Im really confused at the moment. Myself, husband and 2 daughters (10, 7) are keen to leave Scotland (well all of UK). We had been mainly looking into Australia and New Zealand but with my husbands line of work - he's a senior computer engineer (mainly hardware rather than software) - it has been proving difficult.

My husband has always been quite keen on Canada though. After visiting an Emigrate show at the weekend and seeing that my husbands skills are required in Canada im coming around to the idea. It looks like such a beautiful country to raise a family, but i still have silly doubts. Mainly due to the weather Ive heard about. I suffer from Arthritis and my eldest daughter has Asthma, the cold and damp often make us feel worse here in Scotland. Are the winters really that bad in Canada? My husband has been looking around the Calgary area as the company he works for here in the UK (HP) have job vacancies there.

I guess what im looking for in this thread is for you all to sell Canada to me lol What makes it a good place to live with a family? Is there anyone who has lived in the UK and Aus and then settled in Canada?

I don't live in Canada yet so have no experience of living winters there but have visited several times in the winter and yes, it is freezing and very snowy!! It gets into minus numbers for most of the time I believe and there is a lot of snow unless you are in Vancouver area (where it just rains instead but doesn't snow as much!). And the winters are long, not just 3 months - I was reading the other day somebody saying that May is when spring starts in Nova Scotia so that's a looooong old winter with that much snow and cold!!

Having said all that, I do think it's a different kind of cold from here, it's a dry cold if that makes sense? Not damp like here. A lot of people don't consider it as bad as winter in the UK because of that, as long as you are dressed for it then it seems to be easier to manage and I would agree with that from my experience. But I don't like hot weather at all and love the snow and cold so it should suit me well, personally I'd hate to move to Oz for that reason, but it will depend on how strongly you feel about it. If you really hate cold weather and snow then I would say that Canada is definitely not for you.

How about somewhere else in Europe, maybe Spain or somewhere similar if you want the sun??

Best of luck making the decision.

I've just found the following website for stats on weather in Calgary. http://www.trailcanada.com/alberta/calgary/weather/

Shows you how much snow you're likely to get and how cold it usually is so should give you more of an idea. Hope it helps!

Thanks for your reply. To be honest it's the damp/wet weather that bothers me more than the winter cold. I could live with snow as long as it wasn't always raining like here! As my husband is much the same as you in not really liking the heat, Canada may be the compromise in relation to climate!

Hi there are many posts on Canadian weather and people here who have experienced far worse than I have. |I have been to Calgary in November and Toronto in February and March.

I would have to say that Calgary is a very dry place. There's not much humidity and certainly not that penetrating damp that we Scots know so well. OH and I were over in November and it was by no means the depths of winter but it was double digit minus temps most of the week and it was not uncomfortable, you could feel your skin drying out for a few days but apart from that it was lovely. By contrast it was +4 when we landed back in Manchester and drizzling and we were freezing. We were wearing the same gear but it felt so much colder.

I think if you have specific concerns you really need to get out there and experience it for yourself but I think you might find the Calgary climate a pleasant improvement over Scotland.

Cheers
Tom

Calgary is quite dry in relation to other parts of Canada....it can get down to -30 c in the winter but often a few days later it is + 5 c and sunny (chinook winds)...overall snowfall is only 135 cm of which 20 cm falls in April (I vow not to shovel in April). I'm in Ottawa and our average is 235 cm (however, this year we are at 300 cm so far).

The summers are pleasant and many people do without AC there as it cools down quite well at night.

Hi there.

For what its worth I can tell you that I dont find the winters here (Nova Scotia) bad at all. It may sound daft but i think it all depends on what you like/ don’t like.

I'm from Scotland too so hopefully a sound gauge for weather! Having spent my first Canada winter in BC (whistler) i loved it but i was there to snowboard rather than start a new life so all the snow suited. Now i'm in Halifax NS and yeah its cold but today (as was yesterday) are perfect examples of why its better weather, the sun is out hardly a cloud in the sky and its a fresh crisp day. Not like the cold/damp that your worried about. I cant speak for all of Canada obviously but I love the winters i've had so far!

We spent a couple of hours out just strolling around, stopped for a coffee, walked some more. Its all good!

To make sure i'm giving you both sides, yeah it does snow heavy and yeah they have ice rain (that was new to me) and they'll be times you won't want to go out but I dont find that any different to back in Scotland as there were plenty days there too when outside wasn't nice.

