“What Happened to the Canada We Loved?”… Welcome to the new Canada

I met up with an old friend a few days ago — someone who’d been away from the GTA for a couple of years. We were catching up over coffee, and before I could even say “welcome back,” he grabbed my hand, looked me straight in the eye and said,
“What’s going on here? I thought I landed in the wrong country.”

No hello. No small talk. Just that.

I started when I just stepped out of the airport and called an Uber. The driver, he said, barely spoke English, couldn’t follow the GPS, and within minutes started cursing Canada. “I tried to stay calm,” my friend told me, “But I was shocked. When I asked him how long he’d been here, he said eight months!”

And then came the kicker — the driver admitted he hated the system, preferred chaos, and spoke with open hate about others from his own country, just because they followed a different ideology or sect. On top of that, the way he drove? Reckless. Aggressive. No respect for anyone on the road.

That’s when my friend said something that really stuck with me:
“This isn’t the Canada I remember.”

I nodded and told him, “You’re just scratching the surface. Welcome to the new GTA.”

It’s hard to say it out loud — and harder to write — but something has shifted. And it’s not just traffic, or rude service at the drive-thru, or cars parked wherever someone feels like stopping. It’s deeper than that.

There’s a growing wave of newcomers who seem less interested in joining the Canadian way of life, and more focused on importing their own version of it — the good, the bad, and unfortunately, the chaotic. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, let me be clear: this is not about immigration — it’s about integration.

Canada has always welcomed people from every corner of the world. What made it work was a shared respect for laws, for values, for each other. But now, it feels like we’re losing that balance. Basic driving rules? Ignored. Respect for public space? Fading. Common decency? Becoming a rarity.

People park their cars in fire lanes like it’s no big deal. Others block cars or park sideways just to be a few steps closer to the entrance. No one says anything. No one wants a confrontation. And maybe that’s part of the problem — we’ve become too polite to speak up while the quality of life quietly slips through our fingers.

And let’s not even talk about what's happening with licensing. I’ve heard stories — and I’m sure you have too — about driving instructors and examiners from the same background making "arrangements" to get unqualified drivers on the road. If that’s true, it’s not just dangerous, it’s deadly.

So, I ask this with all sincerity:

Where are we heading?

Why are we afraid to say something when things clearly aren’t working? Why are we so quick to label concern as intolerance? We’re not protecting harmony by staying silent — we’re just burying our heads in the sand.

Canada used to be clean, safe, respectful — not perfect, but pretty close. That’s why people chose it. That’s why we were proud to call it home. But if we allow chaos to creep in — in traffic, in schools, in how people treat each other — we’re going to wake up one day and realize we’ve lost something precious.

And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.