It really depends on where in Canada. This isn't typical, unless you live in bear territory and you happen to live on some property that backs into wilderness areas.

You don't find bears randomly wandering heavily populated areas, unless that particular area of the city borders a wilderness area.

Raccoons, on the other hand, are much more frequent visitors.

I have never seen bears in my city before, although it does happen on occasion in the suburbs that have sprawled into the mountains (where bears live). When it does happen, it makes the news. If it makes the news, you know this isn't something that happens daily.

Not me, I'm afraid, they are usually out there after dark anyway. My neighbour took one last year of a rather large black bear emptying her bird feeder. Each year this area gets a reminder about taking fruit off the trees and not leaving bird seed outside overnight because it attracts the bears. And to be fair, we have encroached on their territory.

Thanks for the info guys! Have only visited Canada once, years ago. Think it is a lovely country but my OH would not cope with the winters there!
Didn't imagine that the bears were taking the train into downtown Toronto or anything like that though!
it is lovely to see the video clip but I guess I might not be quite so entranced if that was my back garden! Makes a change to hedgehogs & pheasants though, which is just about all we get in our back garden!

My Buddy in Australia just emailed me, worse fires in modern history, lost both his House and Car.

Interesting Canadian Cities, Montreal, Kingston, St John, N.B., Halifax, Ottawa, parts of Winterpeg, rest lack any real architectural diversity, Chicago and Boston are my two personal favourite U.S Cities.

i thought saint john was supposed to be quite ugly and industrialised...? we've seen quite a few IT jobs there my fiance could do (if he can get a job offer / sponsorship) but we've been told it's not very nice....?

I think I'll cancel my trip there, just to be on the safe side.

just looked on google news and it says it's kangaroo island, SA, so depending where you were planning to go, you might still be alright :-)

According to the ABC about 20% of a national park on the island was burnt earlier this month, but now it is open again to the public.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...22/2126034.htm

I think I'll brave it.

Bloody vermin.

(Guess who woke up this morning to find their garbage spread all over their back yard.)

They have no fear of humans and will fight like the devil. I have an electric fence with a kick that will stun a horse and this keeps the little so and sos out of the goldfish pond. (Note that this was a carp pond before I discovered the need for an electric fence.) Now I'm thinking of investing in a nice powerful hunting rifle. That'll learn 'em.

Not necessarily, when we lived in the city the neighbour let off a shotgun at a raccoon in his attic. All he got for his trouble was a hole in the roof.

Great post we are too considering a move to Canada from down under as not all its cracked up to be here in Brisbane and looking for all the info we can get to help us decide if a move would be a good thing in the future.
Having a great time down under but so barren and behind the times out here not sure we could stay forever so thought if we do return to UK go via Canada and try that out as well.

Totaly agree with one comment that the outside lifestyle is not that true here as its either too hot in the sun or pouring with rain. We have a fantastic house here with a great pool in the back yard but water in pool still not that warm and it is late December (Summer). Yes we could pay more to get it heated but will wait to see how long we are staying first.

How warm does it get in Canada in the summer out of interest, would love to have a cold Christmas again (our second one here) cannot get used to these warm ones just seems wrong.

Here you go a link to Environment Canada's Climate Normals website.

Pick a name of a city put it in the location box then if you choose a location with "Int'l A" you'll get the thirty year averages for that location, month by month.

Cheers
Steve

Thanks Steve, that's a very useful website that I hadn't heard of before. We've been trying to get an idea of average temps / snowfall etc for NB and NS, and I'm pleased to say they do indeed appear to be quite snowy in winter, on the whole :-)

I looked at the stats for Fredericton (NB) and in jan the 'warmest' is -4 degrees, the coldest being -15.5 degrees...bring it on!! the most extreme it's ever been was in feb 1962 when it got down to -37.2 degrees, and in aug 1975 when it went up to a whopping 37.2 degrees!!

anita :-)

I've just been reading this out of curiousity, but I saw your post and just had to say hello.

We're in Capalaba (Brisbane) and we've been here since June of this year. We moved over from Canada which is where we're from. So if you have any questions or ever want to chat about the two countries let me know. I noticed you have kids similar in age too..

To answer your question about summer it really depends on where in you are in Canada. I grew up in south eastern Ontario and it will get hot and humid there (around 30-33 C) but not for too long. It's really on warm out from May to September with June to August being the hotest months.

I spent a lot of time in Alberta too and the weather there is usually dry in comparison and didn't seem as hot. But that's probably because I was in Edmonton or Fort McMurray, which is quite a bit more north than where I was in Ontario.

You'll notice a big difference in the daylight hours though (summer and winter). As you know there's no daylight savings in QLD and I hate that it gets dark so early. Summer in Canada is light out for much longer in the evening. So more fun in the summer, but then in winter it's pretty dark. So not too much fun.

Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post Feel free to message me.

Haley

Rayad, Ive no idea why, but that post or message or whatever it was meant to be came over as a report to the mods!

This thread was closed back in 2007 (Dont know why that happened either),

For the record (2 years to late) I hardly live in bear country or backing onto a wilderness area, I am 15 mins drive north of the main East-West highway in Ontario!

(Thanks for pimping the link Oakvillian)