People are flocking to Alberta, particularly Calgary, and one man who spent the last few years living in Toronto says he will not be going back to the Ontario city.
Frank Huynh, who was born and raised in Manitoba and has lived the majority of his adult life in Alberta and Ontario, shared his situation, which might inspire some Canadians to pack things up and move out to YYC.
Huynh, who is 29 years old, previously lived in Toronto from 2013 to 2020, then briefly lived in Calgary for around a year before finding his way back to Toronto in 2021. His most recent stint in Canada’s most populated city just wasn’t for him though, and six months ago, he found himself yearning to return to Cowtown.
“I think it just had to do with the stage in life. I wouldn’t say I regret my decision to go back to Toronto, but it’s just, it’s definitely a lot more stressful. With its high cost of living, people are kind of forced to prioritize their work. And then the work never ends. It just seems like you’re always in that constant rat race where you’re constantly working. People are bouncing between two to three jobs just to pay the minimal.”
He eventually got to the point where he was making six figures but felt like he was in a losing battle when it came to being able to afford to live in Toronto.
“It felt almost next to impossible to thrive in Toronto”
Huynh said living in Toronto, he found that people are always tense or angry, pointing to wildly long commute times in the city as a big factor.
“You’re already spending nine hours at your job, and then you’re spending another hour, hour and a half taking the TTC subway. You can read it in everyone’s faces, they don’t look happy. That’s just not the way to live,” Huynh said.
He found it difficult to be able to do things like go to the gym and see friends due to the stress and time crunch of commuting and trying to get around the city, adding that he found the city quite lonely and isolating.
“People who live out in Toronto work so hard for the basics”
On top of his disdain for the city’s transit system, the cost of living weighed heavily on his enjoyment of the Toronto lifestyle.
When he found himself back in Calgary in the fall of 2024, he discovered that with a lower cost of living, people seemed a lot more laid back and a lot more personal.
“People in Toronto kind of have that kind of like the L.A., New York kind of thing, where here it’s like more, just more laid back,” he said.
“It’s almost like you have buckets you need filled in life, and here, it’s almost like you clear it all a lot sooner. In Toronto, you’re renting for the majority of your life, if not the rest of your life. They’re working so hard for the basics.”
As he got older, he recognized that he was just a simple guy who needed to earn a living and started to understand that he didn’t need all the extra things that Toronto offered, adding that the cost of living heavily outweighed the benefits of the city, such as a stronger restaurant scene compared to Calgary.
Access to nature and good social circles found in Calgary living
He added that a big draw for him to stay and feel fulfilled in Calgary was the nature and landscapes Alberta has to offer, something he found lacking in Toronto, and something he repeated in a recent YouTube video he made explaining his move to YYC.
“It’s night and day. To go for a decent hike in Toronto, people were saying to go to Algonquin Provincial Park, which is so far away. It’s beautiful, but so far. Here you have the mountains so close, and they are so grounding for individuals, way more so than staying in cubicle high-rise buildings,” he said.
“There’s just like that component of just relaxation with nature I find out here.”
Making friends in the city was also easy for him, joining run clubs and finding like-minded people, adding that the proximity of everyone in Calgary is a big boost for being able to see friends.
“Back in Toronto, when I’m trying to make plans with an individual, sometimes it takes like two weeks, everyone’s busy working. And then when you actually find time, you kind of need to justify the long commute to see them. I find people are even more flaky there.”
What he would tell people thinking of moving to Calgary
When it comes to others thinking about making the move, he suggested that if you are looking to get out of the rat race vibe of Toronto, it’s best to come out to Calgary for a visit and give it a try to see if it is your vibe.
He pointed to a friend who came out to visit from Toronto and fell in love with the lifestyle, mentioning how he was shocked he could get around to places in around 20 minutes and didn’t have to leave the house with how bad traffic could be in mind.
“You have to be in that right mindset, because, like, you still have to factor in like, ‘oh, I still have family in Toronto, blah, blah, blah.’ So it really takes the type of person to really pull that trigger, whether it’s yourself or some other trigger event. Those things sort of help.”
