About The Happy immigrant
I am The Happy Immigrant. My name is Francine. I was born in the Netherlands and moved to Canada when I was 23. From the moment I arrived here, I felt at home. The cars were big and beautiful. The people were super friendly, and the sun seemed to be always shining.
I arrived in Ontario at the beginning of a very harsh winter, people were snowed in for days, and kids had to stay in school because there was so much snow everywhere, they couldn’t go home. I loved it.
The next summer I had my Canadian driver’s license and a car, a green Dodge Demon. Gas was 36 cents per gallon and I had the whole world to explore. And I did, I used any excuse to go somewhere. I discovered camping in Algonquin Park, one of the greatest treasures in the world.
I married Frank and we bought a dairy farm in Oxford County. We got our Citizenship. We are blessed with 3 children, a boy and 2 girls. Like Frank and me, they love the countryside. And like me, they love camping in Algonquin Park.
Over the years we were involved with all the sports kids’ do, skating, baseball, and horse riding. I always found that being a volunteer with those organizations was the best way to meet new people, feel at home and become integrated in Canadian society.
In the early 1980 the Ministry of Agriculture wanted people to start an agricultural user group for farmers. I volunteered and for 5 years the Oxford County Agricultural Computer User Group organized meetings during the winter months to tell farmers how they could benefit from a computer.
We started out with DOS and Lotus, and we taught farmers what you could do with a spreadsheet, figure out the average amounts of piglets per sow per year, or how easy it was to make a cash flow sheet for the bank. Thinking back to that time, it is amazing how much farm management has changed in agriculture.
My website, The Happy Immigrant is by no means an official document; I am not associated with any group or government organization. Before you make any decisions you should always check with the proper authorities.
The information on The Happy Immigrant website is completely free. I hate Spam and will never pass on any e-mail address.
Whether you are a person thinking about immigration, or you have been in Canada for quite a while, I hope that you find the information on the Happy Immigrant website useful.
I like to hear from you and if you have any information that you think might be of interest to others, let me know by contacting me through The Happy Immigrant Contact Form
YOU TOO CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN
