Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Still have affordable housing there?

That's the only issue in Whistler, otherwise it would be an ideal place to live for those seeking outdoors.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

For the OP, RICH's suggestion of a ski resort is a good one, people live year round at Sun Peaks, Silver Star and Big White. I've no idea of house prices at Sun Peaks but Big White is cheaper than Silver Star and for e.g. I found: #2 200 Moonshine Crescent, Big White, V1P 1P3 | Big White Property Group
Seems a very reasonably priced home, it looks like there's a school up there as well although it's about an hour from Kelowna itself. There's a need for construction/renos/maintenance workers in the ski resorts and from owners we know, they all charge a premium because "it's up the hill"
Outside of the Okanagan, Nelson may be worth a look, it's a lovely hippie laid back town, nice lake and more extreme skiing it seems. A family we met there told us they hiked up the mountains with their dog then skied down, given the mountains there, that would be no mean feat! We all loved it but too remote for us, we wanted an airport close by , Nelson's nearest is " Cancelgar"!
Revelstoke and Golden may also be worth a look. Revelstoke has some extreme skiing I'm told!

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Single family homes start around $350k. A 3,000sq/ft duplex can be purchased for $325k. Condos are around half those prices.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

That's even cheaper then Squamish for a single family. Not bad at all.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

[QUOTE=bobble;11746816
I would love to hear from anyone, who moved over for similar reasons and find out how it is working out.
Thanks[/QUOTE]

I moved for the exact same reasons you want to, I live in Whistler and work as a backcountry guide.

I have lived in all the outdoorsy areas of the UK, the lakes, North Wales, Scotland etc and also in the French Alps.
I do miss my classic UK scrambles and ridges but in general all of the above just does not compare to the outdoor opportunities in BC; The skiing, The sledding, Powder up to my chin, The steepness, The remoteness, Bright Bright blue glacier lakes, hugh crevasses, bears, cougers!! ....
I could go on and on but you get the point.

For any truly dedicated mountaineer/skier I really feel like I live in the best place on Earth. There is a lifetime of adventure and still then you would only just have scratched the surface.
There are plenty of people here who have made the move for lifestyle and in my town you can live so many different lives.
You can party with the 18 year old Aussies until you drop or you can live a holistic, healthy lifestyle. There is a great community once you get past the seasonal's.

Now to the negatives
Other than the outdoors I find Canada quite boring, the west coast is bland. I'm sure others might have a different opinion but that's just mine.
Everything is on my doorstep but I miss planning and looking forward to weekends away. I miss the pub culture, quaint towns, oldness and architecture rather than row after row of vinyl siding.
I'm planning a move to interior BC where I can daytrip to different ski resorts and towns. Other than Vancouver I find that we're quite isolated in Whistler.
At first I did not mind the drive to the city but now it's just so frustrating to drive so far for a pair of jeans, to take a course or buy car parts when my stoopid motor needs repair.
If you live in a major city this obviously is not a concern but for the lifestyle you want this is the reality.


It's expensive!!!! Very and alot of the work seasonal. I don't need to earn a lot but I've found it a struggle the last few years. I can't afford a season pass and find I take as much work I can which means I'm not enjoying the things I moved here for but still have the high cost of living associated with the lifestyle.
I'm changing career and my plan is to live in a small/medium town (BC standards) with steady work but still close to the resorts. Maybe Cranbrook or similar.
You already have a trade though and trades pay well in BC so you may not have the difficulty I have had.

Flights, well Canadians must have rip me off tattooed on their foreheads. It's a big country with not alot of people so competition is not the same as the UK and prices I find high.

Even with the above though, I love Canada. I have so much more opportunity for both for lifestyle and career.

There are so many cool outdoor spots to live here, enjoy researching them and making a decision :)

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Bold mine.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

For this part of the country (south of Muskoka) there is Barrie, Ontario as a place to do everything that you want & still be one-hour from the airport, a major centre, schools, hospitals & work

Google it as well as map it to see many of the things that you've been looking for

Barrie Ski Resorts - Skiing and Snowboarding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrie

http://www.barrie.ca/Pages/default.aspx

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

A comparison of snow fall Mont -Blanc France to Barrie Ontario

Snowfall History (Snowfall 2015) - Chamonix Mont-Blanc - OnTheSnow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowbelt

Skiing & Snowboarding

"Barrie, Ontario is your perfect winter wonderland for skiing and snowboarding. Barrie is situated in a natural snow belt, and is blessed with lake effect snowfalls throughout the winter months. Only 45 minutes north of Toronto, the Barrie area receives approximately 100 inches of snow per year. Combined with state-of-the-art snowmaking and grooming facilities, this makes for powder-perfect alpine and nordic conditions all winter long."

