The Short answer is centralized heating and warm clothes
The Long answer is that it does get cold in Canada but surviving winters is not as difficult as you may think. When we were planning to move here, we were warned of the frigid climate by some people even though they themselves had never been to Canada before. Maybe they gained that perception from movies or cartoons. We were a little anxious for our first winter in Canada but when it arrived, we truly lost all our fears and we loved it instead! It was the first time we played with snow without having to travel hours to the mountains.
When it’s -20°C and snowing heavily, life still goes on as usual. You don’t see cities and offices shut down unless there is a major snowstorm. Now you might be wondering how do people even live and work in that kind of weather? The answer is heating. Every single house and building – office, school, shopping mall – is centrally heated. In fact, in Canada, it is mandatory by law for every place to have heating. With the heating on, you wouldn’t need to wear any jacket, not even a light sweater. You can be in your shirt and jeans or even shorts all day long. So whether it’s your home or your office, you can forget about shivering and wearing thick layers.
That was about interiors, so what about outdoors? You can’t take along heating with you so what happens when you step out of your home or office? Unfortunately, you will have to bear the cold outside but on the plus side, you can get lightweight winter jackets with different temperature ratings to suit your convenience. I have seen jackets with as low as -50°C rating and I wondered who in their right mind would need those jackets – unless they are going for a polar expedition. I tried on a jacket like that in a store, just for fun, and even my arms started sweating in 10 seconds.
A single jacket rated for -20°C will be good enough for the entire season in most parts of Canada. And for those who feel cold a bit more than others, you can also wear additional layers like sweaters or warmers under your jacket. In fact, layering is advisable so that you can take off and put on layers depending on your need. Wear as many layers as you want. If you don’t want to wear too many layers, you can keep yourself warm with a nice scarf or a toque and be totally on trend.
Fortunately, you will need to spend only a few minutes in the cold while you walk to the subway station or wait for your bus. Once you are inside the train or the bus, you won’t feel as cold. For the majority, the exposure to cold is under 30 minutes a day while you spend the rest of your day in a heated environment unless your work needs you to be outdoors like a construction worker or a cop.
So, once you are bundled up with your winter jacket, gloves and snow boots on, you can enjoy the winters, play with the snow, take pictures of snow covered trees or just grab a coffee from Tim Hortons and get on with life as usual.