Oink

You can take the boy out of Newcastle but you can't make him drink.

Alan2005

Gordon's alive!

judeyjudey

Thank you for that it's a stunning video. We are looking around the Alberta area if employment is going to be viable so thanks again

Sarah M 1

I think you shouldn't be put off experiencing a new life in Canada just because people are listing a fair few bad points. It's true that no where is perfect. But, nothing ventured nothing gained and for us had we not come here we'd have been forever wondering what life could have been like had we made the move. We've been in Calgary now for 8 months. We had originally wanted to go to Vancouver, but in the past 10 years the exchange rate from UK pound to CDN $ has plummeted making Vancouver out of reach in terms of price of rental accomodation. So here goes the pros and cons of living in Calgary to Herfordshire, UK.

PROS

* Alberta has a booming economy because of the oil. Lots of employment and my partner managed to get several job offers in advance of coming here. Imagine in depends somewhat on your skill set and how in demand it is. He works in IT sector.

* Salaries are generally on a par with UK from what I can see. However you do get a larger house here in Calgary for the same amount of rent that you'd pay in SE. We pay $1900 per month for a very large house with basement. Sounds a lot but remember the owners pay the council tax equivalent so you don't have that to add on.

* We've had a nice Summer. Weather has been in mid 20s for around 2 months now. The sun in Calgary is uplifting. This has to be one of the sunniest places on the planet.

* My partner enjoys the ease of getting to and from work. His journey is 30 mins on cheap public transport. He chooses public transport as its cheaper than paying to park and the monthly transit pass is only $94. Compare this to travel costs into London and the chaos of how long that used to take. So more time to spend with family.

* Lower taxes in Alberta as no PST so cheaper than other provinces.

* Technology goods seem to be cheaper than in the UK

* Close proximity to the US and other interesting places to go and explore and have holidays.

* Doesn't have the annoying system that they have in the UK where millions of people are exploiting the benefits system and where people have a sense of entitlement to handouts. Migrants who come to Canada appear to be coming to make the country better. In UK they seem to let anyone in and the media seems to report daily people coming into the country who are just there to bleed the place of every benefit going.... I found that sickening living there. At least in Canada it appears that if you work hard you will improve your standard of living. In UK we worked hard and people on benefits often appeared to have just as much if not more than the next person....

* University fees are half that of the UK. Who can honestly afford to put their kids through uni in the UK for 9000 GBP per annum and then to discover there are no jobs at the end of it......

CONS
* Calgary is expensive for many things but it is swings and roundabouts. Grocery shopping I found on the whole a lot more expensive. Eating out and activities for kids does seem to be cheaper. Petrol is a lot cheaper but car insurance is expensive. TV and internet we pay $125 per month which I thought was huge. Shaw have a monopoly so we could not get any cheaper. I was also surprised how much water bill is - again expensive compared to UK and bills in winter are obviously expensive - although in summer it balances it out a bit.

* Health care - I'm speaking from experience as I had a baby here in February. It took me a while to get used to the idea of not just going to your GP's surgery to have blood tests etc. There are places called blood centres dotted around the city and I found myself being sent here there and everywhere for scans etc before having my baby. No such thing as a midwife here either unless you pay for a private midewife. So my preference was UK for having baby based on having earlier children in UK. They are very thorough here with test for this that and the other but just felt that UK was more advanced in the way they dealt with things and after care in UK is better as midwife comes to your house. In Calgary you have to take baby to get checked etc even shortly after having got home from hospital - not nice in middle of winter......

* Dentists - costs a lot if you do not have a good dental plan. I mean a lot - like $600 for initial checkup as they insist on doing annual xray etc... We are a family of 5....

* I do not enjoy the TV programmes over here. Generally TV is not very good and news reporting etc seems very amateur compared to what you are used to in UK.

* Far away from family and friends.

* Kids start school a year later than in the UK. They are 6 and my daughter has been out of nursery a year as they don't start kindergarten until they are almost 5. This I have found frustrating as kids are ready to be in nursery sooner.

* Bureaucracy - won't go into too much detail here but this has been a frustration....

* Filing annual tax returns....

* Prefer shopping for clothes in UK


So there you go - pros and cons of both. But we knew that before we came. We wanted an adventure and you can always go back if you want to. All in all it's probably better for kids growing up here. Europe being on the decline. At least there appears to be opportunities and economic growth here.

Alan2005

I like filling in my tax return. Being are regular employed person, it doesn't take long and I get to get some of my money back.

judeyjudey

Everyone likes getting money back

Greenhill

Pros

Wilderness landscapes
National and Provincial parks
Bathtub temperature ocean water
Anything covered in frozen rain
It doesn't rain here 10 months of the year
Coyotes
Eagles
Bears
Fireflies
Snakes
Skunks
Deer
Being able to have sufficient land for border collies (etc)
Trees
Cheese
Hurricanes
Nor'Easters
Living in the 1970's again

Cons

Bad drivers (drunk, too medicated, stoned, no observation skills, too old or ill, too immature) - can they at least try to avoid making all that roadkill?
Leeches the size of small fish
People here are generally happy with substandard products/services
Great white sharks
Drought
Impending famine and scourge
Damage caused by Hurricanes
Power outages during Nor'Easters
Big trucks
I sometimes wish the frogs and crows could be a bit "quieter"
Getting crushed by big trucks
Having to share this website with pompous westerners
Burdocks
The price of decent cheese

Boy d

frame of referrence though isn't it? Macro vs micro views....When compared to similar sized metro areas, Vancouver is cleaner, has less rabble, less dog crap, less vandalisim....

Even my 8 (going on 30) year old niece commented on how clean it was here.

Boy d

best leave then....when are you going...must be hell living here

Howefamily

Are there really great white sharks in NS?

Greenhill

No, but there are some in the water around it

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...ite-shark.html

There's a global distribution map on this site:

http://www.sharkdiving.us/greatwhiteshark.html

Howefamily

O...K
I am a child of the "Jaws" era, I will no doubt have this now in mind each time I go up to my neck in coastal waters

Boy d

i used to dive a lot when i was younger. I did a dive on the cayman wall (cayman islands) and a hammer head swam past me. You've never seen a brit in flippers move so fast in your life!

Howefamily

OMG, I bet your heart was pounding. This is exactly why I can only cope with snorkling in 3 feet of water with a watcher

el_richo

A frame of reference in this context is comparing two areas, one where we live or can live in the UK, and one where we want to live/live in Canada. Size doesn't come into it. There's no point me comparing Vancouver to Manchester for my sister when she lives in hertfordshire. By direct comparison, her area is cleaner, has less rabble, less vandalism, and certainly less dog shit (i stood in some last night ).

I still maintain that the majority of areas in the UK aren't full of litter, rabble, dog shit, or vandalism in the same way that Canada isn't.