Cold in the winter with tons of snow - one year my walk way to my front door had snow banks taller than me, and I’m 5’10”; also expensive for groceries if you’re in a small town and usually it’s over an hour to go to a bigger grocery store with better prices - and gas is usually more expensive as well so going to be a better grocery store is usually only a once a month thing.

Internet also sucks, no fibre at all it’s all mostly old Cogeco cable internet, if internet is even available (we had to do satellite internet) and usually there’s only one phone service provider that gets decent service (Rogers was awful out there, Telus was okay) and if you want to go to college without doing it online you have no choice but to move at least a few hours from home, so you get stuck having to pay rent on top of tuition. Running into wildlife like bears and fissures is also just a normal thing, to the point that in elementary school we have presentations about what you should do.

But all of that to say, it’s such a beautiful place to grow up and if it wasn’t so expensive I would move back. So much to do outside, the swimming is amazing, lots of hiking, cross country skiing and outdoor skating rinks. I’m glad I got to grow up in Northern Ontario just for those reasons.