Lychee

There are bubbles where this is not the case, such as Nelson - a town not too far from Cranbrook, actually. Small, quaint, picturesque, lots of aging hippies, artists, etc. Not a lot of jobs. Not a lot immediately nearby. Great place to visit but you'll want to visit and tour the region before ever considering moving there!

The issue is that Canada was settled completely differently than Europe and the UK, so small towns in Canada have evolved rather differently.

Canada was settled to take advantage of the natural resources spread across the continent. Outside of the metropolises, you have vast expanses of natural resources, and the smaller towns/cities mostly exist to service the natural resource industries. As a result, the towns are predominantly blue collar by nature - brute, brawn, manual labour. Why go to university when you can make big money at the local mill? Most towns also don't have long histories or ties to the land other than ties to the local mine, the local mill, the local cannery, or the local grain elevator.

And BC is a relatively new place in the world, only having been settled by Europeans since the 1800's. Most towns here are barely 100 years old. Langley is one of the oldest, followed by Victoria and New Westminster. Vancouver was only founded in 1886! Any in many instances, towns were settled later than that! And many were founded because they were originally silver, copper, or gold mines, or camps for local forestry mills! So this explains the culture and attitudes of these small towns and rural regions. This is how they were founded not too long ago.

It's not all black and white, mind you... but there really is an urban/rural Canadian dichotomy and you're not usually going to find the culture of urban Canada outside of the cities unfortunately.

Geoff McLean

You should really take a closer look at Victoria BC, it ticks so many of your boxes! The mildest climate in Canada and plenty of mountains nearby including excellent skiing on Mt. Washington, a short drive up the island.

Victoria is a small city, yet diverse, liberal and tolerant. Housing prices vary considerably across the Greater Victoria area, and are generally much less espensive than Vancouver.

(SNIP)

You should really consider moving to Victoria!