joelsa

Hi there, Where abouts in Ontario if you don`t mind me asking. We're going on a reccy visit mid Oct and are reserching places to look at.
Thanks Jo xx

iaink

Just down the road from me, in the Campbellford area. About 1 to 1.5h east of Toronto.

SteveHarris

Good point (BTW I live in Victoria - which, for some reason, seems to exist in a totally different weather system to Vancouver....)

SteveHarris

I know what you mean - been hanging around since 2001 - don't post much unless I feel I can contribute. Like most people we get a few requests from people we have known in the past back in the U.K. for info. We're happy to give it to make sure people really know what they are letting themselves in for.

Cheers - Steve

SteveHarris

Could be... Only been to the Okanagan (for a few days on a drive to Calgary)once and loved the area. It's certainly more arid than Victoria - I find the climate in Victoria just about prefect for me. I guess it's down to presonal preference..

Cheers - Steve


Hi

Maybe the weather comment was in comparison to the Okanagan? I know I choose here for the weather, the rest of it was going to be tough anyway so why not do it in some sunshine!!!!!

JJ[/QUOTE]

Tiaribbon

Yep! And it is fabulous around that area.....well we think so anyway.

MikeUK

you need to qualify that... 1 to 1,5hrs east of Toronto at peak times on the 400 is about 5km's (Ajax?)

iaink

No, its never taken me more than 2 h to Pearson from Belleville. Depends how you want to define "Toronto" I suppose. Takes about an hour from Campbellford to reach Markham/Scarborough in regular trafic, avoiding speeding tickets. No-one is suggesting commuting to TO from out here everyday though. If there is a pile up like today, then all bets are off on trafic times anyway, really its only crossing TO that trafic is a problem, reaching the middle, or getting the GO from Oshawa takes less than 2 h to get to downtown.

I used to drive regularly to Detroit across TO, and always took the 407 toll route to avoid the congestion on the 401 around Pearson then.

Grah

Ok my only advice on where is the best place to live is to

know "yourselves".

What are your interests?
Ballet, Arts, Culture, Shopping, Movies, fashions, Sports, Activities, high competive level team events, Fishing , farming, Camping skiing.

What type of people are you?
Stick in the muds, want to be spoken to 1st, talk to anyone, make the first move ( and the 2nd & 3rd sometimes.)

Focus on knowing what your family wants to do at weekends.

Ask yourself how many times in your own country have you travelled on a weekend to somewhere great? Most times your at home or near home at weekends right? So pick a place by what you want to do. If you don't have it you'll miss it and it will nag at you.

What do you want to live in? ( Accomodation, 1/2/3/4/5 bedrooms) remember this is it, this is HOME, this is the thing your going to be leaving 90% of the time and coming back to 100%. Better be comfortable.


What is the cost of living? food \ gas \ taxes etc estimate costs of paying for your activites. No good picking to fish, if you don't figure in the 6 hour drive there and back everytime from Central "Big City".

Finally is there work there, to pay for it all?

Why last, because you can earn money doing virtually anything, only problem is the amount of time it takes to get it.



Where are we? does it matter its fun

joggerjo

[QUOTE=SteveHarris]Could be... Only been to the Okanagan (for a few days on a drive to Calgary)once and loved the area. It's certainly more arid than Victoria - I find the climate in Victoria just about prefect for me. I guess it's down to presonal preference..

Cheers - Steve

Hi Steve

Weather might be better here but shopping in Victoria is much better than the Okanagan! I miss being able to wander around streets to shop rather inside malls! There are a lot of nice places to wander in Victoria aren't there? I guess we can't have everything or we all be living in the same place!

JJ

steve of 5-0

REGINA, SK. Ha Ha !!!

Karate Kev

Hi everyone - K.K. here, adding my tuppence worth.

As some of you may know, we've decided on the Calgary area of Alberta - and it suprises me that no one seems to have suggested it in answer to the original question of this thread.

The reasons for us choosing Calgary are as follows;-
Work prospects.
Proximity to the Rockies without property becoming too extortianate.
The Chinooks - bringing a little warmth to winter.
The possibility of the best of both worlds (i.e., City life or quiet life).
Also, i read somewhere that Calgary was voted very high on a "Best cities in Canada for families" poll.

By the way, for anyone who does know me - we've now recieved our permanent residency forms to review and sign - so although it's still gonna be a long wait (too long! - why can't someone invent time travel?!), at least before long we'll be "in the system" and should get our AOR case number soon-ish.

As always, take care y'all,

Kev.

willmore

Well, I don't really know you...but congratulations anyway......and best wishes to you and your family.....

swoops

Many thanks Kev,
That certainly sounds like the kind of livestyle we are after,best of both worlds.

Glaswegian

But don't you want to head to Ontario with the rest of the 56% of annual immigrants???

I'd recommend the SE or SW of Calgary ... Kanaskis is 40 minutes along 22X ... if you can get a $70K+ salary in Calgary you'll get a damn site more than a one bedroom apartment, more like a 2,000 sq ft home and two nice vehicles without too much of a stretch ... downtown is 30 minutes away ... we have shops, cinemas, leisure facilities.

The NW is nice too ... but it's further north and further away from the chinooks (you can see the chinook cloud arch from my south facing back yard ) ... so although the NW isn't as cold as Edmonton, it isn't quite as warm as the deep south.

Don't you know we're all cowboys and there are cattle running loose on the streets of downtown Calgary?

Take a look at my Fall in Calgary pictures ... if you look real hard you can see the herds of majestic bison.