Lee Wei Ling Wrote on Hardship in Canada

Lee Wei Ling is First Daughter of Singapore. She is the sister of PM Lee Hsien Loong. Wei Ling studied in Raffles Institution and was a long distance runner. She was in Pre-U when I was in Secondary One.

Wei Ling is now a columnist in Sunday Times. She is the director of Institute of Pediatric Neurology(I do not have the exact name). Yesterday, Wei Ling wrote on her life as a student in Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto. She arrived there in Dec 1992. She live in a room sitter for C$650/month. She joins the YMCA gym club and her meals consist of salmon and chicken legs. She lived very simply for C$1,000/month. It was actually hardship for a Prime Minister's daughter.

The reason I am commenting about her article is because I was living in Toronto at the same time. We went over in Feb 1990. Yes, she was right! Minus 20 degrees celsius is so cold that it burns!! We were living in hardship too. Life in Canada was tough. Actually tough will be an understatement. It was very difficult and the country was in economic recession. Everyone is on minimal expense. Tax is extremely high - income tax of more than 46% deducted at source. GST is 7% and PST 8%. You get to spend 40 cents of every dollar you earn. Cost of cooked food is high. An equivalent of fried kway teow is C$7 or C$8 per plate. Any meal together with a drink will cost C$10. This is cheap subsidised canteen food. Resturant meal will cost a lot more. This mean you have to earn C$20 to eat the $10 meal.

There is hardly any money left to save for rainy days. The social benefits is quite good. Consulting doctors is free but you have to pay for the drugs. Hospital stays are free all the way including all surgeries. If you are out of a job, you get unemployment benefits. When you are 65, you are entitle of old age pension. There are plenty of space and living space. Built-in space in most Canadian homes are quite large. Car prices are extremely low compared to Singapore.

Overall, living in Canada is still hardship compared to living in Singapore.