It's Hamilton, not Siberia

So a typical reaction to us telling someone we're moving to Hamilton is almost the same as the response I got when I told people I was moving overseas several years ago - something to the effect of “oh my god, I hope we’ll still get to see you”!

MY new reaction to this is to tell people that I Google-mapped the journey from T.O. to Hamilton, and it is 70-ish kilometres from the city, or 45 minutes to an hour away, depending on how fast you’re driving. Roughly the same distance from Toronto as Oshawa to the east. (We’re also at the end of the GO Train line, just like the Shwa).  The funny thing is, when people move within the GTA itself (lets say, to Newmarket or Whitby), I don’t think they get the same reaction. Hamilton seems to evoke strange feelings from Torontonians – my initial thought is that most people just don’t know much about it. I’ll confess, I was one of those people.

In the interests of education (and generally proving to friends and family that we’re still close by!) here are some interesting facts I’ve recently learned (via Wikipedia) about my new home city:

• Hamilton’s metropolitan area is the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario
• There are an insane amount of waterfalls here, apparently
• Hamilton is the mid-point between Toronto and Buffalo
• We’re not alone in wanting to move here: Environics Analytics apparently sees a future Hamilton with younger upscale Hamiltonians choosing to live in the downtown and surrounding areas rather than just visiting.
• Hamilton is expected to grow by more than 28,000 people by next year.

The moral of this story: We’re not that far. Public transit can and will get you here, and you can come to Hamilton to eat/drink/generally hang out, just as we will (occasionally) come to Toronto to do the same J Can’t wait to acquaint more people with this town!