Roberto1980

Hi,

I started another thread titled "moving over without a job lined up"

The replies were more successful than not, in terms of it working out for people. So that's encouraging

Following on from that, can I ask how did you go about choosing an area to live ?
- Was it recommended?
- Did you base yourself somewhere well populated to enhance your chances of employment? (no brainer eh)
- If you had kids, did you choose a 'good' school based on research/reports then work everything else around that?

Be good to hear stories of how people's stories..

Cheers

BristolUK

I married a Canadian. I was never going to get a good paying job and I didn't really want one anyway as I had been planning to retire early to a life of leisure in Spain. But fate stepped in.

Anyway, I did have equity from my house in Bristol and I discovered that the price of property was so low in Atlantic Canada that I could buy a house for the family to live in and buy a rental property, the income from which would supplement my actuarially reduced pension.

My wife and her kids were Montreal based and bred and the kids still needed education in French, so NB being bilingual was the obvious place and it was then a case of which city.

Many of the rentals in Saint John looked a bit ramshackle and I wanted to be a good landlord with nice accommodation.

None of us were drivers so we needed somewhere central and that was more feasible in Moncton than Fredericton.

There's a view that cheap housing means no good jobs. Not necessarily true.

There may be fewer of the very top jobs - but fewer qualified applicants as well - but when major employers in the area include hospitals/health authorities, education authorities, universities, communications, IT, financial centres as well as Federal, provincial and municipal government jobs the choice is a lot more than call centre, retail and chopping down trees!

Not meaning to be disrespectful, it's others who seem to look down on such occupations.

Aviator

Visit several times before moving. If you need to work, find a job, stay in a hotel for a month, find somewhere to rent for further 6 months or so, scope out different areas before buying anything.

If on a temp permit, rent until the permit is permanent. Selling can be a lengthy and very expensive process.

Pizzawheel

I'm from East London so East Toronto seemed to make sense, plus its marginally cheaper like for like than the west side.

The fact that Pape and Danforth intersection (after which Rush named a song I rather like) is in the east end too did inform my decision. I kid you not.

BristolUK

No fly by night decision for you then.

MarylandNed

The area chose us based on a job offer.

We were living in Manchester at the time. My then girlfriend (now wife) came home from work one day and said she had tagged along with a friend who went to a recruitment fair at lunch time. My wife, a nurse, somehow got offered a job with Toronto General and she's still not sure exactly how it happened. Anyway, we were young and had no kids so I figured why not? We'd been to Toronto before on a brief stop during a trip around the US & Canada and we liked the look of it.

I had lined up an interview for the day after we arrived and was lucky enough to get the job. However, I was young and naive and didn't understand that I couldn't just start work and that I actually needed my own work permit. That took a couple of weeks to sort out.

Within the city itself, we wanted to be close to the action and, after staying in a short-term rental downtown while we looked around, we found an apartment in the Yonge/Eglinton area within walking distance of the subway.

Still seems like yesterday but that was 1989. Good times.

Oink

Vancouver, because have you seen the rest of Canada?

Pizzawheel

At some stage when jumping into the great unknown you have to Roll the Bones.

JamesM

I was from Surrey so I moved to Surrey, BC

Pizzawheel

Did you?

When I found that South Africa has a town actually called East London I resolved to retire and spend my last days there. Being on the south coast it neatly addressed the south London problem too.

Doubt I shall manage that now and it will have to be London, ON. Though there is a village/ hamlet called Little Britain out there somewhere, and you have to admit the comedy series was great.

Piff Poff

Moved to where the job offer was.

Shirtback

As you will have probably noticed, I'm not typical & tend to screw polls on immigration .

BristolUK

I only had the one LP so I can only play this game with that one but I'll do the best I can. It'll be good enough in the end.


Now, back on topic

Pizzawheel

Thinking about it the western half would have been adequately covered by YYZ. I've been living a lie!

The topic was where to live in Canada according to the music of Rush wasn't it?

Tirytory

My husband's job had specific requirements which the practice were able to meet, the job also came with some enhancements to make it slightly more appealing to us. Until very very recently the husband was tied to that job, but with the arrival of COPR and his full license we now have some security although we would never move areas again- that would be so unfair on my eldest son.

We also wanted to be no more than two hours away from the airport, I wanted a decent amount of snow and we wanted somewhere where the kids could have a decent roaming space and lots of outdoor activities. I was going to say we lucked out because it's stunning here and we've made a great circle of friends but I also did tirelessly research most areas of Ontario even down to what swim club my eldest son would transfer to. We researched house prices too given that we were looking for a better standard of living it didn't make sense to live near Toronto and have to shell out on a mortgage. Schools- there's always going to be good and bad but we did want the option of learning French so we looked for that too. My middle child will start French Immersion in September. Lastly we came out for a visit although honestly a visit will never really tell you what any place is like to actually live in.

But I concur with most people comments that the job is the number one deciding factor. You could live somewhere great but if you can't find work... Ontario is not a great place to be struggling to make ends meet.