Hello everyone,

I am English but currently live in Finland with my Finnish partner. I have been living here for almost five years and as I don't want to bore you all with whines and whinges I'll just say that I hate it here! The nature and wildlife here is wonderful but the rest is... well, let's just say it's not my cup of tea

We would like to move to rural Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island. We have considered moving to rural England, Wales or Scotland but the house prices are just way out of our league as our number one priority is our dog, who would like to have lots of land to run around in!
The other thing that puts us off the UK is the rising crime rates and drug and gun cultures.

We have only got as far as filling in the Canadian government online scoring form for people thinking of moving to Canada. We both scored very highly due to our education, background, relatives in Canada, language skills, etc. Also, I am a self-employed Writer/Editor with long-term contracts so I can work from anywhere in the world as long as there's Broadband. Is there Broadband on P.E.I?

Two things are stopping us from taking the next step: The first is that my partner is a Journalist/Communications Manager and although his English is first class (better than a lot of Brits), I think he would find it hard to get work of this kind in a predominantly English-speaking country. He's looking for a Shipping News type job, but we wonder if these only exist in Hollywood!
The other thing stopping us is that my move from England (Cornwall) to Finland turned out so badly. I'm very unhappy here and obviously we don't want our move to Atlantic Canada to be a case of out of the fire and into the frying pan.

What we hope to find in N.S. or P.E.I is the following, in order of importance:

Polite people with good manners
Low crime rate
Low population density (more trees than people would be a good start)
A municipality that allows dogs to walk and swim off-lead
A small house with water frontage that won't cost the earth
A democratic government, as opposed to a government that only claims to be democratic

We both quite like harsh winters and are used to them, so that won't be a problem. I haven't yet heard any other drawbacks about this area of Canada, so please do tell me if there are any!
As we like The Great Outdoors, we are not too bothered about city life or entertainment. Somewhere to eat out, even just coffee and cake, and a cinema within an hour's driving distance would be fine.

I'm sorry for the long post, didn't know how much to put in so just told you everything (perhaps you'd also like to know my favourite root vegetable and what my Maths teacher said on my first school report - no?).
I would be very grateful to receive advice from anyone living in rural N.S. or P.E.I or from anyone who has lived there and since moved away.

TERVETULOA!


I hope you find the forum useful in helping you decide your next move.

Kiitos!

I've already found the forum extremely useful and only stumbled across it yesterday, so thanks everyone for sharing your stories and advice.

By the way, what's the Karma button all about?

hyvää huomenta.......Mitä kuuluu?

Pitkä


Karma - if you like what someone says you give them some, by pressing the Karma button.

You might want to consider a vacation trip for research.

So, smelly, how come you know Finnish? Not exactly most people's choice of a second language!

Thanks for the karma explanation, what a nice idea.

A research trip would definitely be a good idea flashman (my mother told me never to talk to people like you...) as it is a long time since I've been to Atlantic Canada and my partner has never been, he just takes my word for it, which is how it should be
We will probably go there next year so I can bore the pants off my partner with all the Anne of Green Gables centenary celebrations. Must try to get him interested in golf before then.

Our plan is to save up enough money to buy a house outright so we don't need to arrange a mortgage. I estimate that we need another year or two of saving so hopefully we'll be able to prepare for this move much better than I did for my move to Finland. That's if the government lets us in, perhaps I'm being too optimistic.

Hi
Although we're planning to go to BC, we've been mulling over NS too...we've found a great realtor, who is knowledgeable, and helpful without being pushy, if you want a contact. I also recently got in touch with the guys at uk2novascotia and they were helpful too. If you want any contact details, let me know.

Thanks for the info on Tollers, suspect we'll be getting one wherever we end up settling!

The realtor contact would be great, thank you We look on the realtor websites all the time but have been afraid to contact them in case they are pushy, as we probably can't move there for at least two years. Still have plenty of questions for them, though!

Funny, BC was our first choice, we have relatives there, but decided to settle for NS or PEI. My favourite is PEI but my partner thinks it might be a bit too quiet there so he's leaning more towards somewhere like Lunenberg, NS.

As for Tollers, you are welcome. BC and NS both have perfect 'Toller country'.

Hi!

The realtor is David Williams - I'll send you his email address. He seems happy to work across all of Nova Scotia and he's looking at places for us now. His company is Country Real Estate Brokers in NS.

Jenny will have to be satisfied with photos of Fitz for now, until she gets to choose her own version!

Thank you, I've just seen his website. It's one that I've not come across before so I'll be busy checking out those properties and dreaming for the next hour or so!

Great - David seems a nice guy, and not too pushy. We've given him an idea of what we might be looking for if we go the NS route, and he's keeping an eye out for us.