Hi
Just joined today, so am new to this. My husband and I have decided to move to either Australia or Canada, but cannot decide which. Can anyone tell us the pros and cons of either country. It would be a great help. cheers

You need to answer these questions to live in canada.

Do you like the cold?
Do you like it enough that you could spend 6 months in the cold?
Could you see yourself getting up early for 6 months of the year to clear the snow?
There are some parts of canada which are less cold.

Of these parts i don't know much as i am going to live in Winnipeg.

if you type in 'canada' in google you might find some interesting stats like the average temperature is 10 degrees for the whole year. These stats are useless because you need to find where in canada you want to live before trusting these stats. Canada is a big place and its like comparing england to france or germany in terms of its size and weather before you move, you need to answer your own question.

Do your research before you make your decision because although canada is 'probably the second most popular expat location' as said on this site a lot of people move back because they just aren't prepared for the change in lifestyles.

hope this helps

Vancouver's temperatures are similar to the UK's but with nicer summers but wetter winters.

We spent a ridiculous amount of years choosing but the deciding factors where:
Aus has so many positives in it's outlook and Perth (our city of choice) is amazing but everything, and I do mean everything, just seemed so distant from everything else
Really began to dislike air travel - not good for an 18hour+ journey to Aus
Didn't think we would get used to the hot Christmases
Costs of travel for trips home and/or family/friends to visit
Bugs
General scary things that'll kill you
ultimately, our hearts really belonged to Canada and it was the sun and fiscal reasons that turned our heads to Aus.

Canada is a wonderful country that I have wanted to live in since I was 14 and I am the third generation of females to have made plans to live there but I am going to be the one that does!

Hubby also loves the place and when we visited our new home to be (Alberta) we fell in love instantly, it really felt like home and that made a huge difference. We had been to Toronto previously and, as fantastic a place as it is it didn't have that feel to it for us, so I truly believe that Alberta is right for us.

At the end of the day both countries have good things going for them but they are vastly different from each other and the only thing I can really recommend is visiting them both if you can - we did and so were able to make a reasonably informed choice.

Good luck and investigate all avenues because you might find the deciding factor to be how long it'll take you to get in to the country!

6 months? Yeah right . Where the hell in Canada are you looking at?

Its an impossible question really, but one that is in the archive somewhere anyway. Oz...too hot for too long, too many deadly creatures, too many Australians. YMMV.

Your post starts well and then shows a contradictory element i.e "Oz too hot for too long"

I take it you haven't been to Tasmania or Melbourne? (too hot too long)

Never been, dont want to. See points two and three

Shame...its Australia's loss

Okay 6 month is a bit extreme but at the same time, in england the winter temperature bearly goes below 0 and i cant remember the last 'proper snow' we had if you look at an English winter it is not nearly as extreme as what canada can be in canadas spring/august months.

True, but in most of the snowy bits the winter is actually mostly crisp blue skies and sunshine, so really not that miserable is you are prepared to dress appropriately and get out there in it. I have more of a problem here dealing with the heat and humidity in the summer months. I find the bugs are more of a dampner on things than the weather.

Here are a couple of previous attempts FWIW

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=254958
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=347008

In reality though skilled worker takes soooooo loooooooooonng now I really dont know why anyone who qualifies for both places would start on the long road to Canada, even if you decide its your prefered destination.

Maybe the effort is better spent deciding what you dont like about your life in the UK and either fixing it, or finding somewhere in the UK (or EU) that doesnt have those problems.

It was an easy choice for us as my wife hates bitey stingy things and too much heat. We also factored in the 'relations' angle, in that we are both close to our large extended families and Canada is much cheaper and easier to visit, or fly to the UK from.

Stuarty

What part of Canada are you moving too? We lived 2 years in Alberta and when my mum and dad visited us in 1999 she asked "whats that grey haze on the side of the road" I replied its swarm's of mozzies.

We also lived in rural Ontario for 6 years and remember having to cut the lawn or gardening wearing bug nets and bathing in Woods Off. Black flys are the worst as they get in your ear and rip pieces of skin off. Must admit I laughed a quite abit when my father in law visited seeing him running up and down the lawn trying to escape the bugs.

If your wife does not like bug keep away from rural areas(where there lots of water) and where housing is in reclaimed marshland etc as we found out its not fun hiding in doors from the bigs.

I have seen 48C on the Prairies and 45C in Ontario with high humidity was pretty uncomfortable for the family unless you have AC in your house.

On the other hand our Skeeter Vac has allowed us to reclaim our yard, and most places do have AC. Id rather take my chances with the mossie / black fly population than with spiders, scorpions and snakes, and Im sure parts of Oz have wicked flies too..hats with corks and all that.

45°C in Ontario? Very unusual, even as a "Humidex" temperature.

If you dont have AC, it will cost about $3k to fit a modern efficient central air unit, assuming you have Forced Air Heating and the ducts are in place already. If you dont, then window units will do the job, but they will be less efficient.

As you can see from the replies you get this post is so vague that you should do the research and then ask a more specific question about things that might concern you.

I.E. I think i can cope with the cold but what are the mosquitos like in ....?

Well, yes. Both Oz and Canada are vastly huge on a scale thats hard to imagine for a UK resident. Even Ontario on its own is larger then both Spain and France combined, and thats just one province.