself won’t have to flip the bill for the tariffs themselves but the way I see it, if the US customers decide they don’t want to absorb the extra cost then they may force our company to cut their price or they may decide to go to one of competitors. If this happens I could see a possibility of the company doing massive layoffs, if not outright putting the key in the door. It may not happen but it is a possibility and so I’m left with the ‘what if…’ Well, if that were to happen as I see it I’m in a comfortable enough position 4 years from retirement to finish my working life in a lower-paying job, perhaps even a retail job part-time, maybe in a hardware store or some kind of electronics shop, who knows. Just something to carry me until my pension kicks in and I can start slowly trickling my retirement fund and enjoying life at my own slow pace. In fact, I’m really not too worried. Would it be tough finding work? Maybe, but I have many many marketable skills, I’m good with people, technology, I’m a quick study and a great troubleshooter and solution finder. I think I have many good qualities to offer a company. So, you see, given the right opportunity, I think I could shine for another 4 years at a company and maybe beyond if I found the right place. So for now I sit and wait and continue to work and not think about it too much.