Things I Will Miss About Mississauga

Mississauga is larger than Abbotsford, and has more cultural diversity. I think I had better selection of cuisines in Mississauga.

Abbotsford has a pretty good system of parks and trails, but I haven't been well connected to it yet or built up the familiarity I had in Mississauga. My Ode To The Suburbs is based largely on my experiences as a home owner in Mississauga (and a little from growing up in Scarborough).

As mentioned, it's a bigger city and has more of this infrastructure.

We had a pool in our Mississauga home. Frankly, it could be a huge pain in the butt and a huge expense, but I did like to swim whenever I felt like it (assuming it was during the open season).

Vancouver is a nice city, but it's not "the Big Smoke". Access to Canada's biggest, baddest city was always a plus.

In BC, some locations (e.g. California, Las Vegas, Hawaii or even Asia) are now easier to fly to, but Toronto's Airport (located actually in Mississauga) is the best connected airport in Canada.

My mother and my in-laws are all within a fairly short drive of Mississauga.

The rainy season is tough in B.C. and I'm learning to deal with forest fire smoke. The worst thing I could say about the weather in Mississauga is that I don't particularly appreciate shovelling the driveway so much in winter.

I think we're giving up some space in terms of lot size, though I'm not exactly sure.

While we only owned this house for 3 years (nearly half of which we have been transplanted), we've been residents of this city for 13 years. If we count being connected to the Greater Toronto Area - it's part of our home base of operations for our entire lives.