I don't agree with this. There is no universal wonderland for sure but there are plenty of places in the world where you can live a perfectly good life. It is more down to the individual. There are a good number of people who aren't happy unless they have something to compliain about. Some just complain, others move on.

This is what I'm saying though - happy people are happy anywhere (within reason) and unhappy people are unhappy everywhere. Seems to me those who get bored somewhere after a few years are going to be bored wherever they go. With one exception I have enjoyed everywhere I have lived. The older I get though, moving appeals to me less and less.

You might be right - but here your description could be Canada - the only difference being they wear shoes...! I wish you well, sincerely - it takes courage and effort to move overseas and I admire a sense of adventure in people because I recognise it in myself. I'm getting tired of zipping about now, and enjoy being in one place. Honestly, we talked once about trying another country but we got knackered just thinking about it. What part of Canada are you heading to?

it may not differ as a place, but i am sure that the scenery is better over there..... and the people are not as crude, rude and racist as here..... thats not just my opinion, check out the aussie section, it is a general opinion of most brits that move over here, hey i could write a long list of niggles about this place, but dont want to offend!!! however one of the aussie threads 'what dont you like about australia' is a really good read..... i have trawled the canadian threads and to be honest hardly seen anyone slagging the place or the people off so in that respect I think that it would differ greatly

Honestly, I think the way you are thinking of Canada/Australia as a kind of zero sum game in your mind might be asking for trouble when you get there. I mean in terms of unmet expectations and so on.

As a Canadian who now lives in Australia I can hazard a guess that you're going to grow to dislike where you move in Canada/Canadians just as much as you dislike where you are now. I have found that Australians and Canadians are very similar in culture. Much more similar than Australians or Canadians are to the British or Americans.

ok this is a post from one of the aussie threads, which i have not commented on:

OK just because I feel really down at the moment and definitely in need of a vent!

What dont I like about Australia?
The lack of green - we have something that masquerades as grass but it is rough couch stuff not real grass and for most of the year we dont have it because water restrictions mean you cant water it and it dies. There are no hedgerows and usually very ordinary and not very inspiring flowers - give me a cottage garden any day of the week!

The lack of history (that is relevant to me) - I know that the aborigines have a history blah blah but you can only enthuse for so long over a few hand outline spit wall paintings and grinding stones and dreamtime stories woven around geological accidents. Give me castles, cathedrals, abbeys - anything with an evident passage of time with people who actually achieved something.

The boredom of the shops - not a high street in sight, just faceless, soul-less malls full of the same shops selling the same stuff and not the latest of anything anyway manned by disinterested staff who always walk up and ask you how you are today - they dont really want to know how you are so why the hell do they keep asking you?

The boring blandness of the space - you can drive for hours and see just the same scenery. Try identifying exactly where you are from the scenery - you cant do it, just mile after mile of eucalypt, bark drop, dirt. The Hume Hwy from Sydney to Melbourne is a prime example.

The people - insular, self centred, largely arrogant (of course there are going to be individual exceptions I know that!) and out for what they can get. This is a "who you know not what you know" type of place and though that may also be true of UK it is the rule here.

The political correctness which pervades everything - every tin pot meeting not only starts with an acknowledgement of country but a 5 - 15 minute treatise and self flagellation. Some meetings even have every speaker doing their acknowledgement of country so as not to be left out.

The lack of sense of community which is so strong in UK (where I come from anyway) - everyone here is so intent on head down and power forward that they couldnt really give a toss about their fellow man unless there is something in it for them.

The fact that this is the a*se end of the universe and to get anywhere else in the world takes at least a 6 hour plane flight and that the Aussie dollar except for a few months this summer makes it so difficult for anyone to go anywhere else without having to work for aeons to save up and get there (see we are now back to having a dollar worth nothing again - works for exports but not expats visiting home!)

The flies. Blasted things have an uncanny knack of trying to invade every visible orifice and will not leave your head alone. Mozzies too that find the one uncovered piece of skin which hasnt been sprayed with insect repellant.

The constant sunshine - bright, glaring, skin killing that means you dont dare venture out without SPF30 slathered on every visible bit. The lack of rain (drought is a killer). The heat - lurch from one air conditioned environment to another during the summer because breathing the air outside is like breathing in a furnace. Sweaty nights where it is so hot that you cant sleep.

The birds - almost forgot them. The dawn chorus of cockies which wakes you up at some godforsaken hour with a noise level that would be banned if it were a jumbo taking off.

There, will that do? As I said, having a bad few days here so everything is getting on my nerves!

and funny - there are plenty of comments following that agree with this, plus people have added to it too!!!

Maybe its just where we are here.... we own our own business and speak to lots of people from all over the world and many people recon its alot nicer over east!!!

My first choice was always Canada, however my ex would not go there due to it being so cold.....

We are looking at Alberta to move to or maybe BC as my OH may have a job when we get there.....

If we dont get the visa it wont be the end of the world as like I said before I do like it here, just fancy a change and want to experience another culture and way of life, also be closer to my family and ageing parents..... It means i could see more of them and other family as they would not find the journey so stressful and tiring as they do in coming over here. Due to the distance I have not been back to the UK since i came here 6 years ago...living in Canada would give me the opportunity to go back maybe once a year and have people come to stay with me... I also love the USA so would be able to have regular trips there without the 36 hour flight, if I was to do it from here..... my OH son also lives in the USA so he would be able to see him more too.... therefore the attraction to Canada is quite strong... we are country people so used to living the quiet life, however it will be nice to be closer to various places we can visit

I think the problem with WA is that it is a long way from anywhere, compared to NSW etc where lots of things are within driving distance.

