Only lived here for 16 months and done 2 summers and 1 winter, so can only comment on what we've experienced so far:

This summer has been consistently warm since April and its now Sept. So 6 months of warm/hot summers days.

Last winter, the temps fluctuated, the coldest snap being when the winter Olympics were on (Feb I think) When it went down to -28. A few days prior to that my hub had been outside washing his car on the driveway. Can't remember the temp, but it must have been + something for him to do that.

Last Halloween we were out in just our daft costumes without the need for coats, gloves, silly woolly hats etc.

No major snowfall until March. No snow on Christmas day, we had drizzle here.

My point being, its a bit of a misconception to think that Canada is freezing cold for the majority of the yr.
And I know people may say that what we experienced wasn't the norm, and maybe not, so we'll just have to see what comes this year. But many Canadians we speak to, say the winters are no where near as harsh as they used to be.

That's what I was thinking, even at Edmonton, on average you only get about 5 months of cold weather per year.

Its ok, we did our research carefully because of this, friends who have been where we are going for 5 years and we went across twice
so we learnt that the mozzies were a pain but as easy to live with as midges over here particularly with the C02 burners, and the blackfly are no great issue in that area (near Edmonton). Met the wee buggers when I went fishin up towards the border with Northwest Territories and they are to be avoided. None of these bitey things are lethal (west Nile fever aside)
so no issues for Mrs Stuarty.

I visited Australia and stayed at the homes of a colleague. It was a nice trip but I couldn't live there as they've been really metricated.

I lived in Alberta for 15 years .... even had a quarter section of bush... and never saw "a grey haze" of mozzies. I saw lots of grey hazes made of flying insects, but they certainly weren't mozzies. Mozzies don't form that type of swarm... they prefer to stay in dense vegetation.

I prefer the blue cloudlesd skies that come with both the cold and heat to the weeks of grey skies and rain in the UK,

But that's location specific, what we have here is mainly smog. There are a couple of days a year when the pollution clears and one can see blue but mostly we're looking at a grey/brown haze.

Which is odd, most of the TO smog drifts down the lake toward us. We get plenty of poor air quality days, but the sky is still blue at least.

<looks out the window, wonders how this can count as blue>

Something that's really shocking is arriving in a small plane, one you can look forward from, the dirt in the sky is like a crust over the city. It could be that Australia is equally dirty but I wouldn't suggest coming here if you have any sort of respiratory issues.

No smog in 'Berta, just blue skies and that arrora borialis(dodgy spelling or what) thingy

What is this smog you talk of? Is it like the Fog we get here?

Hmmm. I can't say I know Alberta but I thought the geography of Calgary was like Denver, mountains on one side, fields on the other; Denver has a huge smog problem due to the mountains. I don't imagine the government of Alberta is much concerned about environmental issues so I wouldn't be confidant that there's no smog there.

Nup, Westlock is smog free, a bit foggy when the temp changes rapidly but that's about it, mind you the locals can't drive in it, that or they have x-ray specs on.

Nah mate, the stuff here is thick and brown, "pea soupers" they calls 'em. White fog with a mournful horn is a romantic vision, a glimpse through brown swirls of the homeless hacking up their lungs, is not.

Maybe I can be of some help as I lived five years in Australia before moving to Canada (I grew up in Canada and left when I was in my early 20's.) I am not sure I would base my decision on where I live solely on the weather, (for many comments on this thread seem to be about hot verses cold) but would look at each country's aspects in terms of what I consider important. For me, I left Australia because I was tired of the long distances to anywhere else. This can become a huge drag over the years. Travel inside Australia is okay but gets a bit tedious after a while--and I saw every inch of that country several times (except Tasmania which I didn't feel I needed to see cause it is similar to New Zealand in a lot of ways, and I lived in NZ for 10 years and saw every inch of that country!).

Things, in general, are more expensive in Australia. Just a simple case of economies of scale. My food bill is about half what I was paying in Australia (Oz has a lot of import controls on food so a lot is locally grown--when I left, bananas were 15$ a kilo because of the hurricane in banana country, and of course Australia refused to import bananas to bring the price down--an example of Oz's protectionism). White goods etc are less expensive too in Canada, but the biggest difference is the cost of housing. Australia has let its housing market get out of control and prices there for a basic house are crazy. For example, our tiny, 900 square foot house--one bathroom, no storage, no attic or basement, no air conditioning, no garage, sold for 341,000 (it was in Darwin--hardly central Sydney). We just bought a 1200 square foot house here in Canada (small town in interior BC) for $124,000. The same house would I admit be more in Vancouver, say, but not half a million++ which is what it would be in Sydney, Perth or Melbourne.

Also, I was reading with interest the thread about manners and general friendliness in Canada verses the UK. That is another reason I left Australia--I found that the most common reaction from a stranger was hostility. People didn't seem warm and welcoming, but cold and aggressive. My neighbours, for example, ignored me--if I and a neighbour were getting into our cars at the same time the neighbour would pretend s/he didn't see me so s/he wouldn't have to say hi. Crazy. No neighbour introduced themselves in the five years we lived there. And forget friendly work relations!! Meetings were hostile encounters that I grew to dread. I could go on. But a friendly country it was not, in my experience.

As for scary creatures, it does amuse me how people seem to view various countries and its wildlife. New Zealanders are scare stiff of snakes cause none live in NZ, Australias always had to comment on bears if I mentioned Canada, and people on this forum seem to be overly worried about spiders and other critters in Oz. Worry not--these are tiny threats that have little day to day meaning.

As for mosquitos in Canada, yes there are a lot (although not so where we live, thank heavens!) but in Australia you are over run with flies. They are far more maddening than mosquitos, I found, but to each his own, I suppose.

I enjoyed my life in Australia, by and large, but wouldn't live there for the rest of my life and I am glad I left. However, I have only been back in Canada for a few months so maybe I will find more to dislike, but so far, there is no comparison--Canada wins hands down in terms of general overall choices for what I want out of life: much easier travel, better cost of living, great weather (can't wait for the snow to fly so I can get out my cross country skies); beautiful scenery (Australia is flat flat flat--nice in itself but try driving for three days across very flat desert country--it gets old fast); much friendlier people etc etc. Anyway, my two cents.