Jay-Producer

Me and my partner will be moving to Canada around May 2009 to check it out after we have been to New Zealand. We have narrowed our preferred choice between Edmonton and Halifax. However we are undecided of which one would be the better choice.

Could anyone give us some information which might help us decide. Down below is a list of what we want and don't want out of a city.

Don't:

Not too windy: I can't stand it when it's windy neither can my partner. If anyone has been to Edinburgh you'd understand why!

Crime: High crime rate is a no no, although if everything else fitted into our desires I wouldn't mind so much considering I lived in London for years.

Graffiti: So long as it is not plastered everywhere we don't mind so much.

Skyscraper delight: I personally don't like sky scrapers but my partner doesn't mind. So the less the better


Wants:

-Nice cafe's: comfortable ones, not the plastic seating type you get all the time. One's with lovely sofa's and a relaxing atmosphere.

-Nice architecture: I know nothing will compare to Edinburgh but it has to be NON industrial.

- Affordable housing: although by the time we move a lot will change.

- Greenery: Plenty parks and greenery. We love Adelaide for that, there are so many parks and trees here it's great. We like walking so parks etc are important, we don't want to walk around and just see sky scrappers.

-Relaxing city - nothing like London where everyone is running about and banging into you.

- Friendly people with a good attitude.

- Nice pubs: Ones that have sofa's and comfortable seating and a relaxed atmosphere - not your old mans pub or yob (if that's the correct word usage) style loud ones.

- Good job opportunities in the community sector (Occupational Therapist and Community Educator; Youth Work etc). Hard to answer I know but someone may have an idea.

- Shopping: Like a typical women my partner loves her shopping. I couldn't care less.

val50

I haven't been to Edmonton so I'm afraid I can't offer a comparison between the 2 places. Whilst Halifax would certainly fit some of your criteria, I think you have to be a special kind of person to be able to live here happily. Weather in Halifax itself can be quite different from the rest of the province, it can get quite windy but doesn't usually last. I find the fog and humidity more of a problem.
The centre of Halifax does get it's share of crime - I know the universities suggest the students use the free service they offer to get home from campus after dark. Being a sea port, it gets it's fare share of shootings, murder, rape etc. and drugs are a problem. There is some pretty impressive graffiti, especially downtown but not so much in the suburbs. Few high rise buildings in Halifax - one development approved with much controversy last year is still waiting to start. Still some nice old buildings, but many were blown up in the Halifax Explosion. If you are looking at living in Halifax itself then you have to be careful what area you look at. It is divided into North (wouldn't consider it) Central (high crime rate, famous for Gottingen Street), West (nice family area, smaller houses, gardens etc) and South (The place to live in HRM - or so the residents think) Again, Halifax is a university city so many of the big old houses have been divided into appartments and noise is a problem during term time. The only cafe's I can think of that fit the bill are at Chapter's (local book store). There are a few around the university but I've found them dirty and not at all the sort of place you'd want to go to often. Starbucks, Second Cup, Tim Horton's are the popular sort of cafe's here.
Again, affordable housing is available in Halifax, but it depends on what you want, size of house, area etc. There is a reason many people live in the suburbs such as Bedford, Fall River and not in Halifax itself.
In south end Halifax, you have Point Pleasant Park, which is nice, and you can walk along the waterfront. The Ravines, in Bedford is also a nice place to walk but you are always aware of the noise of the highway, houses surrounding the area etc.
There are quite a few pubs in Halifax, but again, most of them cater to students, can't really think of many that offer what you are looking for.
I know of 2 expats who looked for work as OT's here in Halifax, and found the requirements (retraining, working with mentor's etc) put them off. Think you will find (mainly due to union input) it difficult to get work in this field. Another BE member who had decades experience and qualifications in this area had no luck either and has just gone back to UK.
Bayers Lake, Dartmouth Crossing and Micmac mall are the main shopping areas. They are much of the same. One thing I found difficult to get used to is that only so much gets delivered to the shops here in NS - when it's sold that's it until the following year.
This is just my personal experience of living in NS part of the year for the last 3 years - sure others will be along soon with their opinions

Jay-Producer

Thank you for that. Where were you before moving?

dormy

I think I would echo these thoughts, HRM has its good and bad points, just like every city in the world; there is something for everyone but on a smaller scale than most places, it is a very small city after all.

Some come over and love it immediately, some hate it, you will never know without trying it out, the same will go for Edmonton, please do not decide on the advice of others or on what you read, while it can be expensive make reccie trips, but ultimately worth it in the long term

val50

France

Jay-Producer

We are doing a world Recce trip. So don't worry we will be visitng both places but we wanted somewhere to live for a few months and base ourselves.