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

tee1

Thanks,
You sound very similar in respects of priorities to us. Really good honest appraisal of the reality of life in the mountains.
In balance, non of the downsides are any worse or any greater than those living in the UK (particularly cornwall) but the positives, as we expected, certainly outweigh them anyway.
The crux will be, as it seems for you, to find a balance where there is enough time to do the things we move there for, if we still end up working 5 days a week 9-10 hrs a day, theres no point. Although i have a done the maths and we have a pretty cheap day to day lifestyle and as long as there is money for kit, we dont need to earn all that much.
We are lucky in that, i built the house we live in which is worth a lot more than it cost us to build, so if we were to move, we should be able to buy a house with no debt, a massive monthly saving against what we need to earn.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

"White Flight" from the South has brought thousands to Scotland.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

You won't get that in an urban area in Canada.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

For the majority of positions teaching at a college a degree will be required. Without a degree there is no way that one can teach at a university.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Really? My parents owned a cottage while I was growing up and we weren't rich (Mum was a housewife and Dad a plumber/pipe fitter).

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

It's quite common for rich people to not think they are rich.

Associate with other rich folk and it seems normal.

"We're not rich, just last month we had to sell one of the Bentleys."
:lol:

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Passed down though? And also depending on area.... Sure you can get a small cottage... But anyhow N2O was pointing as a vacation rental and they are pretty pricey to rent. I've been contemplating buying a small rental cottage ourselves to rent out..

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Why not look at places east of Algonquin Park. Barry's Bay and suchlike. You could head to the Laurentians for skiing and Ottawa for culture

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Doesn't mean a plumber family on a single income could afford one today. My parents were not rich either a warehouse worker and paramedic (paramedics are not well compensated in many many regions of the US and my mom was not well paid like paramedics in Canada are.) and could afford a lot of things a couple with 2 kids doing the same jobs today in that area could not do now.

Times changes.

So true, spot on. :thumbsup:

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

It's conceivable.

Real estate in certain places in Canada is not expensive and real estate was probably much more affordable in Colchar's parents day.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Having spent a fair amount of time around the Alps I would say here is better, because (a) language; (b) lower cost of living and (c) less people about.

And now everyone is going to chip and whine about how much it costs to live in Vancouver, well who says you have to live in Vancouver, you could live in eastern BC or Alberta.

However the economy is rapidly going down the tubes here because of the drop in the price of oil.

Winters are more severe here, and once again someone is going to chip in and say "not in BC" and if you think non-stop rain somehow makes the Fraser Valley preferable to the Alps, think again.

But obviously asking people who moved to Canada whether it's a good idea to move to Canada is going to get you the answer that yes it is. If you ask people who moved to France you might get a different opinion. :lol:

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

I wouldn't recommend anyone move to the Fraser Valley, it's okay I suppose but I didn't care for it. Too conservative for my liking.

I'd take cold and sunny Alberta over warmer but grey coastal southern BC, sunshine is the best thing in winter, days are too short to have nothing but clouds...lol

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

:goodpost:

agree on those points.

The OP though is set on a Canadian rugged, outback wilderness, all the snow they can get [wait till they see the Canadian outback], not so much worried about earning a living to survive [they have lots of money to spare after buying a place] as mentioned its down to where. Alberta is a good choice, as is [mentioned up thread] Mont-Tremblant that they can get a all year round cottage or house in the low $200k range or lower [source http://www.realtor.ca ]

http://passerelle.centris.ca/Redirec...OR.CA&Langue=E

.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

With that kind of oversensitive attitude, you will fit in well in Canada. ;)

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

A truly Canadian response. Automatic PR status - approved!

