About Run From Toronto

I'm Kate Arsenault, and I write Run From Toronto. I lived in Toronto for twelve years: long enough to genuinely love parts of it, and long enough to watch the math of staying stop working. I now live somewhere quieter, on the East Coast, in a city where my rent is lower, my commute is a fifteen-minute walk, and my Saturdays don't start with a mental accounting of what I can and can't afford to do.

This site exists because the conversation about leaving Toronto is usually flattened into one of two extremes: either uncritical cheerleading for anywhere-but-here, or defensive dismissal of anyone who dares to say the city's costs have outpaced what it gives back. Neither is honest. Toronto is genuinely excellent for some people, in some careers, at some life stages. And it is genuinely unsustainable for a growing number of others. I try to write from the second position without pretending the first doesn't exist.

What you'll find here

Cost-of-living comparisons with real numbers, not just percentages. Personal essays from my own move and from people I've spoken with who made similar ones. Practical guides for the unglamorous logistics: provincial health cards, moving quotes, the employer conversation nobody wants to have first. And the occasional piece of myth-busting, because a lot of "just move somewhere cheaper" advice skips the parts of the math that don't flatter the conclusion.

What this site isn't

It's not a running blog. I get that question more than you'd think from the name. It's also not a real estate listing service or a moving company in disguise; I don't have a financial stake in whether you stay or go. And it's not a blanket argument that everyone should leave Toronto. Plenty of people run the numbers honestly and decide staying is right for them. This site is for the people running that calculation, whichever way it lands.

Where I actually am now

I keep my current location intentionally general (formerly Toronto, now somewhere quieter on the Atlantic coast) partly for privacy, and partly because the specific city matters less than the underlying trade-off: lower cost, slower pace, more room to think. If you want the specifics of my own move, I've written about it directly in why I left Toronto and what I wish I'd known before I did.

Get in touch

Have a question, a correction, or your own relocation story worth sharing? I'd genuinely like to hear it. Reach out here.