Yes, and for less than I earned in the UK. At least, initially.

Interesting. As I say I think both places are ok - as is much of the Lower Mainland. I'm just not convinced it would be worth the cost and effort to leave the UK without a very good relocation package. Some areas of Vancouver, maybe. Dunno, I find myself trying to compare Vancouver, Toronto and various places in the UK and it's hard.

I am using a bit of Geographic license as we first lived in Cloverdale but it is only a few blocks from Langley.

Having decided on the Lower Mainland, but not knowing the area in any detail or where I was going to find work, it seemed a reasonable compromise. Commutable to most areas, a reasonable selection of relatively affordable housing, reasonable access to facilities, "family friendly," and the drive to downtown or the mountains was fine on weekends.

Even today, if I was told I had to move to either Langley or Coquitlam I wouldn't slit my wrists as long as I could choose whereabouts in either city I could live.

Honestly, Ive grown up in B.C. my whole life and here is the downlow on both

Housing in Coquitlam is considerably more because it is a little closer to vancouver and the coveted "Westwood plateau" is where all the hockey players, stars and stuff live that dont live in the british properties and the west end of vancouver. It isn't as safe as Langley but the transit is MUCH better to get to vancouver from coquitlam, if you want to get downtown for a show or something. If your in langley, you most likely would park and ride or drive all the way downtown. If your considering Langley dont move into downtown as there is a bigger loser population there with low income families... Go to Murrayville, Brookswood, walnut grove and Willowby.. this is where you will want to be if you choose langley. Coquitlam has two sides to it. The Lougheed side and the Coquitlam Mall Side. Lougheed is comparable to langley for price because of the older homes and older families living there the coquitlam mall side is very developing and there is a ton of new homes there. Prices will be considerably more there.

Langley has a more prevalent bible community and has a visible white majority where as coquitlam has a visible persian/korean majority. Port Coquitlam your looking back towards a white majority HOWEVER, i wouldnt recommend port coquitlam as the schools are HORRBILE (kids are often involved in drugs) and there is a few shootings/gang activity a year there. Its' sad but true... dont move to Poco... (port coquitlam) you will regret it.

Langley has a great school system minus Langley Secondary.. my cousin goes there and he says its way way way too big for the staff there ( thank you canadian govnt) and he went from an A average to a C average in a matter or 6 months. Now thats not all the teachers.. he turned into a lazy ass but it seems when i talked to him that they didnt really care that he was losing his average. His mom said the same thing. Other then Langley secondary. Brookswood secondary, Mountain secondary and walnut grove secondary are decent schools ive herd nothing but good things about them.
Coquitlam i have herd good things about they're schools and alot of graduates from there go on university. My brother in law went to Centennial and he liked it.

Both are neither horrible neighborhoods nor great neighborhoods. You will find that anywhere in the greater vancouver area tho. Every place has its ups and downs, you cant avoid it. Just stay away from poco...

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you need anymore info : )

depends where in the UK does it not? Granted there are many nicer spots in the UK and a hell of lot worse, much worse.

Depends on your motivation to immigrate. If one is moving for 'change for the sake of change' and new experiences, the relocation package would be irrelevant.

It's strange that Poco schools would be so much more horrible than coquitlam considering they're all under one school district. I call bs on that.

edited to add: this is the problem I find...schools develop reputations that aren't often accurate. I know it's teh case in Burnaby, but when you look at the actual results -i.e. hard data there's little to choose between them.

IMO the best way to find out is to go to a school and talk to actual parents who send their kids there. I really doubt Poco high schools have any worse problems with drugs than anywhere else in the LM- drugs are a problem everywhere - I worked there for a while and it seemed like a perfectly ok place to raise kids to me. Hopefully someone who actually lives there will be along shortly.

You are quite right, I doubt there is a school in the province that has no exposure to drugs and problems. When a student does not do well, it is all to easy to blame the school, when there can be many other factors that come into play.

Personally for our kids, we did watch the catchment area a school drew from when making a decision where to send the kids. Have no idea if it made a difference. However to do this you have to know the neighbourhoods, or as you say talk to a number of parents, don't rely on one or two opinions.

In many instances, if kids are getting into trouble, they will do it no matter what you do, where they come from and where they go to school. Some kids it seems have everything and still blow it.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/...layer_apology/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...t-athlete.html