Jay-Producer

You should know about cafes then

Paul Wildy

I cant say I necessarily agree with Val50 on some of the comments about Halifax. I certainly dont see that you need to be "a special kind of person" to live here. Halifax is an extremely easy city to live in - fairly pleasant weather (not extreme cold like Edmonton in the winter), nice parks, beautiful architecture (seeing as its very old compared to most of Canada), great pubs (a lot more like british pubs than in many parts of Canada). People in the maritimes are extremely friendly and Halifax is no exception. Housing is affordable (comparred to other cities in Canada). Traffic jams are extremely rare and comuting into the city is easy.

Dowtown Halifax can get windy seeing as its on the ocean. Are you actually planning to live downtown in either city or are you thinking in a suburn nearby and comute in? A lot of Val50's comments, especially in reference to crime, are very specific to downtown (and even then only specific areas) in my view - surrounding areas are generally very crime free. And even in downtown I would say that you feel quite safe walking through the city at night and you wont see any of the kind of yobbish behaviour that blights british towns and cities at night.

I have never been to Edmonton so I cant comment on it first hand. I would expect it would win hands down over Halifax in employment opportunities and salary levels. I also heard it has quite high crime but you would need to get some actual stats to know for sure if thats true. I would certainly think Halifax would win over Edmonton in culture, friendliness and architecture.

Novocastrian

Eh? It doesn't work like that. Check the wiki.

Jay-Producer

We will be living in the city. We have always done so for the past 5 years and we like the convenience. Crime is always high in the city centre's because of where all the pubs and clubs are. Thats normal in most cities i presume.

Jay-Producer

Doesn't work like what?

dwight-van-man

Hey Jay,

This may or may not help but we're in Edinburgh now and have reccied Halifax v Toronto. We wanted to be East coast based so haven't been to Edmonton. Our priority is to find somewhere we can live centrally, mainly for ease of access to the kind of facilities you mentioned. In a nutshell, we loved Halifax, but felt it was too small and far away from most places for us to be able to settle there. Its a beautiful place, very relaxing, very like Edinburgh in fact, although it takes time to get used to how friendly people are - that ISNT like Edinburgh!! If you want to live in a city and need everything on your doorstep, then maybe Halifax isn't the right choice. Our feeling was that, although we liked Toronto less, it had more to offer us and ticked more boxes - BUT, we enjoyed visiting Halifax so much we're going back in February (so we can see some snow and some Moosehead hockey!)

Jay-Producer

Thank you for that. Good to get some info from someone who has lived in Edinburgh to help with the comparison. If its like Edinburgh in some ways then that would be great We are aware of it being very much secluded from everywhere else. As long as we can get a train or bus to another city easy enough that won't be too bad and if we can just jump in the car and go for a scenic drive that would be great. My partner is more worried about being able to shop on Sunday more than anything else. We read that all the shops are closed on Sunday's, is this the case?

The size was also a put off for us about Halifax. Is it really that much smaller than Edinburgh?


Thank you again for all that info.

dwight-van-man

No worries! Still am in Edinburgh - we've got a two year plan..... Difficult to say if Halifax is smaller than Edinburgh or not tbh.... I think it is physically bigger but it felt smaller if that makes any sense - but remember this is all just my shallow, blinkered opinion! Driving wise, I think we worked out it was quicker to drive to Boston than Toronto. Also the flights from Halifax to Toronto are more expensive for our nxt trip than the last by a fair margin (but that shouldn't really be a surprise...) We weren't there on a sunday so no idea if the shops are open or not I'm afraid. If you're even half considering it tho, you definitely have to go, even just to discount it. As i said in my earlier post, we loved it as a place to visit. Check out the estate agents websites and job search sites too to see whats available in your price range, salary band etc. That was also a deciding factor for us...

New Zealands full of sheep and hobbits btw - you can get that in Aberdeen

Jules Europe

You and your partner hate the wind so why are you going to Canada??? Why do you think its so cold in winter, because its the artic wind that blows in making it cold. Go to BC because its protected by the rockies and you won`t be blown away so much. As for not liking skyscrapers well thats part of the north american make-up something you will have to get used to and walking around parks is not going to hide you from those skyscrapers either. If you lived in Edinburgh then houses prices nearly everywhere in Canada will be cheap. As for nice pubs you can find them everywhere. Friendly people well both Canada and USA have plenty of friendly people much more so than in miseries in Europe.