Collie

Well, several friends live there and we go there for big shopping - sofas, tv's etc (and do a pub quiz there each week!). Pluses:-
- near the 401 so easy access to Toronto etc. And a VIA rail station too.
- houses are cheaper than in Prince Edward County, over the bridge
- shops, cinema, bars, restaurants, (amateur) theatres etc

Minuses:-
- Bit run down, and main street is pretty empty thanks to the malls
- Some areas are quite run down. Bit of a drug problem apparently.

As far as employment in Picton is concerned - there's not a huge amount. I work from home, so it's not an issue for me where we live. But it's basically the county town and a tourism hub with plenty of agriculture around - so quite a few lawyers, accountants, a couple of schools, courts etc.

BristolUK

Useful to know.

In the event of ever having to move, somewhere between Kingston and Pickering could be a target.

tracys

How are you liking Barrie? What is it that you miss about NS?

DandNHill

Barrie is fine but nothing special. There is a Mall about the size of the Halifax Mall and then other shopping around just like you would find in HRM. We're about 20 minutes south of there and keep forgetting that Newmarket has more shops to chose from but is even more built on a grid than Barrie so lacks in soul, apart from maybe the old Main St.

We miss friends in NS. Also the relaxed way of life. I would say that here it's a lot more like it was in the UK. Much more go go go!

It's funny, when we moved to NS after a while we felt that we were too young to be "wasting away" in NS but now we are here we miss the slower pace.

One thing I do like here more than NS is that people are more used to lots of foreign accents and also the English spoken here is a lot closer to UK English than what is spoken in NS which in my opinion is much more like American English... So we are less noticeable...

laddo73

I live near to Ottawa and spend quite a bit of time driving in and out. From my minute experience, Ottawa is tiny in comparison. Toronto has more work but the cost of property there is very high compared to the Ottawa area. If you could find work in the Ottawa area you could have quite a nice life without the pressure that you might find in Toronto. We considered the Toronto area but were but of by the expense.

emyrthomas

Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa, just saying!

I chose Ottawa in 2009 and am glad I did. Research Kanata / Stittsville both in the west end of the City which is where I settled.

Good luck.

tracys

Thank you 😀

tracys

Thanks for advice 😀

tracys

Is there a particular part of Stittsville that is a better area? Or are they all decent? There are about 6 options on MLS. 😀

emyrthomas

Stittsville is a nice area with some older and newer houses and new sub-divisions popping up all the time. I love the place personally as It's close enough but also far enough away from the downtown part of the City. I also work in the west end which means I don't have the daily blood pressure raising commute!

dbd33

I didn't like Ottawa during the year I spent there but then there are a lot of places in Canada I don't like.

I found Ottawa to be cold, snowy and governmental. It's a small town with the small town advantage that property is cheap and the small town disadvantage that it never goes up in value. The one person I knew who loved it there eventually moved to California, what he liked about Ottawa was being able to live walking distance from work and walking distance from fishing; he could fish at lunchtime. Toronto's bigger and has more stuff, it's not London but it does have a bit of pace to it, it also has hellish commutes and no edible fish living within a hundred miles.

Rather depends why you want to move on from NS, I'd be concerned that Ottawa has many of the same disadvantages as Halifax without offering an ocean.

DandNHill

Agree with dbd, don't go from one rural, small town area to another. We're about an hour from Toronto and it's kind of the sticks here too... might move nearer to Toronto next year...

MarylandNed

Barrie isn't comparable to Ottawa though. There are over 1 million people in Ottawa-Gatineau - almost 10x the population of Barrie. So Ottawa is hardly "the sticks". There is much more to see and do there than there is in Barrie.

Partially discharged

Agreed..Many in Barrie live there due to its affordablity to have a detached home with the yard etc for people who work in the north GTA and commute down the 400 daily. Ottawa proper doesn't really have a city that size close to the city limits with so many people heading to another city for work. Kemptville, Rockland, Carleton Place, Arnprior, Russell don't have that sort of population.

dbd33

I don't think the Barrie comparison suggests that Ottawa has a satellite town like Barrie, rather that Ottawa is like Barrie. In the terms intended; entertainment, physical beauty, excitement, it's not unreasonable though it is true that, while people in Barrie commute to Toronto, those in Ottawa have nowhere to go.