Good Points, Bad Points
 

So you have already made the move to Canada-What are the best and worst things about living there?

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

In lieu of forum posts from folks, a few of the members here have blogs in the siggys.

In the meantime, have a look at this wiki page - a few blog and article links there from folks that have made the move in years gone by.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Real_Life_Accounts-Canada

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

An incomprehensive list for Eastern Ontario

Pros:

Mortgage is only $650 a month, so some money to spend elsewhere (Running 2 not ancient cars, piano and skiing for kids for example) (May not apply in most other areas)
View is of river (May not apply in most other areas)
Relaxed lifestyle(May not apply in most other areas)
Little to no crime or worrying about it(May not apply in most other areas)
I like where I work and the people here. There is a real sense of community (Stirling Hockeyville for example, may not apply in other areas)
No traffic to deal with(May not apply in most other areas)

Cons
Family is a long way away. Its hard to raise two kids with no opportunity to fob them off on relatives, especially over a ten week summer holiday or whatever it is here.
Running a home is expensive, insurance, heating and electric costs, TV and internet etc etc. Roofs to reshingle and all that.
Winter is a month too long(May not apply in most other areas)
Too many flying biting insects when its not winter(May not apply in most other areas)
Its nice for a while, but 30+° for two months starts to wear, Ive not seen green grass in weeks(May not apply in most other areas)
Flights anywhere are very expensive, so you holiday in your back yard
Lots of nice countryside around, but little legal access to it, no footpaths or rights of way.
After ten plus years with my employer I now get 4 weeks vacation. I started on two!
Drivers in the city (Toronto) are insane.
No big mountains nearby.

Probably think of more as I go on. I like where I ended up (by chance rather then any planing, this is where the job turned out to be)

Bottom line is a job you enjoy that covers the many bills is essential to a decent life here I think.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Pros:
Family is a long way away.
Running a home is relatively inexpensive in a mild climate. Keep it waterproof and well ventilated. Brush up on your DIY skills.
Winter stays up in the mountains where it belongs.
No mozzies.
Summer temperatures in the mid 20Cs with a cooling sea breeze to help you sleep at night.
Collect points with everything for free flights.
Wilderness on your doorstep. Almost all Crown land were you can wander at will.
I work for myself so can have all the vacation I want.
Driving is much less aggressive than the UK.
Lots of big mountains everywhere you look.

Cons
Housing prices similar to London (UK)
Even more expensive if you have a view.
Having to meet the mortgage payments means you don't get as much time to enjoy the relaxed lifestyle as you want. Especially if relaxing involves alcohol.
There is crime in Canada.

YMMV :)

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Applies in other areas. :)

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Especially Vancouver. I find them much more agressive (passively moreso than not) than what i experienced in the UK. That's a huge con for me as i enjoyed driving in the places i lived in the UK, not so much in Vancouver.

Pro:
My life is just as good as it was in the UK
Scenery

Con:
Drivers are ****ing stupid
Costs much more to run my car in Canada

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Pros
Big house on a nice sized plot that I can afford to heat (wood)
Pool in my back garden
My children can play outside in the road and up the road and are outside way more than they were in England
Beaches are amazing and surround us
Long hot summers
Long beautiful Falls
real snow with blue sky and sunshine in the winter
My UK accounting qualification transferred to a Canadian one
Have a great job with travel
Can ski in the winter although slopes are not very big, but big enough for my level of bravery
Distance to the US and the ability to drive to Florida if I want to
Cicadas!

Cons
Distance from family and UK friends
Costs to fly anywhere
Cost of Food
Mobile bills
Cost of nice furniture
No pubs with pub gardens
lack of Pimms :(
Cost generally - this is not a cheap place by any means
Hubbys job - no direct translation of his UK one here or even a similiar level
The "old boys" club that seems to be around
Nepotism
Mosquitos and other b@#$d flying biting insects
horrible long cold brown spring

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Pros:
Land, Bears

Cons:
Annoying Canadians

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

NSLC sells Pimms - bought some just a couple of months back!

Now I've only been here since May 9th and spent 2 months living in Lunenburg with family before I moved into my own apartment in Halifax but so far...

Pros...
Better paid job than in the UK (Computer programmer) took me 2-3 months to find,
19 days vacation plus 11 bank holidays,
Beautiful weather,
Friendly people,
Lots of outdoors activities to do,

Cons...
Family and friends a long way off (although iPxxxx facetime is a lot better than skype) so I don't really feel very far from them.
Expensive food bills,
Expensive mobile phone bills,
Public transport out of Halifax not really very existent - Via rail to Montreal is cutting service and Acadian bus service I think is stopping soon, and as yet I don't have a car!
Expensive flights

That's all I can think of at the moment.

I'm on my own, so don't have anyone else to worry about which I think makes it a lot easier, and I'm finding things to fill my evenings with so I'm not bouncing around my still only half filled flat in the evenings - I've not bought a tv and signed up to cable so I can't go back to my old english lifestyle of vegging in front of the tv all evening! I do however have Netflix and access to BBC iPlayer for the rainy evenings! I admit I am a bit anxious about my first winter here, but keeping the bigger picture in mind - it'll be better than the life I had back in England!

