“Cornwall, Ontario, Canada – a City with a World of Possibilities” was what I read on the spinning splash pad play structure at Riverdale Park in Cornwall on the afternoon after my family finished moving into our new house last summer. Well, I suppose that’s a good sign we moved here as I showed my husband this. Him and I grew up in Greater Toronto Hamilton area and lived and worked in Montreal area for nearly two decades. Last year we made the “Quebec Exit” and ended up buying a house in a new subdivision of Cornwall. Fortunately we bought our house in West Island Montreal few years prior and before prices skyrocketed so we were able to get a newer house in Cornwall when we sold. We noticed there were and are still plenty of affordable single family detached homes in Cornwall currently. After a quick Wikipedia search, you’ll find and read that, “the city straddles the St. Lawrence River and is centrally located between the capital city of Ottawa and Canada’s second populous city of Montreal. It lies within the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor along Ontario Highway 401 and is a major port of entry from the United States into Canada.”
Initially I was not pleased we had to compromise on Cornwall (we were looking at houses in Ottawa and Greater Toronto area for a while) but after living here since the summer, I’m relieved to not only be Ontarians again but to reside in a livable city where work life balance is prevalent in the day to day. According to the demographics of Cornwall, there seems to be a multitude of ethnicities, a good mix of retirees and young families and people from all walks of life here. Being a small city of almost 48 000 people, I found people are generally friendly and welcoming. Our kids go to a reputable French elementary school close to our house and have been thriving and making friends since they started. My husband and I work remotely and the few times a month he has go into the Montreal office, his commute is about an hour and a bit so quite comparable to the commute in other major cities of Canada.
The decision to uproot yourself and/or your family is a major one and shouldn’t be taken without careful consideration and possibly a decision-making matrix but if you must relocate for whatever reason, why not choose Cornwall. If undecided, come visit for a weekend or so and see what Cornwall and its surrounding communities have to offer.
