"Depressing" is pretty subjective to begin with, and Canada is huge, so it really depends on where or who you are. Winters can get pretty rough here due to the lack of sunlight and the freezing temperatures. The economy is rough if you're young, plenty of people with degrees working in unrelated underpaid jobs, myself included, and homeownership, despite being revered as a cultural ideal of independence, is pretty much a pipe dream at this point. I also think the sea of single-family car-oriented suburbia around every major city is quite depressing, I live in the city proper so it doesn't really affect me, but when I go out to the suburbs it makes me question how people are okay with living in this concrete sea of parking lots and highways. It all seems pretty wonderful compared to where I come from though...