Several posts here have involved people not settling in. The advice given is usually along the lines of it's a big country so try somewhere else. I just wondered how easy/expensive it is to relocate in Canada, given the size of the place. (It must be like moving from Athens to Dublin!)

I have lived and worked on the east and west coasts of the US and never got the sense that travel and relocation there were a problem. In fact, a lot of people I met in those places were originally from somewhere else! Somehow, the feeling I get from this newsgroup is that you settle in a city/town and that is it. Is it just because people have done all the research before they arrive, because it has taken so much effort to settle in you don't want to start again like a new immigration, or is it just a false impression?

Moving within Canada is no more difficult or expensive than moving within the US.

If people are less mobile in Canada it is not because the process of moving is any different, so there must be other factors: lower income, higher unemployment, less generous/non-existent company relocation packages etcetera.

Thanks.

But on a practical level, are Canadians truly less mobile (in general)? Do the factors mentioned (and any others) really exist?

Disclaimer: I know some people might take this the wrong way, and i just thought i'll let you know that i didn't write this, i just came across it somewhere, and it doesn't mean i think its all true, so please see it as a bit of humour.




TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
1. Weed
2. Vancouver: 1.5 million people and two bridges
3. The local hero is a pot-smoking snowboarder
4. The local wine doesn't taste like malt vinegar
5. Your $400,000 Vancouver home is 5 hours from downtown
6. A university with a nude beach
7. You can throw a rock and hit three Starbucks locations
8. If a cop pulls you over, just offer them some of your hash
9. There's always some sort of deforestation protest going on
10. Cannabis


TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN ALBERTA

1. Big Rock
2. Preston Manning
3. Tax is 7 percent instead of approx. 200 percent
4. The Premier is a fat, wife-beating alcoholic with a grade 4 education
5. Flames vs. Oilers
6. Stamps vs. Eskies
7. You can exploit almost any natural resource you can think of
8. Eventually, it will be your town's turn to ban VLT's
9. The Americans below you are all in anti-government militia groups
10. You can attempt to murder your rich oil tycoon husband and get away with it.

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN SASKATEWAN

1. You never run out of wheat
2. Those cool Saskatewan Wheat Pool hats
3. Cruise control takes on a whole new meaning
4. Your province is really easy to draw
5. You never have to worry about roll-back if you have a standard
6. It takes you two weeks to walk to your neighbour's house
7. YOUR Roughriders survived
8. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours
9. People will assume you live on a farm
10. Buying a huge John Deere mower makes sense

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN MANITOBA

1. You wake up one morning to find you suddenly have beachfront property
2. Amusing town names like "Flin Flon" and "Winnipeg"
3. All your local bands make it big and move to Toronto
4. The only province to ever violently rebel against the federal government
5. Hundreds of huge, horribly frigid lakes
6. Nothing compares to a wicked Winnipeg winter
7. You don't need a car, just take the canoe to work
8. You can be an Easterner or a Westerner depending on your mood
9. Because of your license plate, you are still "friendly" even when you cut someone off
10. Pass the time watching trucks and barns float by

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN ONTARIO

1. You live in the center of the universe
2. Your $400,000 Toronto home is actually a dump
3. You and you alone decide who will win the federal election
4. There's no such thing as an Ontario Seperatist
5. Your grandparents sold booze to the States during Prohibition
6. Lots of tourists come to Toronto because they mistakenly believe it's a cool city
7. The only province with hard-core American-style crime
8. MuchMusic's Speaker's Corner - rant and rave on national TV for a dollar
9. Baseball fans park on your front lawn and pee on the side of your house
10. Mike Harris: basically a sober Ralph Klein

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN QUEBEC

1. Everybody assumes you're an asshole
2. Racism is socially acceptable
3. The only province to ever kidnap federal politicians
4. You can take bets with your friends on which English neighbour will move out next
5. Other provinces basically bribe you to stay in Canada
6. The FLQ
7. Your hockey team is made up entirely of dirty French guys
8. The province with the oldest, nastiest hookers
9. NON-smokers are the outcasts
10. You can blame all your problems on the "Anglo bastards"

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN NEW BRUNSWICK

1. You are sandwiched between French assholes and drunken celtic fiddlers
2. One way or another, the government gets 98 percent of your income
3. You're poor, but not as poor as the Newfies
4. When listing the provinces, everyone forgets to mention yours
5. The economy is based on fish, cows, and ferrying Ontario motorists to Boston
6. No one ever blames anything on New Brunswick
7. You have French people, but they don't want to kill you
8. Everybody has a Grandfather who runs a lighthouse
9. Just as charming as Maine, but with more unemployed fishermen
10. You probably live in a small seaside cottage with no television

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN NOVA SCOTIA

1. The only place in North America to get bombed in the war...by a moron who set a munitions ship on fire
2. Your province is shaped like male genitalia
3. Everyone is a fiddle player
4. If someone asks if you're a Newfie, you are allowed to kick their ass
5. The local hero is an insane, fiddle playing, sexual pervert
6. The province that produced Rita MacNeil, the world's largest land mammal I can think of one other but only my family would recognise the joke ;-)
7. You are the reason Anne Murray makes money
8. You can pretend you have Scottish heritage as an excuse to wear a kilt
9. The economy is based on fish, lobster, and fiddle music
10. Even though it smells like dead sea animals, Halifax is considered Canada's most beautiful city