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

That's a pro?

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

If you were on the UK minimum 20 days + 8 bank holidays then it is.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Unless you are off sick for more than one day.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Maybe I'm a lucky one, but my sick days don't come off my vacation time and I assumed that was typical for Canada.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Mine neither. I've currently got 578.19 hours of accrued sick time, should I need it.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Good points:
It's not Uzbekistan.
Margaret Thatcher was never Prime Minister.

Bad points:
It's not Europe.
Stephen Harper is Prime Minister.

HTH.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Actually - I don't know if it is typical or not. I have assumed that for most people sick days came off vacation time, but maybe I'm mistaken as I'm in the same position as you.

I know that for some vacation time tends to comes in different categories: family days; so-called "green" days; actual vacation etc. I can't say I've ever understood the difference between them all, or how sick days actually work for people.

Personally I don't think 19 + 11 is anything to write home about. Everyone I knew in the UK was on at least 25 + bh, with most on 30 + bh.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Writing this from the point of view of living in British Columbia as opposed to Canada as a whole.

Pros:
* More relaxed pace of life.
* Stunning Scenery, Unspoilt Nature, Every kind of Geography (coasts, snowy mountains, deserts, meadows).
* Less established, more room to make your own "mark", start your own business, contribute to the country in some way.
* More space.
* Near to the USA.
* Less judgemental people.
* Smaller government & lower taxes.
* Some really unique cultural assets.
* Reliably good service at restaurants (though my family has told me this is improving in the UK)
* Different selection of wildlife.
* Investment in the Community, new Libraries are being opened, compared to being closed down in the UK.
* Emergency services are always very fast to respond to calls (unless you are in a remote area)
* Clean and Tidy streets.
* Holidays are more spaced out throughout the year.

Cons:
* Poor infrastructure in Vancouver area - roads just as crowded as UK (though improvements are being made)
* Annoyingly high amount of immigrants who make no effort to integrate or even learn english.
* Terrible and dangerous driving.
* Poorer Road Signage.
* Speed limits unrealistically low - so everyone speeds.
* Government afraid to be radical when it really needs to be.
* Food more expensive - though shopping around, including cross border grocery shopping, can reduce this.
* Clothes more expensive and lower quality than UK supermarket clothes. Again cross border shopping avoids this.
* Canada Post is a rip-off, the Canadian eBay and Amazon are not worth even bothering with most of the time - it's often cheaper to buy locally.
* (BC) High housing cost, anywhere slightly nice (with a nice view for example) the price rockets up to insane multimillion dollar levels.
* (BC) Monopolized Car Insurance ICBC - no competition between companies for basic coverage. That being said the price would likely be high anyway with how badly people drive, then again in the back of my mind I wonder if people just rely on ICBC as a safety blanket because they know there will be no insurance hassle.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Edmonton AB, middle aged couple, here since '06, going back to UK in '14.

Good points:

My (Canadian) husband has a job.
He is paid 40% more than in UK.
We are closer to his family.
A brilliant GP working in a well equipped health centre.
Granola.
Being able to buy Ajvar in the Italian Centre (it's a Balkan chutney).
Quebec cheeses.
Greater support for the arts than in the UK.
Watching baby skunks and Jack-rabbits in the back yard.

Cons

A house that is essentially a glorified wooden shed.
The appalling climate.
A murder rate higher than central London.
Long waiting lists for hospital specialists.
Explaining to UK friends why I'm living in the Sodom and Gomorrah of climate change.
Mosquitoes.
Tornado warnings.
The cost of living, particularly food.
Dull flat landscape of the Prairies.
Shop assistants, who are at least three times as annoying as in the UK.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I figured compared to what I was expecting - yes it's a pro! I was on 23 days plus bank holidays but 3 had to be taken at Xmas! I was expecting to be on 2 weeks!

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Ah, ok. Fair enough.:)

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:p

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Are the two not linked?;)

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I was never on 25 days, the most I got was 23 too. I dont know that many on over 25 unless they work for the NHS. Here I have 20 days plus the 11 days BH and I get sick pay too (like England)

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I have never heard of sick days being deducted from vacation time.
I certainly didn't operate that way. If you were sick you would get up to three days grace before a doctor's note would be required. For longer terms I had both long and short term disability insurance in place for employees. As far as I am aware there was no abuse of the three day thing.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Depends where you are. Sounds like most who have replied are doing nice bits of Canada - the sort of scenic Canada you normally think of. I have been here a couple of months on the edge of Toronto and am facing a busy commute for reasonable money but less holiday than the UK. Since I got here I started a list of pluses and minuses and at the moment it is UK 0 and Canada -6 though this would change if I lived somewhere like the posters above. Also, the negatives that score on the UK are significant for me (more rabble, litter everywhere and stuffed economy) and the negatives for Canada are things to get used to (archaic banking system, expensive TV, internet, insurance etc).