Rambling now but over all NS winters definitely suit me better!!

Don't come to SW Ontario then. It's cold and damp too. Maybe not quite as damp for the length of time we usually get back home in Scotland but enough to make you feel it in your bones.

Good luck.

I may truly live to regret this statement (because it's only February and there is still time yet) - but I don't get what all the fuss is about so far in the Calgary area !! There, I've said it now. Perhaps this has been a mild winter?

We've had about 6 really cold days (like -29 to -34 plus a windchill to take it to about -40). We've only had a few inches of snow at a time, which then pretty much melts away, then we have a few more inches. T'is nothing like the huge snow dumps and storms that those in the more easterly provinces have receved - and good grief, some forumites have posted some 'interesting' pictures of their huge snowfalls. I feel inadequate

It's dry here (I just went back to the UK for 9 days and one minor side effect was just how oily my skin became again - yuck). Today is about the third foggy day we've had. I have not seen rain since Sept/Oct sometime. And sun has always got it's hat on - hip, hip, hip, hooray

As for arthritis, I can't tell you how the cold would affect you - I understand your concerns about the damp though - certainly Calgary or the interior of BC may be more to your liking and requirements. Don't write it off just yet !

Best wishes in your decision making - but do come for a visit first anyway - it's soooo much cheaper than a flight to Oz

I can confirm that Calgary has a very dry climate. Actually, I have to be sure that our humidifier is kept clean and functioning effectively. If the air in our house gets too dry, my skin gets itchy. I go through loads of moisturizer and lip balm.

Many people who have suffered badly from asthma in other places have said that Calgary's atmosphere has been better for them.

Calgary gets a tremendous amount of sunshine. On many (probably most) winter days, there are brilliant, blue skies with sunshine that is so dazzling that good sunglasses are essential for driving.

I also can confirm that Calgary is a good place in which to raise kids.

I personally prefer Australia, but then remember that I'm from South Africa originally (well Swaziland actually, but same difference). From a South African's point of view, Australia has several advantages over Canada. For a South African the flights between one's home country and Australia are shorter and cheaper than the flights between one's home country and Canada. Also, Australia's and South Africa's seasons are in synch, so it's easier for cousins to see each other during the long summer school holiday, and stuff like that.

For a Briton, it's the opposite. The flights to and from Canada are cheaper and shorter. Canada's seasons are in synch with those of the UK, and Australia's are not.

I have responded to numerous questions about the differences between Canada and Australia. You can find my previous posts if you use the forum's search function, and look for posts by Judy in Calgary that have the word "Melbourne" in them. Eventually I got so tired of saying the same thing over and over that I wrote a Wiki article called Canada versus Australia. A couple of people from BE's Australia forum kindly added to the information, and rounded out the article.

I have written ten Wiki articles about Calgary. They include everything I could possibly think of saying about Calgary, including a brutally frank article called Calgary Pros and Cons. I've lived here for all but four of the last 31 years, so I think I'm qualified to talk about Calgary.

When it comes to deciding on whether or not to live in a place, nothing beats a recce trip. (I recommend you read Surrey Expat's excellent Wiki article called Scouting Trip.) You can read as many forum posts about a place as you like, but nothing beats walking around a neighbourhood and feeling its vibe. Well even a recce trip doesn't absolutely guarantee that you'll like a place. You might like it during a recce, but not like it once you're living there. Still, a recce gives you a better chance of assessing the place than anything else.

Hope that helps.
x

Sell Caneada to you - hmmm...

Well, we don't live there yet, but have been there 3 times a year for the past 3 years.

We have spent summers winters and springs there. This last Christmas we had temps down to -28 (without wind chill), and at one point my digital camera started freezing to my nose (I'm into photography so I'm out and about a lot), and we had mountains of snow.
Last Easter was a mixture - we had a lot of snow, but it melted suddenly and we had lovely spring days.
Summers have always been great for us so far; temps going up as high as +30C.
All in all - I love the weather, the people, the way of living...
I can't get there soon enough. I really do hope it happens.

We have been living in the Calgary area for nearly three weeks now the weather doesn't seem to be affecting my 1 year olds asthma. I know there will be times that it will be colder than it is now so I don't know how his chest will be then. Before we left Scotland he had a constant hacking cough and would often have breathing difficulties. he used a preventative inhaler and a reliever. Since we have been here we have not heard him coughing and he has not had to have his inhaler once.