If that's your attitude I think you're going to be fine and have some fun. If you go with the idea that Australians are rude, crude and racist and no one has anything to complain about in Canada, as you have hinted in a couple of posts here, you're going to be disappointed. If you look carefully there are plenty of criticisms of Canada in the boards here, but they are different in nature to the complaints people have about Australia. Go with eyes wide open and enjoy the adventure!

PS I could go through that post about Aus and find many similarities with Canada - the lack of green (oh yes, sixth month winter when everything's black and white), etc but you already know these criticisms are not unique to Aus I'm sure.

Oooh i dont know about that. Brits and Aussies arent they different. Ive worked with many Aussies over the years and we are very similar. Far more than Canadians and Brits.

hi zen

i agree with you totally and think life is what you make it where ever you may be.... and there is good and bad in all countries as we all know. Yes the 6 month winter!!! my kids cant wait, my eldest wants to snowboard, ski and them snowmobile thingies and my youngest wants to spend her life building snowmen (she is only 3!) dont know how i will like it, but i do miss central heating (sad i know)....

its more my OH that has a problem with the people here, I dont really go into our business much anymore as we have moved and its too far away, but some of the stories he tells me are funny, you never hear of half of it in the UK... maybe i have just led too much of a sheltered life lol

i really miss my family, my brother and wife had a baby last year and i have only seen him on pictures which is a shame and they could not afford to come over here...... and i cant take that long out due to all the animals etc we have here...

hey at the end of the day if we dont like it over there, we can always come back.

are you in SA, that is nearly where i went but came here as was told the weather was better, SA is meant to be lovely isnt it?

Cottage garden might be tough in Alberta. What is it, growing zone 2. How many times did I put in my bedding plants the Victoria Day weekend only to still have them killed by frost? Or snow?

Considering the oldest architecture in Edmonton doesn't go further back than say, the 1890s, and it's probably the same in Calgary, there won't be much trumpeting the evident passage of time.

Wait, you've been to West Ed? That description sounds familiar.

That sounds like the drive on the QE 2 between Edmonton and Calgary. Hmm...there is that little valley by Red Deer to jazz things up a bit. Especially in winter when it's covered in black ice and you get to slide to the bottom...whee.

From everything I've read on the BE Canadian forum about Canadians, this supposedly fits us as well.

Again, same. Wait, you must have been to my nephew's Winter Festival concert, because they couldn't use "Christmas."

I've heard this supposedly fits Canada as well.

Not the arse end of the universe, but the world's most charming ice cube for five to six months of the year.

Wait for the Alberta mozzies. In a class of their own.

The rainy summers. The crazy thunderstorms. The cold, the cold, the cold. Plugging in the car. The daily grind of shovelling in -25C + windchill temps. Scraping ice off the windscreen. Boosting the car because the cold killed the battery again. Icy streets with drivers who refuse to get snow tires. Furnace cranking along drying out the house. Natural gas bills of $180 a month in winter. And that leftover blowing grit in April and May is the sign of spring...they eventually clean the streets in June. Yay.

Magpies, oh the magpies. Drove one of my neighbors so crazy that she pulled out an air rifle one day...

I bet. Look, I've lived most of my adult life in Alberta. And now three years in Perth. Neither place is utopia, and my points show that whatever drives someone batty in WA could drive them equally crazy in Alberta. I like both places well enough, and will be returning to Alberta one day (no idea when, however, I won't be in WA for good), but I wouldn't think that it is somehow free of many of the gripes you have about WA. Alberta has its own bogans (rednecks). Oh and more than our fair share of racists, right wing nuts ("Let's separate!"). We apparently don't have any culture except for beer, hockey, Ford F-150s, and Tim Hortons. We're just a vast emptiness of prairie and parkland punctuated by big American chain box stores (oh, now Target has taken over Zellers, yippee). It will, in many ways, be similar to WA. Resource heavy, blue collar, and small c conservative. It's just that it will be a heck of a lot colder, but the consolation will be it'll be closer to the UK for trips back.

I do find both places similar. As long as you go into it with your eyes open, knowing that in many ways, you'll be moving to the sister province of WA, then all will be good.

hi japonica

thank you for your comments: however i did NOT write any of that, it was a post i copied and pasted from another thread, i didnt once state that it was my opinion, i was just demonstrating what others think of Australia. Like i said if we dont get the visa for canada it wont be the end of the world as i do like it here (as i said originally!) and if we do and Alberta is as bad as the picture you paint, then we can come back.... at least we cant say we didnt try!!!

oh and $180 a month for natural gas - cheap as, my bill is double that here lol!!! not to mention the electric bill in the summer due to the aircon that is never off

and no thats not a moan, doesnt bother me..... one thing i think i will really miss about OZ is the weather, i dont think it could be more perfect anywhere else.... just loving this time of year not to hot or too cold

We're in SA yes and we love it. Summer can get a bit hot, but generally nice weather and Adelaide is quite modest compared with the other cities which is right for us. Our area is very quaint and leafy and we can see the ocean so we're happy. By the way - do you have Australian citizenship? If not, you should get it if you can before you go, in case things don't work out.