DILEMMA TIME - Me and the good lady have always had aspirations to live and work in Canada. We are both police officers in London and have a two year old daughter. To be honest I have always wanted to change my career path towards becoming a skilled tradesman. So…………My wife is going to apply for either Calgary or Vancouver police which offer pretty good rates of pay ($74,000 ish) and I intend on taking over the child care duties in the short term with a view to studying at a university once we’ve settled.

My question to you all is WHICH ONE? – We have obviously chosen to take this path to change our quality of life and taking into consideration some of the following points we would greatly appreciate your views on both destinations. We are obviously going to go over and look at both locations, but there is a limit to how much you can see over a period of two weeks!

1. Cost of living – Particularly buying houses
2. Location – Family life, outdoor living etc.
3. Job prospects for tradesmen/universities.
4. Climate.
5. Most importantly – Working environment for my wife

And basically any other information that you think could assist us.

Cheers for your help

If you can’t be bothered going into details a CALGARY or VANCOUVER will suffice!

Cheers

Brin

I expect your question will spark fierce debate among those that live there (plus others that live in Ontario but nonetheless enjoy a fierce debate).

I have never been to either so I am completely unbiased!

Weather could be a deciding factor for you - whereas Vancouver has quite mild winters (seldom below zero) but lots of rain, Calgary is much hotter in summer and extremely cold (can be 40 below) in winter. Have a look at climate stats for each:
Vancouver - http://uk.weather.com/weather/climat...XX0518?x=8&y=7
Calgary - http://uk.weather.com/weather/climat...rom=smartlinks

Also house prices are higher in Vancouver (though Calgary is catching up) - see http://www.crea.ca/public/news_stats/statistics.htm

The Calgary police force always seems to be recruiting. I don't know that the Vancouver one does.

Try these web sites for two of your questions.

Housing www.homes.point2.com and www.mls.ca

Climate www.theweathernetwork.com

A visit is a must to both as they are both different in there own ways. The only thing is that Calgary recruit under the PNP scheme but I don't think Vancouver does worth checking as this may help.

Good luck

1. Both very expensive - comparable to the UK. You won't get a decent house in a nice part of Vancouver for less than $1,000,000
2. Vancouver's got sea as well as mountains. Lots of outdoorsy stuff. People can be obscenely healthy here - apparently some of the highest life expectancies in the world.
3. Plenty of expansion going on in both cities so that's fine. UBC is better than U Calgary, but that might not be where you'd go to learn a trade.
4. Vancouver is milder and similar to the UK. Very wet winters, but warm mostly dry summers. Calgary is drier with hotter summers and crisp, cold winters. Vancouver has four seasons, Calgary has two (I think).
5. No idea. Pretty much the same as any other medium-large city I guess. There are good and bad areas.

How much cash do you anticipate bringing?

Calgary does get breaks in the winter with high temperature (in the teens) for days at a time (one Christmas we thought about bbqing the turkey).

Both are good for outdoors depending on what your looking for.

I'm not sure about Vancouver but everywhere you look in Calgary they are building houses, condos, offices... I assume its the same in Vancouver.

I think its still cheeper to live in Calgary than Vancouver.

There are probably statistics somewhere out there but based on absolutely nothing I would think Calgary would be a better place to work for the police. The city has about half the population of Vancouver. Calgary though is one big city. Vancouver is made up of multiple cities - I think each one has its own police department.

why do you need to know that? Is it going to help you give suitable advice or are you just being downright nosey?

<suspects it's the latter>

Could you or Bazzz please explain why you think Calgary is much hotter in the summer when even the information you give only indicates a one degree higher average maximum for Calgary in July and August and two degrees cooler in June.

Calgary is much cooler in winter but as you said no where near as much precipitation which means much, much more sunshine.

I dunno I just thought I read it somewhere. I stand corrected.

As for the question about money it makes a big difference in terms of where you can live. On $74,000 pa, you'll get a mortgage of maybe $250,000 which will get you bugger all. But if you've got a $500,000 deposit, you'll have a bit more choice.

But also, I am being nosey.

I understand that hidden within the average figures is greater variability. having watched the forecast for year or so you often see mid or even high 30's temps for Calgary but not as extreme for Vancouver. That is fairly typical of inland areas (the effect of "continentality").

is that not the reality?

You can have my house for $500,000

You may be seeing forecasts for high thirties for Calgary if you are those forecasts are not coming from Environment Canada and I would say are very suspect.

We get highs of maybe 31C or 32C for perhaps three to five days per year on average.

Here is a link to the daily highs and lows for Calgary for July of this year an exceptionally warm July for Calgary. Note six days over 30C the highest being 32.3C not exactly high 30's. You can check other months and years by changing those at the top of the chart.

Another link to Calgary averages and also this shows the record highs (note the record high for Calgary is 36.1 set back in 1919) more proof that we just don't get highs in the high 30's as the forecasts you've been seeing indicate.

If you are wanting high 30's temps you need to be looking at the Okanagan and Kamploops areas.

Personally I hate anything over about 28.

Personally I dislike anything over 22C - 25C and most years that's what we get in Calgary with the odd day in the high 20's, low 30's.

This year was exceptionally warm in July, second or third warmest on record.

We were getting a new furnace installed this year anyway and the hot weather convinced me to go with air conditioning at the same time.

There is a very good description of Calgary's climate about halfway down the Wikipedia page on the city.