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

1. Even though more people live on Vancouver Island, you still got the big-ass bridge
2. You can walk across the province in half an hour
3. You were probably once an extra on "Road to Avonlea"
4. This is where all those tiny red potatoes come from
5. The economy is based on fish, potatoes, and CBC TV shows
6. Tourists arrive, see the "Anne of Green Gables" house, then promptly leave
7. You can drive across the the province in two minutes
8. It doesn't matter to you if Quebec separates
9. You don't share a border with the Americans, or with anyone for that matter
10. You can confuse ships by turning your porch lights on and off at night

TOP 10 REASONS TO LIVE IN NEWFOUNDLAND

1. The poorest, stupidest, drunkest province in Confederation
2. If Quebec Seperates, you will float off to sea
3. In the rare case when someone moves to the Rock, you can make them kiss a dead cod
4. The economy is based on fish, seafood, and fish-related products
5. If you do something stupid, you have a built-in excuse
6. You understand the meaning of Great Big Sea's lyrics
7. The work day is about two hours long
8. You are credited with many great inventions, like the solar-powered flashlight and the screen door for submarines
9. If someone asks if you're from Nova Scotia, you are allowed to kick their ass
10. It is socially acceptable to wear your hip waders on your wedding day

All the factors I mentioned are true. I don't know if they actually contribute to mobility though.

Canadians are generally very mobile, more mobile than Europeans. I have seen statistics showing that. I don't know if Canadians are less mobile than Americans.

I thought that was such a good read, i even took my atlas out and looked at the genetalia. BRILLIANT and amusing. nice 1

Its not difficuly to move, far from it. The removals folks will tell you that their costs are tax deductible till the cows come home. We moved just three and a half hours away and its was very costly (to my way of thinking). It was around $1400 and considering I still had everything packed in their original boxes a bit expensive. I also found out at the last minute that they have the cheek to charge for your boxes...I mean...bloody hell!!! We had bought our boxes in the UK online and they were double cardboard and excellant value, whereas I visited Staples in Saskatoon and they wanted about $2 per small box, single card. So if you think you'll be moving around, bring them with you (even if you don;t need them yet) and don;t throw anything away.

That said, the blokes who did the 'hard' work were polite and knowledgable. How the hell they got the fridge in the kitchen without demolishing the house I don;t know. When they moved the stuff out of my old home, they put down blankets ont he floor as it was very snowy. Same at new house as it was very icey .They even put the bed together for me....aaaaaahh, how kind!

We did a lot of research before we arrived (hours and bloomin' hours of it) but when we got there it just didn;t feel quite right. As we were getting nowhere we moved on. I doubt it'll be the last time but it'll do for now.

Oh I think Canadians move about. Most of my friends in Vancouver are from other parts of Canada (Ontario, Newfoundland, Alberta).

Great post Mickj, thanks!

Cheers, Iain

i am due to get permanent residency in the next few months through sponsership by my canadian husband. he is based in halifax in the military but is due to retire in 2 years. if he doesnt re-sign for another 20 years, then we will be most likely moving to southern ontario to take his family business over. as i have stated in the applications that i will be living in Nova Scotia, will i be held to that in 2 years or will i just be able to up sticks and move to ontario?

this probably sounds like a stupid question i know so just blame it on too much sunshine!!!!!

UKJo !

Living in the boonies can be hard ( not that i will know ), nothing to do but just sit on your deck and watch the mozzies What you want to do is get a nice big iced cappucino from Timmy Ho

Anyway...to answer your question, once you get you PR card in your hand, you can move to wherever you want in canada ( even quebec if you want, or Nunavut ). What you want to do once you have moved though, is update your details on the CIC card.

Those that might have a problem moving, are those that are the PNP, they can't just pack up and move to another province, as that was not part of the agreement.

My brother in-law is a colonel in the NAVY, they have a house in Halifax too, but lives in Kingston ONT now.

Just looked at a map of Nova Scotia.

If yours looks like that, I would think a visit to the clinic would be in order!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mickj
UKJo !

Living in the boonies can be hard ( not that i will know ), nothing to do but just sit on your deck and watch the mozzies What you want to do is get a nice big iced cappucino from Timmy Ho


if i had a car all the time i would just go and do that beleive me!!!!!lol

Now imagine how kids will feel to find themselves in that kind of situation, where they can't get to anywhere. You are right in wanting to move to somewhere more town-like, not necessarily a big city. I wouldn't want to live in a big city anymore, i had all that growing up, schooling, and working in London ( UK ). Am quite happy to drive into the city nowadays, and get out PDQ !






[QUOTE]Originally posted by ukjo

Who said i wanted to move out of the boonies into somewhere more town like??lol... i lived in the centre of dartmouth for 4 months before i moved here and give me the no stress, laid back and bugger all to do life anyday!! i miss tims in the city buts thats about it. we've got a mainway garage about 15 minutes drive from here that sells better coffee than any tims (never thought id say that!!!) that hubby calls into on his way home from work.

we will be moving to a tiny tiny place called port colborne in 2 years all being well to take the family business over. its busier than here but just as laid back. hubby had loads of job offers for his field for when he retires but they are all in the cities and hes refused every single one so far.

nope im a country gal at heart being born and brought up that way. i like to think im giving my kids a good life without the run arounds of the city. also started my vegetable garden today so cant be bad!!!

No one lives further out in the boonies than I.... I am smack dab right in the middle of the woods....It takes about 30 mins to walk out to the main road...We are close to the Wildcat Indian Reservation...oooops they don't call them reservations anymore...they are communities! We live on Molega Lake and the black fies are just starting to come out. We have lots of wildlife around and it really is a great place to live. We are 30 mins from Bridgewater, 30mins from Liverpool, 20 mins from Caladonia....they all have liquoir Stores! What more can you ask for.