Read your posting with interest. Always good to know of later life moves that turn out so positive. Never too late and I wish you all the best for the future. Should like to know what you think of living in Belleville. I am interested in living in Picton, Prince Edward County ON, but think that living there could be perhaps limiting compared to say Quinte or Belleville Should like to hear your comments. I know there is somebody on this site who lives in Quinte. If they read this could they respond please?

Sorry, I too went somewhat off thread.

Thanks everybody - didn't realise I had all those replies!!!! I'm glad a lot of other people seem to have had some questions answered too. Many thanks for all the comments - they are greatly appreciated. Good luck to everyone in whatever Country you are living. At the end of the day we are all different and have different views etc. but hopefully we will find our place to settle soon. MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone.

If you really have made a decision to move to one state over another based on an internet forum and the polite North American fixation with accents, you are being very foolish.

First, the reason MBUK forum has more returning from Australia is because there are more people moving to Australia in the first place. You will note there are more people on the Moving to Australia forum than the Moving to Canada forum for the same reason. By your logic this would lead you to pick Australia. You have drawn a very dodgy conclusion from biased data.

Second, the accent thing. Really.

Third, there are much cheaper parts of Australia than Coffs Harbour.

Fourth, I think the Canadian balloon will slowly deflate over the next five years as you wait for your visa and get rejected from one employer after another. You should read some of the comments on the Canada forum to get the picture.

I've just read my post through for editing and it seemed to me it was quite a negative response to your post, so let me say that I appreciate this is a tough choice and good luck with your future.

IainK, but he is away just now.

I think I read that he is in the sun, escaping the Canadian winter. Which in itself may help make the OP's mind up.

Hi guys

This is my first time on this web and I am so excited. Nice to meet you all!

Is this the right way I'm going to chat? Or must I enter the Chat room? Please help me?

We are from SA (Me, my husband and kids), we are really thinking very hard to move to Australia or New Zealand but dont know where to begin. Is there jobs for us. I am an Operations Ass and my husband Ass Wine maker .

Hope to hear from you soon.

Hello, steph_pat, and welcome to the British Expats forum.

If you want to type messages to other people in "real time" (that is, if you want to receive responses immediately and then send your own responses back immediately), you need to go to the Chat room. Click on the Chat link near the top of this screen.

The part of the website in which you have posted your message is the forum. That is, you can ask questions here, but the response time varies. Sometimes it takes seconds to get a response, and sometimes it takes hours.

You have landed in the Canada part of the forum. If you go to the home page of the Discussion Forum, you will find links to the Australia and New Zealand sub-forums.

I suggest you read the Wiki article entitled Tips on using the forum. In case you don't know, what I just gave you was a hot link. The navy blue, underlined words have a link embedded in them. If you click on the hot link, you'll get to the article in question. Although the article was written with the Canada sub-forum in mind, lots of the tips are relevant to any forum.

Beware of abbreviations. Don't assume that people in other parts of the world know the abbreviations with which you are familiar.

I'm guessing that SA means South Africa.

I'm not quite sure what Ass is short for. I'm guessing it's an abbreviation for Assistant. So are you saying that you are an Operations Assistant? I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or stupid. I honestly don't know. I also don't know what an Assistant Wine Maker is. I can guess what a Wine Maker is, but I don't know the difference between a Wine Maker and an Assistant Wine Maker.

Anyway, none of that matters right now. The only reason I asked those questions was to help you to clarify your questions before you repeated them on the Australia and New Zealand forums.

It really would help if you read the article about participating in an Internet forum.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your plans.

Hi Judy in Calgary

Thankyou very much, I do appreciate your help.

I read the ' Tips on using the forum' and it really gave me a better understanding of how I need to process. I am Afrikaans and sometimes its bit difficult to explain yourself.

I will go onto the web you've given me and hope it will give me all the relevant info that I need.

Thanks again and enjoy your Xmas and upcomming New Year.

steph_pat

tableand, I think it is an aussie defense mechanism, but when ever anyone mentions negativities about Australia, the response is to come out swinging.

The major plus' of Canada over Australia are proximity to other people, diversity of cultures, an overall more rounded economy, more job opportunities, greater educational avenues, a culture that is less exclusionary, an attitude that is more open and receptive to change, cities that are older and offer more architectural diversity, and the list goes on.

Canada has some cold weather for about 14 weeks of the year, the rest of the year offer a variety of seasons and spectacular summers, glorious autumns.

Australia has heat,and also one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and if you are concerned about reptiles, snakes, creepy crawlies, then Australia is not for you.

Australians should not be so defensive, just accept that their country is not for all people, not to take it personally, we certainly don't if some one says they don't like Canada, that's fine, We do.

Beaches in Australia are great, not as good as South Africa, but fun, you just have to watch where you swim an what is swimming near you.

More people die from crocodile attacks tan from sharks, something that rarely makes the headlines.

A country is what you make it, to each their own, I would never live in Australia, two of my Brothers would move there in a heart beat.

Happy Christmas, Howard.

Quebec City is nice. Is there another attractive town?

wow - defensive much??!

no seriously. we obviously didn't make our decision for those reasons (MBUK forum and accent) alone. We had always preferred Canada but recently Australia swung back round into our hearts and we were left with a tough choice, but in the end the major reasons were (1) our proximity to the UK (along with the much cheaper flights for all 3 of us if we had to rush back for family reasons etc - ie if - god forbid - anyone died); (2) the weather (melbourne was fine but we would find qld / nsw too hot to work in in think) - we're more 'cold weather' people and really miss the snow we used to have in the UK years ago when i was a child, and NB has nice beaches anyway, and like one of the other guys said, Canada isn't a perma-cold country! it does actually get very warm in summer in places, contrary to popular belief!; (3) cost of housing in (eastern) canada is still within our price limit, whereas the whole of australia (with the exception of coffs harbour - where we've not found many IT jobs advertised - and the rural areas where you're miles from a town / work anyway) IS out of our price range. I really wish people wouldn't keep saying silly things like 'you can get more house for your money in oz' - the interest rates are a lot higher so you'd never be able to afford the same mortgage, so it's stupid saying 'well you've got a house worth £x in the UK so just put the same amount into an aussie property', as you obviously wouldn't. sorry for ranting about that one, but it really does my head in when people go on about how 'affordable' aussie houses are! we've spent weeks on numerous websites looking at property and all we could get for our money would be a hut or a mobile home with vinyl walls and polystyrene ceilings, like the ones you get in nz; (4) dangerous animals - when i was over there i trod on an eastern brown snake, found a redback in my bedroom and almost trod on one of those stingray things that lie on the sand in the water, hiding. I don't like the idea of our baby playing in the garden with all that potential danger around him. Yes, canada has bears, but you're less likely to find a bear in your garden than you are a snake!

but good luck and all the best to anyone heading down under

but hey, oz is a fabulous country in spite of the above, and i can understand why it's so popular with emigrants.

Heh heh. Ass Wine maker.

That's part of the appeal, that's why I married one, less fat on average than Canadians though, so it's swings and roundaboots.