Down the Bog

The twentieth of September saw the three year anniversary of our arrival in Canada where we took on our Permanent Resident status. I really don’t know where the time has gone because it only seems like yesterday. But on the other hand so much seems to have happened since then that those three years seem to have been like a lifetime.

And I’ve yet to go back to Britain for a visit.

We’ve done a few things since we’ve been here. We bought a house here in Ontario which eighteen months later we sold when we tried an abortive move to Edmonton, Alberta. It was just too expensive for us and so we moved back and bought another house in our old town with a greater appreciation for what we now had.

It also meant that we’ve driven from Montreal to Edmonton and back again.Some two thousand miles or more each way and that’s not something every Canadian can say they’ve done!

My eldest daughter, Hannah chose to move back to the UK after being here for the first ten months and Sarah, my second daughter chose to stay in Edmonton with her boyfriend Bill because they felt good things were there for them. Our daughter Abby was born last November and it was earlier this year when our three year old son, Jake was identified as being autistic although he continues to delight us every day.

So we’re now in the position to ask the Canadian government if they’d be okay about us becoming Canadian citizens. Our residency status allows us to live here indefinitely as long as we spend two out of every five years on Canadian soil but we’d really like to become citizens as we see our long-term future here and even if we were to move back to England citizenship would allow us the option of moving back to Canada again. Who ever knows where their future will take them?

So making the application is the next thing to do although I note that it’s going to cost $200 per person in Canadian citizenship application fees from the information I’ve read so I’d better get saving.