{"id":626559,"date":"2026-06-07T21:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T21:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626559\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T21:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T21:34:11","slug":"moving-to-canada-from-ireland-nobody-prepared-me-for-bears-they-just-walk-about-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626559\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving to Canada from Ireland: \u2018Nobody prepared me for bears; they just walk about\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katrina Masters from Co Down offers her perspective on moving to Canada <\/a>with a family. You can read our Everything You Need to know guide here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why Canada?<\/p>\n

When Katrina Masters and her Scottish husband were thinking of moving to the US 10 years ago with their three children, global events conspired to change their decisions. <\/p>\n

Her husband had been working in financial services in New York<\/a>, and on one of their many trips over to visit him, in 2015, Masters \u201cfell in love\u201d with nearby Connecticut<\/a>. Despite having concerns about leaving her supportive family in her native Co Down<\/a> and the coffee shop she had opened there, she decided: \u201cLet\u2019s do it.\u201d But the process for emigrating to the US was \u201clong and complicated\u201d and when Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Masters had second thoughts. <\/p>\n

The other big shock to the world that year was the Brexit vote. The economic impact soon began to hit her coffee shop. \u201cWe thought we needed to make a jump,\u201d says Masters. <\/p>\n

Her husband Colin was offered a job in Dublin and they considered a move with their children, then aged 16, 10 and five. But in the background, talk about future checks on the Border swirled and childhood memories of her father being searched came back. \u201cI didn\u2019t want that for my children,\u201d says Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Colin said: \u2018What about going to Canada?\u2019 I\u2019d never been but he was deployed [there] with the army before I met him. He said: \u2018You\u2019ll like it; it\u2019s really clean\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masters tells how the decision turned on a moment, in the garden of a house the couple were viewing in Portmarnock, with a job-acceptance deadline looming. \u201cI said: \u2018If we do this we need to forget about Canada. What if we end up sitting here wishing we were on a plane out of here\u2019?\u201d <\/p>\n

So they put in an application. Colin was about to turn 36, and just made the age cut-off for a working-holiday visa. \u201cBy Tuesday morning we had our visa offer.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Moving to Canada: Here is what Irish people need to knowOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

People from the Republic and the UK can each get a two-year International Experience Canada working-holiday visa if they are aged 18-35. UK citizens may also get an additional 12-month visa. So, people from Northern Ireland can, if they have dual Irish and UK citizenship, get up to five years in Canada on working-holiday visas. It\u2019s possible to bring a spouse and dependants for two years; however, they may need to apply for different visas as visitors or students.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Colin\u2019s skill set they got into Canada\u2019s Provincial Nominee Program. This allows provinces to nominate people who have specific sets of skills to enter the country. It set him on a pathway for permanent residency. So in 2017, the family moved to try it for two years. <\/p>\n

Finding a home\" False Creek in Vancouver, Canada. Photoraph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

Colin travelled to Canada first and found a house in Coquitlam, a large suburb of Vancouver, and schools for the children before the rest of the family joined him.<\/p>\n

Moving to British Columbia \u2013 the province in which Vancouver is located \u2013 is expensive and anyone thinking of going should \u201cbring cash\u201d says Masters. Rent is \u201cvery high\u201d and buying a house took a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they don\u2019t tell you before getting here is that to get a house you have to go through an interview, show them pictures of the family. You need a credit check and bank statements. A lot of the houses, you don\u2019t have the whole house; you\u2019ve a family in the basement underneath you. That blew my mind,\u201d says Masters. <\/p>\n

When the couple finally got their permanent residency, they started the process of buying a house. They have just moved house again, to a condo in Port Moody, also on the outskirts of Vancouver, with watersports and wilderness. \u201cI\u2019m loving it,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Meeting people\" David Lam Park in Vancouver, Canada. Photograph: iStock <\/p>\n

Moving to a country where she knew no one and trying to make new friends was one of the biggest challenges experienced by Masters. <\/p>\n

She was used to going to the park back home and chatting to other mothers, letting their children play. But in the park near her new home \u201ceveryone stood over their children\u201d. There were many immigrants from other parts of the world in her area, she says, describing Canada as \u201ca big melting pot\u201d. <\/p>\n

At first she found it harder to integrate. But on a Facebook parenting page, she got chatting to a teacher from Limerick planning to move to Vancouver. Her child was seven, the same age as Masters\u2019s youngest. <\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018You\u2019ll love Coquitlam\u2018.\u201d <\/p>\n

Masters convinced her new friend to move to the area, viewing houses on her behalf and sending her videos of them to help her choose. Her husband collected the woman from the airport. \u201cShe\u2019s now my best pal.\u201d <\/p>\n

Masters developed a mothers\u2019 group and has since made many friends. \u201cWe built up a community out of that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Many Irish people go to Canada on working-holiday visas and stay for the two years the schemes allow. Masters says this adds an element of transience to life there; she sometimes finds it difficult when people move away. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first came I\u2019d meet people who then went home after two years to have children.\u201d <\/p>\n

While she has Canadian friends, she says \u201cit\u2019s harder to make them\u201d and they are \u201cnot as forthcoming\u201d as in the United States. \u201cIn America when you are Irish, they love it. Here it\u2019s not as much like that; they are like, \u2018Oh, very good\u2019,\u201d she says <\/p>\n

Her husband, a Celtic supporter, found a club and made friends with others in the Scottish community.<\/p>\n

However, her children are loving life in Canada and have adapted well: \u201cMy daughter was amazing. She threw herself into everything, found a volunteer programme, made friends. She found the bus route quicker than I did.\u201d <\/p>\n

The positives and the negatives <\/p>\n

One of the shocks Masters recalls was when her daughter phoned to say there was a bear in the park. \u201cWe thought, this is crazy. Nobody prepared me for bears; they just walk about.\u201d Canada has an estimated 380,000 black bears. <\/p>\n

According to wildlife safety advice from British Columbia Park<\/a>s, the province is \u201cbear country\u201d. Black bears can be found \u201calmost anywhere\u201d, including in the suburbs and city outskirts. It says bears tend to be wary of humans, but anyone who encounter them shouldn\u2019t run away. <\/p>\n

Masters says the quality of life in Canada is \u201creally good\u201d overall, with \u201cclean living\u201d and \u201ceverything outdoors\u201d, \u201clots of activities [such as] skiing and hiking\u201d and a very peaceful life. \u201cWe\u2019ve a great circle of friends and a great way of living. It\u2019s very peaceful\u201d. <\/p>\n

Irish in Canada by numbers <\/p>\n

\"\"(Todd Korol\/The New York Times) How many people move from the Republic of Ireland to Canada every year? 5,100 in the year to April 2025 How many Irish-born people people live in Canada?<\/p>\n

29,300 <\/p>\n

Where do the Irish-born people live?49% live in Ontario 25% in British Colombia 14% in AlbertaWhere do more recent Irish-born arrivals live (2016-2021)Ontario: 25%British Colombia: 38% Alberta: 16% How many Canadians have Irish ancestry?<\/p>\n

4.5 million, or 15% of the population<\/p>\n

Is Mark Carney an Irish citizen?<\/p>\n

The Canadian prime minister was born in Canada but obtained Irish citizenship in the 1980s through his Mayo grandparents. Shortly before becoming prime minister in 2025 he began the process of rescinding his Irish passport. <\/p>\n

Sources: CSO , 2021 Canadian census, DFA\/Ireland.ie <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katrina Masters from Co Down offers her perspective on moving to Canada with a family. You can read…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[626,1397,74920,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-irish-abroad","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}