Good luck in making a decision

It has occurred to me that it wasn't very helpful of me to make a blanket statement, without providing some detail.

Why would I say that Calgary is a good place in which to raise kids?

Because, in my opinion, the local environment is quite well balanced. My kids were born in Calgary, and now are in their mid-twenties. One son has lived here for all but 4 years of his life, and the other son for all but 6 years.

My experience is that the local school system produces well rounded individuals who, for the most part, are decent human beings. The school system doesn't teach only the three Rs. It asks students to think about ethical questions.

For example, when one of my sons was in junior high school, he was studying genetics in science and at the same time was reading the novel, Jurassic Park, for his English literature course. The science and English teachers made a deliberate effort to show the links between different aspects of life. The science teacher did not teach only what human beings' grasp of technology could accomplish. He brought up the connection with the ethical questions that Jurassic Park raised.

My other son was given an English project when he was 10 years old. The rest of his class handed in written assignments, but my son and two of his friends decided to make a movie instead. Actually the project was an enormous amount of work. They had to assemble costumes, write a script, act, borrow a camcorder from one of their dads, and all kinds of stuff. But they learned a huge amount about organization, project management, etc.

I also noticed that kids were encouraged to speak in public from an early age. So, from a young age, my kids were comfortable addressing groups of people.

Kids were taught to look out for each other. My older son had to catch a bus to and from school in the early grades. Each young kid was paired up with an older kid, and the older kid had to ensure that the younger kid caught the bus and got off at the right stop. My son always used to fall asleep on the bus, and his older "buddy" always used to wake him up just in time for his stop.

Later on, my kids went to a school that was a little unusual in that it housed an elementary school (kindergarten to grade six) and a junior high school (grades 7 - 9) in different wings to the same building. Junior high kids used to volunteer to tutor the younger kids in reading.

One of my sons was a keen [ice] hockey player. The dads from the local community who coached him were absolutely wonderful men.

Yes, Calgary kids can get into drugs if they want to. Show me the city in which a kid cannot get hold of drugs if he/she wants to. But, if a kid in Calgary wants to lead a wholesome lifestyle, it's readily available.

This past Saturday night, my husband and I went to a night club in the Beltline district (adjacent to downtown), where our yonger son was disc jockeying for the night. He loves music, he DJs a lot, he'd asked us to come and listen to him some time, and we finally decided to do it. The nightclub was filled with twentysomethings. We were the only people there who were in their fifties. I think I can safely say there weren't even any people in their forties. I would say the oldest people there, aside from my husband and myself, were in their early thirties. While we were driving home, my husband and I commented to each other how civilized the night club was.

Our kids and their friends also drive very responsibly. If they go out, someone is always the designated driver and doesn't drink.

Frankly, when my husband and I were young in South Africa, people of our age group were much less responsible. Drunken driving was common. I've spoken to Canadians of my age group about this, and they say it was the same here. However, the check stops that the police have operated over the last three decades or so have had a beneficial effect.

I've never lived in the UK. British expats who post here say that the Canadian school system is behind the British one, from an academic point of view. This all seems to sort itself out by the end of university, because a Canadian bachelors degree is considered to be equivalent to a British bachelors degree.

If you intend to live in Canada forever, the differences between the school systems doesn't matter. If you want to return to the UK, it would be a good idea to encourage your children to attend a school that offers the International Baccalaureate program. It's offered at a handful of Calgary's public (state) schools. It's a well respected and portable qualification. Actually, if your kids are up to the challenge, it's a good program to get into even if you don't intend to return to the UK.

Hope that helps.
x

From the Glasgow area, across the water from Greennock if you know that area, (meant to be one of the wettest places in the UK).

And we find our weather here in the GTA, Ontario, brilliant... Only had rain one night this year 2008. Last year 2007 could probably count it on the two hands.

As has been said, its very dry in the winter time, summer though can get very hot and humid which people with breathing difficulties may find uncomfortable, we also get smog that we never came across when on holiday or researching, which happens every now and again in this area have a look…

http://www.toronto.ca/health/smog/smog_new.htm

They do warn people to stay indoors if you have lung diseases and heart conditions, pregnant women, people with asthma, seniors and smokers may also experience harmful health effects at lower levels of air pollution.

Hope that’s helpful..

Thank you all so much for all the information, useful links and kind words. Ive got a lot of information to work through now and hopefully my husband and I will be able to come to some sort of agreement soon!