This year, winter came late in Ontario, Canada. Once I arrived there, in February, it was already cold, around -20°C but the snow came only the previous day of my landing. Then, it remained for more than a month. Once I left at the end of the month, the weather started to warm up already.
Locals say that usually it’s getting cold longer but the snow is less present. They like to tell the story from the winter last year. They had that horrible night on Christmas when all the electricity and services broke down because of a snowstorm. My flatmate told several times how scared she was to go home while it was completing dark.
That day she was at work. That is something Canadians learn and that European countries should take example on. Life doesn’t stop during the wintertime. Regularly, there are snow trucks on all the streets. People have to shovel their sidewalk or they get a fine of 125$ for the city of Toronto.
Public transportation still run at a regular speed, buses, subways, coaches, trains…People still go to work, as barista, as office employee, as an unemployed looking for a mall to hang out.
When the temperature goes below -30°C, so it would feel like -40°C, sometimes with a snowstorm, the authorities warn the people to stay home if they have anything to do. But most of the local work and still go during those weathers.
They are prepared! They all wear Canada goose jackets, hat, sunglasses, thick gloves, and boots. Everybody has pretty much the same look. You can’t even recognize the Islamist in that population as everybody is covering themselves as much as they can.
It is still fun to be in Ontario for the wintertime. Life keeps going on while in Belgium, everything would stop. There, only schools would have snow days. Here, no body would dare to go to work, the minimum public transportation we have won’t run at all and almost everything would be shut down. But life doesn’t stop, it only another way to live.
BInGer 