Hi Elizabeth 1
Hope you know you've opened a can of worms here....you'll get as many varied answers as there are people on this forum!


Given that we live in the middle of nowhere:
Pros for me and mine, in no particular order:

Peaceful and quiet - very rural area
Almost no crime - it's so safe we leave our porch furnished all summer, bikes out, gardening stuff etc, car unlocked. we sometimes forget to lock the house.
Litter and dirt free streets
Wildlife in the garden
A garden to enjoy (in the UK I had a back yard - literally)
Large, quiet stores with no shopping cart (trolley) rage.
Wide open spaces
Clean air
Huge skies, fabulous sunrises and sunsets
No traffic to speak of - a traffic jam is 3 cars at the one set of lights in town!
The Great Lakes, each one f which is like the sea, but without the salt.
My local library - terrific staff, great selection of books.

Cons
Huge country - small town mentality
Lack of knowledge of international affairs - except for catastrophes like the tsunami a few years ago.
Education levels seem below that in UK - lack of gnereal knowledge is quite alarming.
Small town mentality - reluctance to allow newcomers in.
Car dependant
Winter
Strip malls
MacDonalds/Walmart/Tim Hortons in nearly every town.
No history to speak of.
Appalling standard of driving.....even though I've said there is no traffic to speak of, it is appalling when you come across it, which you inevitably do when you need shopping etc.
45 minute drive to the nearest grocery store (but it's my choice to "live rural"
Can be difficuly to get work unless you're used to, and good at networking.....which I'm not.
Cost of dental work and prescriptions
Bread - it's just awful!

I live in calgary

Good:
Banff
Canmore
K-country
Anywhere between Calgary and Vancouver Island
Mt biking, windsurfing (seasonal), snowboarding insert any other outdoor sport
Children's education- the emphasis is on learning not crowd control and the expectation is that you will go to university
jobs, jobs, jobs
Fathers that actually do things with their kids/families
Calgary cycle trails
Wife's grandmother's homemade perogies fried in butter, bacon and ognion, hmmm
C-train
Lack of namby bamby safety culture
Wild animals, apex predators
No social conscious whinging poms
Police who do stuff
Friendly people who make you welcome when you move here
No M25/commute into London
Prairie storm/super cell thing
Clean air-in mt's


Cons:
Redneck's (although these are are sort of yob/chav hybrid, instead of 4 lads in a B-reg escort boy racer thing wearing hoodies, shaved heads, gold necklaces etc they have baseball hats, moustaches, mulletts, and drive rusting ford F-150 pickups, same creature different uniform)
Calgary cowboy driving, pass anywhere, anytime
Blokes in small towns who married their sisters (a bit like clacton really)
Is global warming a conspiracy? Humvees eveywhere
Not much holidays
Running down Americans
Traffic getting worse but pale compared to SE UK

If you like the outdoors it can be close to paradise. If you are a culture vulture, forget it. Culture is a 6-pack of beer and watching hockey night in Canada on your neighbours oversize big screen. I like stella and have learned to like ice hockey, c'est bon. Was thinking of taking the children back to UK to visit in summer but they don't want to go. Dad, we want to go camping and mt biking!!! Bliss.

LOL, yup, but come hither come tither one and all, I want to hear what you all think, thanks Mrs M!

Thanks all for taking the time, this is really great to get your feedback and will really help me, I will go through each post with a fine toothcomb and unravel the essence of Brit views on Canada, hopefully, lol.

I would disagree with that. The Rednecks that you describe, though they can appear as evolutionary throw backs, are usually quite decent blokes who likely shovel the snow from the front of their elderly neighbours homes without fanfare.

Trust me, I'm related to a about a million of them.

Your options are endless - it may help to think about where you want to travel after - eg East or West

Then what you like - mountains, sea, lakes

What climate - summer sun or winter sports

Then a job!

LOL! Yup, that's exactly what I think my priorities should be, choose where I like and then worry about the job after that, heh.

