Pieni maailma

For those of you who don't speak the world's tiniest language, that's "small world." Although, maybe you should start learning. The number of Finns or people with Finnish connections that I've come across in Toronto has been astounding. A short list:

-My dear friend C, who has Finnish heritage, and whose grandfather is in the process of getting his Finnish citizenship
-A colleague at work, who comes from Thunder Bay, aka Finnish-Canadian central, and has a funny story about how she pronounces her last name
-A lady at the bank, who actually lived in Sweden, but who can still count to five in Finnish
-Our friend T, who isn't Finnish at all but has been there - that's where we met him - and calls himself a Suomi fan
-My GP, who is Romanian but spent two years in Tampere, where Mr. O grew up, and can bust off a little suomea
-A girl in my yoga class who has a Finnish-Canadian husband who doesn't speak at all but who just got his EU passport
-A couple at the Art Bar who I pegged as Finns immediately
-Countless faceless but instantly recognizable names on hockey jerseys, TV show credits, message boards

I'm forgetting some, but these are the main ones. I think that's one of the great things about Toronto, you're always among people you know.

Even the CBC is getting in on the act with Finnish lessons. So now you have no excuse.

Counting Canadians abroad

From an article in today's Globe and Mail:

Research by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada suggests there are perhaps nearly three million Canadians abroad. As a share of the population, Canada's "diaspora" is larger than the overseas communities of the United States, Australia, China or India.

...

Sixty-four per cent of Canadians abroad consider Canada "home." Interestingly, naturalized Canadians living abroad are more likely to call Canada home than native-born Canadians — a finding that challenges the view that return migrants are somehow less Canadian because they have chosen not to live in Canada.

...

Nearly 70 per cent intend to return to Canada to establish their principal residence. Overseas Canadians originally from British Columbia are most likely to return to establish their principal residence, followed by Canadians originally from Ontario. The two most important reasons for returning to Canada are family and quality of life. Fewer than one in five respondents identified Canada's health care or social services as a reason for returning.

...

The emergence of a Canadian diaspora is not a transient phenomenon. It is the flip side of large immigration inflows over the past two decades, and a function of global competition for skilled workers. To some extent, outmigration is a response to the difficulty that many new immigrants face in finding suitable work in Canada. But a far more important reason for the rise in Canadians overseas is the burgeoning economic opportunities in immigrant source countries such as India and China.