Other than that, what's this about taking sick days out of holiday? I have not been through my terms in detail but there seems to be an "allowance" for number of sick days (an equally bad idea) but if I get ill and have to take it out of holiday, I'm offski.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I was on 30 and I've never worked in the public sector. Officially I get 25 now which I thought was good by local standards.

I guess I thought that sick days come out of some time off entitlement because people talk about accruing them. Why do they do that if it's not normal for it to come out of vacation time? (where vacation time = any time you are allowed to take off in the year)

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

We have litter, rabble, and a teetering economy in Vancouver so i'd not move there if i were you :nod:

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Some people (teachers in Ontario for example) can accrue sick days and get paid a proportionate bonus on retirement.

The OH has just cashed hers in. :thumbup:

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

In ON, after originally considering Vancouver... Depends where you are in any place; just happened to have ended up in a nice bit of ON as far as those things are concerned (where there is less, not "none" by the way). Maybe the UK is not as bad as we think; it's just the Daily Mail. Maybe...

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Yes and no. Academics are just paid more in Canada than the UK, so his level of pay has nothing to do with the tarsands, more a reflection of the fact that NATFE -- the UK university lecturers' union -- has done a crap job of representing its members interests for the last 30 years.

However, you would have been right to link the fact that he has a job with the tarsands. The Alberta universities have been expanding and recruiting, while universities elsewhere have been contracting.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

It's the daily mail. Where my mum and sister live the litter, rabble, and unemployment is not really different to vancouver.

So unfortunately your list is flawed if your Canada cons are based on reality, and your UK cons are based on media perception ;)

So with that in mind, move to Vancouver. It's ace here. I took the dog out for a shit this morning and we ran back inside pretty shaprish after we bumped into a black bear. Last night it was deer. Just bring a nice pair of wellies. :thumbup:

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Hopefully repeating the points covered by other posts in the thread.


Pros
Salmon fishing
Girls here have looser moral constraints.
Boris Johnson is not here.
They dress like tramps so you can save money on fashionable clothes and still look good.
Weather in July and August.
Great sushi

Cons
Pies are crap
All takeaway food except sushi, is rubbish here.
Too many fat people
Ice hockey – Sports in general is crap
Media in all forms is boring
Stiflingly bureaucracy
Rampant nepotism
Unions
Its boring
They can’t take a joke
Booze is too expensive and you can't get it at the supermarket when you do your big shop and so have to make an extra trip to a off-license type place. :thumbdown:

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I'm getting completely confused here.
Myself and my wife are planning to move to Canada next year but by the looks of it, it seems to be a higher percentage of bad points rather then good points.
I do realise that Canada have taxes on most things which can work out expensive and car insurance is expensive etc etc, but I was under the impression that housing was cheaper but then they're people saying it's the same cost as the UK which means it's bloody expensive.
So my question is whats the point of going through all the hassle of trying to get a job offer then sorting your visa out if people are saying "yeah it's sort of ok here in Canada"
We were getting so excited about starting a nice life in Canada but now were just thinking why do so many English move there if it's only kind of ok?
I'm not having ago it's just frustrating when your so looking forward to starting a new life in such a beautiful country and you see something like this thread and it can completely put you off the idea.
Please someone prove me wrong.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

I really do understand where you are coming from, some of these answers are tongue in cheek but the point is that it isnt perfect here. Its a big place too so house prices vary. We have more space and bang for our buck than we did in the UK but we came from the south of England and moved to Nova Scotia. There IS more space in Canada than the UK too which is great but that brings its own set of problems too - driving distance etc etc

You need to ascertain what you want from this move and why you want to be here. I love it here, its exactly the life I wanted. I am lucky. That said, its not without it frustrations.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

oh and dont look at the length of pros and cons list but rather whats in them, each list can differ too depending on where that person is and whats in their life.
The cost of things will probably remain the same, its not cheap here

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Most of the happy expats are off living their lives. Its just the habitual moaners who take time to post lists in threads like these.


Truth is canada is awfully big, and there is a broad range of experiences on offer.

Where were you thinking of heading?

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

Housing is cheaper in a lot of areas of Canada for a reason. Housing in Vancouver, which is a nice city and extremely scenic is very expensive. Housing in Toronto, which is not a terribly pleasant city and quite ugly in many parts is very expensive because there are a lot of employment opportunities. Bottom line, money and a good job will be the key to success. But realize it is a different country and you'll have less cultural capital here than in the UK.

Re: Good Points, Bad Points
 

We were thinking about either BC or Alberta but I'm not sure what kind of choice we'll have as I'm a Carpenter so initially I'll probably try and head where the work is.
Sorry about the rant. We do understand that Canada isn't perfect it just got us worrying abit, but as you say Canada is so big and everyone's circumstances are different.
Thanks for the more encouraging replies guys.
Paul.

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There are pros and cons everywhere. I suspect many of the choices listed were a bit tongue-in cheek or borne out of frustration from the minutia of everyday life.

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Same shit different bucket