For many new Canadians, the greater Toronto area is a natural landing zone because of the diverse communities and opportunities it holds. In fact, more Canadians live in the GTA than any other metropolitan area in the country, and that’s saying something because residents of Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary all number in the millions.
For us, splitting the difference between the downtown core of Toronto and the border with New York felt like it made a lot of sense…with convenient travel into the city by car or train, and similarly convenient driving into the USA for visits. When you take the travel distance from the CN Tower to the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls and cut it in half, guess where you end up?
Burlington is a small city on the outskirts of Hamilton, situated right along the southwest corner of Lake Ontario. It’s a pretty great place, in fact according to some folks it’s the best mid-size city to live in across Canada. Those sorts of quantitative claims about qualitative data are always a bit silly to go by, but we have to agree that for our particular needs, it’s got an unbeatable combination of good stuff going on.
While predominantly suburban in nature, Burlington has a small, dense, downtown shopping area that’s extremely walkable and situated right on the lake’s shore. Living nearby, the kids and I (and any visiting friends) can walk, stroller, or bike to school, grocery stores, the library, and best of all to the huge waterfront park that covers the entire downtown coastline. Here’s a pretty neat clip, that a local realtor produced, which features that waterfront extensively…
…as you can see there are a lot of the same perks we were used to enjoying in the northwest USA, including food and music festivals, cycling enhancements, and aquatic activities. Further back from the water’s edge, a short car or bus ride can take you to dozens of other parks, hiking trails, waterfalls, and (depending on the time of year) splash pads or ice rinks. Burlington has proven to be a great town in which to start our Canadian adventure, and with two large shopping malls, plus its own IKEA, Costco, and Canadian Tire stores, nesting (even after a 4000km relocation) has been a snap.
Burlington is at an interesting point in its history currently as it has has little room left for traditional “suburban” development, with roughly half its land area already developed and the other half protected as part of the Green Belt. The city is located within the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area which is expecting a population increase from roughly 7 million to more than 10 million within the next quarter century. More specifically, Burlington is part of the Halton Region, with a population of over 500,000 that’s forecasted to double past 1 million by the 2040’s.
While we were initially attracted to Burlington because of what it’s near (like job opportunities and other cities we were already familiar with) we’re becoming more and more motivated to stay here because of the kind of planning that’s underway to deal with all that inevitable growth. By necessity, Burlington is becoming one of the province’s first “suburban cities” to deliberately curb urban spawl and explore strategies for growing in place. Infill, redevelopment and intensification are currently being focused around the city’s three GO Transit stations and the downtown waterfront, where the central terminal for its bus system is located.
For the first few years after landing, we rented various places near downtown, and long term we plan to build our future in a recently-purchased home near one of the city’s mobility hubs. Wish us luck…as you may have heard home ownership anywhere near greater Toronto is a bit nuts these days.
This Ontarian Life 