I was thinking back on some of the surprises or 'shocks' one had to adjust to on coming to Canada or to AB in particular and one of the big ones is the whole attitude to work which has been mentioned a few times in many other posts. Just thought I would say what I noticed incase it helps a few newbies.....

....there is really no welfare state here (I will confine my comments to AB as that is all the experience we hAVE so far) so the whole life here is much more kind of basic...there really is a whole 'survival' factor that somehow one is more insulated from in the UK, partly because the weather here is so brutal in the winter so you HAVE to get your living situaiton well-sorted out or you die ! People expect you to be fully responsible for yourself and accountable, more so than in many parts of the UK where the 'victim' mentality is more prevalent. It is an attitude that pervades the whole system. You have to work to survive here, no hand-outs or housing benefit to fall back on ! I am not passign judgement on whether this is good or bad just saying it like it is. So work seems to be the be all and end all for everyone. As a rule EVERYONE works, moms too.... if you have a part-time job people look at you like whats your excuse then ? They like to start work early, many of them are up at 5am and when you come in to the office at 9am they say 'Good Afternoon' to you without sarcasm and talk about how nice the weather was that morning.
If you take a holiday it is looked down on by many and if you are ever sick woe betide you ! this is the land of the rufty tufty red-neck who still crawls into work even if his leg is hanging off !
....you will be expected to get to work punctually at 8am on the whole, take 1/2hr for lunch and be grateful for the first 3 years that you get 2 weeks holiday... you have no 'rights' as a worker here, it is all the Boss is King mentality so if he doesn't like u he can fire u and thats that !

On differences between the sexes: everyone here is male. AB is not the place to come if you like to wear dresses (watch it Butch Cassidy !) and high heels ! Women pride themselves on being as capable as their menfolk....they all have jobs and they don't have that mentality so peculiar to young english women of colluding in being 'girlie victims' on some level. It is all about being up and cheerful and chipper and gung ho you can do it girl ! Very Cheerleader ! So they don't seem to get those jokes where women poke fun at men. I get a lot of very funny emails from my english friends along those lines but if I send them to my AB girlfriends they don't get it and just look puzzled. Having said that it IS sexist. Rarely does one meet a top level woman exec unless they paved their own way through running their own business. Which brings me back to work. In the UK MLM is often looked down on (as I recall) but here it is big time business. Lots of people have 2 jobs and one of them will be their own MLM or other business. People are extremely enterprising here and very action-oriented to making thinsg happen. It really is the land of opportunity. I would say it is a great place for younger people who have a lot of energy to move up the ladder in life and try their hand at many different things like working in the Oil-patch etc. It is just not a very refined place so if you are a finer soul it might not be the right place for you. I do hear there is a great Music scene in the Whyte Ave area but thats also where a lot of the equivalent of English yobs hang out.

...another thing we notice is that people seem to be much more switched on on the whole about finances and investing....everyone seems to be so much shrewder here or maybe we just got wiser ourselves !

The native Indian community is very evident but sadly not always in a dignified way.... it is something the AB government (and presumably the people) buy off their conscience by giving big handouts to them in all sorts of ways such as building them great big Gaming Casinos saying the money will go to the local native community. Great except that the majority of that native community then end up working/drinking or addicted to gambling in the place and have to head off to one of the numerous 12 step centres to try and come back to their senses.

Everything here is BIG, trucks, houses, people.....it is the land of bigger is better, and more is more and thats what we all want. People say it is more relaxed here but that is just because people aren't yet having to live under the pressure that they live in in a place like London. In other words it is not to the credit of the people here that life 'seems' more relaxed here. Actually if you scratch the surface you find people here have just as many lines inside as they do anywhere else in the world.

Overall though I'd say the Candians we meet do appear to be more grown-up or wholesome than your average Brit but the downside of that is they don't have our peurile toilet humor !!! ha ha ha...

so those were my thoughts for the day....hope i did not offend anyone !

Squidlet

MLM - ??

MLM - Multi level Marketing....Network Marketing I think it might be known as....

Thanks! Good post.

Not one spinnet of info here that would put me off. Watch out - Alberta here we come. Well maybe not for a year. But hoping sooner rather than later.

wo questions.
1) are you posting this as your experience?
2) do you live in edmomton?

Butch

This is the part I would warn people against and is one of the main reasons we are going back. People always say that the quality of life is better here but I say it depends on what you measure your quality of life by. After thinking about that it will depend if your quality of life is better here or not.

For me a lot of my quality of life is measured on 1) Job security 2) Career opportunities 3) Making friends. I rate these three things a lot higher than Landscape, stuff I can do in my spare time outside and weather which are three of the great things about canada.

1) Job Security. People really can fire you with No Just Cause, no matter how long you have worked somewhere, very far behind the UK if you ask me. No verbal warning, written warnings just instant dismissal with 1 months pay for every year you worked.

2) Career opportunities. Depends totally on your career, for me much more opportunity in UK.

3) Friends. Made so many more friends in the UK than here and the friends that I have made are nothing like my brit friends in terms of loyalty, humor etc.

If you measure your quality of life by different things to me then your experience can be completely different. You still have to be concerned about your job security though. Scary.

The part I put in bold I would disagree with. The concrete (as opposed to glass) ceiling part I agree with. Never in my life I have seen and met so many male dependent, girlie victim women in this little ol' patriarchal society over here. Solidarity exists until a potential husband and breadwinner comes along then watch the claws come out. Strong independent women are looked upon as weird. I like weird. Screw 'em.

Are we talking about the same "Alberta"?

Otherwise known as pyramid-selling. Or flogging crap to your friends and relatives, and hoping that you can sign them up as an "associate" and get a commission on the crap that they then sell to their friends and relatives.

I thought I would fan a few flames !!

Yes we live in Edm and yes this is my experience and thats all I can speak from ! Glad to know its different for others !

Squidlet

And loads of people I know here do MLM so not sure why someone says it is illegal, I see it everywhere !

Altho yes I was exaggerating about no welfare state, there is a benefits system here but it is nothing like you get in the UK.

Guess we all move in different circles eh ?

Good luck to those of you moving here and staying here !

Squidlet

Hi there

I just arrived back in the UK for a business trip for 2 weeks from Canada (MOntreal) so contrasts are pretty fresh to me..

In terms of the economy I think the UK is far far more dynamic than Canada. In fact speaking as someone who actually does business in both countries. The UK is streets ahead.

People seem to work smarter in England, using the internet and mobile communications much more, wasting less time, therefore they are able to work less hours and take more holidays.

It is so much easier to network with other businesses in the UK via the internet, I get a huge amount of business through internet forums that are UK based. These are really lacking in Canada. The UK is a bigger market with a larger population, in much closer proximity, this also helps.

Ebay Canada is a real joke as 90 per cent of stuff is in the US. I found out the hard way when I ordered a buggy for my kid and got charged import tax of $120, more than the item was worth.

It also makes me laugh how the airlines have stitched up North America, especially Canada, eg Montreal - NYC return $500, a 45 minute flight!!. I just booked an air ticket to Venice from London for £40 return

I think economically canada will always be wrapped around Uncle sam's little finger.

However on the positive side, superficially the cities are cleaner than UK towns and although violent crime levels are similar, Canada doesn't have the Friday night punchup culture.

In Montreal at least property is a bargain, with huge rooms when I got back to London on Friday the tiny British rooms seemed to be closing in on me. The British washing machines and appliances are also laughably small.

Any thats my 6 pence (cents) worth

Jonathan

No flames 'fanned'. I was simply pointing out FACTS, which, by definition can't be an opinion

Just wondering Calgal....are you Canadian ?