Seeking new horizons: understanding why people are leaving Canada

6 reasons people are leaving Canada for “greener pastures”

“My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to drive a Land Rover, but my great-grandson is going to have to ride a camel again.” — Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

Last month, my 79-year-old dad, who recently relocated from Ontario to New Brunswick, called me with a hint of despair in his voice. He had spent an excruciating eight hours waiting, just to fill a necessary prescription. He had been trying, without much luck to secure a family doctor in New Brunswick since his doctor was in Ontario and the healthcare systems, though the same country, are much different. We had shared the same medical doctor since moving to Canada over 35 years ago. I had since gotten my own doctor when I moved away but back then, it was a breeze to find a doctor of our choice and we had landed on a Caribbean born doctor who became the doctor to my wider family.

Today, however, the feat of trying to find a family doctor is like finding a needle in a haystack.

It was not just an isolated incident but a glaring symptom of a deep-seated malaise in our once aspirational healthcare system. In a separate yet equally troubling account, a friend who migrated to southern Ontario ten months ago, with her two pre-teen kids, is still on a seemingly endless quest to find a family doctor — a task now mockingly compared to hunting for a unicorn in the Great White North. This is the stark reality we face: a healthcare system once the pride of Canada, now gasping under the weight of neglect and inefficiency, leaving its most vulnerable also gasping for care.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of Canadians leaving their homeland. This phenomenon, intriguing and complex, raises several questions about the underlying reasons. Is it due to economic factors, personal aspirations, or broader cultural shifts? This posts sheds light on…