Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Wow. I think of Canadian houses as being temporary structures, like those in shanty towns. I certainly wouldn't say that the tract houses in areas like Mississauga (NotQEW) are constructed to anything like the quality of 1930s, or even 1950s, council houses.

Which building, if any, in Etobicoke would you would say is well designed and built to a high standard?

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Well least you gave it a go, and decided its not for you. Thanks for the info you have supplied.

This is my biggest issue without a doubt.

I read an article the other day about Canada being the 4th worst country for family/work life balance.

Sure there is loads of articles for positives and negatives, but for me the move is to live somewhere different, explore the new land and travel places I haven't been in Canada, USA and South america, but without the annual leave and the high travel costs, I am going to struggle I think.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

If you move to, say, Toronto, you'll see Toronto. It's different than wherever you are now and, I would say, has a fortnight's worth of interesting things to see. The same would be true for other cities in Canada except that the fortnight would be a couple of months for Montreal or Quebec City due to having to come up to speed with the language, a couple of days for Vancouver and five minutes or less for most of the others.

What doesn't make sense to me is to move to Toronto and then go and visit Vancouver, or Victoria or any other Canadian city except the francophone ones and perhaps Halifax or St John's. The rest are just not very different, so it'd be like traveling from Reading to see Basildon except fantastically expensive for the fare and in terms of limited vacation days used up.

America has loads of different places to visit but it's expensive to fly there from Canada so, if exploring is the aim, I'd choose to live in Canada as close as possible to a US airport so as to be able to take a bus to it and fly from there. In this context living in Hamilton or Windsor suddenly makes sense. As far as South America goes, it's probable more practical to explore there while living in England; cheaper flights, more holidays.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

I have to say I agree with him from the point of view that my house in NS, whilst being a timber framed, covered in vinyl siding type, is so much warmer and easier to heat and keep cool than my house in England was. That was a Victorian semi that was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing (cant get enough emphasis on that) in the winter and damp, ugh. And it had heating and new windows, it was just cold.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

But the Victorian semi had stood for a century and is likely still there now. Even if you patch up the NS house every ten years or so when the shingles crack and blow off it's only good for fifty years or so. It seems to me that, when comparing houses that last for hundreds of years with those that last less than a lifetime, it's perverse to claim better quality for the throwaway ones.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Hmm..I have a 120 year old house in Yarmouth NS and my guessing is it will still be standing after I'm gone...

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Hey

I do agree that moving to one city and then traveling to other cities there isn't much point as they are pretty much the same. However arriving new to Canada I'd like to visit few other places, but I guess this could be included in a trip before settling down for work etc.

The big thing for me is travelling back out of Canada, holidays home, to the USA, agree living close to a US airport is an advantage, but then without the leave its hard to even have a decent time away.

If you have to add a bit of driving in then that eats up more leave than flying and again comes back to the lack of leave.

I was surprised that a holiday to Mexico was cheaper from the UK than from Canada (Toronto) for a couple weeks.

I really like the look and idea of Canada but the leave is not going to allow me to do the holidaying I want while over than side of the world.

There is a lot of places I want to see in the US, and actually making more sense to do it from the UK with the annual leave I have

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Any chance of being self employed / doing contract work?

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Self employed no, contract possible but unlikely

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

This reminds me that, while living in Toronto, the only people I knew who routinely skied in Banff flew there from Oslo. The locals settled for Tremblant as it's cheaper.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

IME contractors are less likely to be able to take time off than employees. One of the major reasons for using contractors is that they don't get sick or take holidays.

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

We are in trouble then because its already 30 years old.....

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

Not really, it'll last longer than a car and that's the builder's objective.

Is it on a bus route? Are there regular trains from a station within walking distance? Can you get kebabs delivered?

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

No, no and yes :-)

Re: Canada's vacation politics
 

As long as there are kebabs, the infrastructure is the equal of that in the UK.