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Pretty much everybody offered you non judgemental advice. You have made some presumptions yourself, such as assuming that Colchar thought you didn't have a degree - nowhere did he mention that he thought you didn't have one, he was simply stating that they're a necessity to be a university lecturer.

And my guess about the 'urban' comment is simply because of your occupation - you won't find many universities that aren't in an urban area! :lol:

Don't take it all personally, I honestly can't see where anybody on this thread has been rude to you. They may have given negative opinions, but that doesn't invalidate them.

You will get loads of good advice on BE (and some that's not so good), but the nature of a public forum is that you will get thread drift/personal comments/etc - if somebody breaks a site rule (i.e. insults you) then feel free to use the report button to bring it to the mods attention, but otherwise just try to ignore anybody that you don't agree with.

HTH.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Why do you assume Colchar "assumes" you don't have a degree? Never mentioned apart from in the context of lecturing - unless I'm missing something.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Besides being smarter than a 5th grader, you will also find & notice through the many threads here that folks on BE are the most helpful of any ex pat forum.

I believe the last few pages have provided more information that you expected, more than what you would find if you'd made a recce - take the FREE information posted for what its worth.

Of course you have told us little if anything about yourself other than looking at Canada as one of your options, that you & yours are educated, that you have some money & that you live in Cornwall.

My suggestion for the second time, is no matter where you plan on emigrating too, the suggestion is to make a recce first before applying for a visa or selling the farm. If its Canada, suggest that you come visit in the dead of winter sometime mid February & in mid August to get the real feel experience of the outdoors.

All the best to you & thanks for your OP to the forum members, for those which participated in the discussions amongst ourselves, views from those that live in different parts of the country, some are new immgrants others like myself have been here for decades & some may have been here & who now back living in the UK or some other country.

The world is such a small place as is the world wide web.:nod:

Walk in the shoes of an immigrant first before criticsing one :amen:
.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

That's a nice find, not2old, but it's not ski-in/ski-out, whether x-country or downhill, and it's on the wrong side of the 117 for direct access to the cycle/x-country ski trail.

There's Mont-Tremblant the ski resort, & there's Mont-Tremblant postal addresses... It's also suspiciously low priced for the area.

Not to mention jobs & language... Although there is an outpost of the CEGEP in Mont-Tremblant, & the main campus is about an hour down the highway in St-Jerome - no idea whether the OP's qualification/subject would be viable for teaching there. There's also the Anglo High School in Ste-Agathe, but available jobs there are few and far between.

(M-T is my neck-of-the-woods ;). )

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

I don't suppose we'll hear from you again after your little outburst about people being unhelpful, but just in case we do, are you shure you comfortably have enough points to gain a PR Visa without a job offer? As Christmas posted, there is a big difference between having whatever the criteria are for expression of interest (or whatever it's called now) and actually having enough points for automatic PR status. It sounds like your intention would be to live in the wilds and enjoy the outdoorsy lifestyle without putting a great deal back into the system. I'm not really sure that's how it is intended to work. I think the intention of the immigration process is that you would be a net asset to the country.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

Think about what you just said about the kids. They have the freedom to that now, Scotland, the Alps, north Wales etc. Where you are now they *also* have the freedom to become artists, writers, actors etc, those opportunities don't come around so much in the PNW. What if science is more their thing? Again they have better chances in the UK. If travel turns out to be their thing then they're screwed, you have to spend a lot of money and travel a very long way from BC to experience anything noticeably different or stimulating.
It seems to me you're wanting to limit your children's choices not expand them.
The lack of cultural identity here makes me weep on a regular basis, no hyperbole. Their lack of national identity is little short of pathetic, the press may have called Tony Blair America's poodle but the whole of Canada is America's bitch, again no hyperbole.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

How do you judge, Jack, the lack of cultural identity? Surely it's a Canadian identity, which is simply different from British. An interesting perspective, nonetheless.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

In the context of a Canadian cultural identity, I think it's rather hard to judge something that's almost impossible to see or quantify.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

I am just a poor imitation of Alan2005.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

America Lite, innit?

That is, Canada is very like the more benign parts of the US, Maine or Wisconsin or Oklahoma, not like the dangerous or exciting parts, Gary or NYC or Nawlins.

Re: To consider Canada or not
 

On a popular level, yes. Although there is no disputing the depth of American 'identity'.