I've only been to the West Coast - BC, Vancouver, and Vancouver Island, and Alberta, Rocky Mountains and Calgary.

Ideally I'd love to live in a log cabin in Jasper or overlooking Lake Louise, but I dunno if that's very practical, lol. But seriously, I loved Vancouver because of the cool city vibe and the closeness to the beautiful wilderness, I thought it had the best of both worlds.

I haven't been to the East Coast, so would be interested in hearing what people think from over there. I had a chat with a Scottish couple I met in the Rockies who were making their way over from east to west, and they said it was very built up sort of city type places, but they were raving on how they loved Quebec City.....

No private residences are permitted in the Lake Louise area.

Private residences are permitted in Banff and Jasper townsites, but there are restrictions on the ownership of property there. You have to demonstrate that you have a valid reason for living there, e.g., you're a park warden, you work in the hospitality industry, or whatever.

The towns that are just outside of these national parks are:
Look at AlexinBC's avatar. That's probably what you're visualizing, right? She lives in Tete Jaune Cache, BC -- a short distance west of Jasper National Park.

Based out of Vancouver

- Banks, useless and really backwards
- Supermarkets expensive but eatting out cheap
- I really miss old architecture / hertiage
- West Coaster can be too laid back
- Vancouverites are friendly on the surface but not great on deep friendships (probably to do with the point above)
- You have to go hundreds and hundreds of miles to see any different countryside etc. but the country side is beautiful
- Amazing skiing and outdoor recreation on the door step
- Car-centric
- You can;t get an easyJet flight to Italy etc. for the weekend
- No Orange Wednesday

You asked about the East Coast? My husband and I moved to Newfoundland in November 2007, after 3 recce visits (a bit extreme perhaps, but it took us the first two just to see the whole island - it's a lot bigger than you think).

Here goes with the pros and cons so far:

Pros
Proper snow in winter so you can take up new sports like snowshoeing!
Brilliant winter days where it is cold, but has beautiful blue skies.
Friendly people - from immigration, to the post office, to the expats on the rock (hello Atlantic!), everyone is super helpful and friendly.
Space.
Can be 10 mins from St John's but be out in a very rural area.
Whale watching
Looking for icebergs - can't wait until May - am going to drive mr mcfarquhar mad looking for them!!
Tim Horton's hot smoothees (hazlenut or mint!)
Beachside cafe in St Phillips for Fish and Chips
Toutons
Live music in the bars.
A downtown which has character (colourful painted houses, view over the harbour/battery/narrows) not just the same shops everywhere (although they are here, just out of town a wee bit).
Only 5/6 hour flight to UK.
Cool accent.
Lots of water - sea/ponds/rivers


Cons
No direct flights at the moment from UK (ongoing battle with air canada!)
A bit of a journey to go to other parts of canada - either have to fly or take the ferry.
fog - none so far, but seemingly can be bad.
Bad at clearing snow from pavements - do a good job of clearing roads though, i think they just run out of places to put the snow!

Hope this helps.
jx

Ah you mean sidewalks ? Do they call them that out east ?

Anyways no point clearing them as nobody actually walks anywhere, do they ?

R.

So they are similar to Chavs, except the Chavs are not decent blokes and in the UK they would help their elderly neighbours, by clearing their house of all electrical goods.

They do in downtown Fredericton (I mean walk and clear the pavements ).

ROFL.

K.....picture an 'honest rogue' type from Norfolk who didn't get to meet many city slickers. That's the sort. Rednecks are usually OK, there are a few who are total assholes, dumping crap in the bush, shooting guns too close to town/parkland, acting like yahoos and jerks. But yer average everyday redneck is friendly. Once they get over any concerns that you might be a stuffy urbanite sort, and so long as you're remotely cool and down to earth, they get quite interested in your attitude to life over here. Just don't mess with their shit or poke around their grow-op. Leave them in peace to drive their ATV's, snowmobiles, trucks and they're fine.

R.