robbyls

I immigrated to Canada 4 years and I have to admit it was because Canada is close to the US so I decided to move here. But speaking of Canada itself, the winter is so harsh and lengthy - I am in Toronto, it is actually not a liveable place to me.

I wonder for other people who immigrate here. The reason to pick Canada is because Canada is really good its alone or because its neighbour is the biggest economy.

rivingtonpike

I don't want to live in the US; never really appealed.

ExKiwilass

I came for Canada. Never wanted to live in the US.

colchar

Personally, I would never ever live in the US for any reason. As for the weather, you do realize that many parts of the US have the same weather as Canada right?

And if the weather in Toronto bothers you check out BC where the weather is much more mild.

dbd33

I love America but I came for Canada's bilingualism (French bilingualism, I know they have Spanish bilingualism in the US).

scrubbedexpat091

I came for Canada, I can live in the US and spent 24 years there.

If you want a mild winter, got to come to BC's lower mainland or Island, probably nowhere in Canada as mild in winter.

Today for example in Vancouver its +7 with +8 expected to be the high. Its gets cold on occasion but only for short bursts usually in Dec and January.

Summers are also near perfect here, not usually hot, nor humid.

haggis88

i came for the job and money i was offered, not for the location

orly

Certainly one of the plus points given that Summer is a sweat box.

Edo

Why would someone want to move over to Canada with an intention to finally end up moving to a country that is going downhill itself?

Oink

Care to clarify?

dbd33

If you mean the US, then it's common for people to use Canada as a stepping stone. For healthy people who are not concerned with speaking French, America offers a higher material standard of living. I would think most anyone living in a Canadian subdivision would want to move to the US, life would be the same but with an even bigger television.

Edo

ok but is the quality of life any better than Canada though? I know the taxes are less but never bothered to explore any more since I realised how much debt they have and an economy that plays in the hands of the Chinese.

robbyls

the reason why I started this post is I recently returned down an offer from Melbourne Australia. For the same position for similar company (IT for Capital Market), I would make over 50% more over there and I am a PR of Australia too. I turned it down because most of my Canadian friends think Canada has much better future. The key argument is we are close to the U.S. with merely driving distance whereas Australia is a just big island.

During this Christmas and new holiday, we were put into no power and no water thanks to the ice storm and today the windchill is -26!. We all are grounded at home too because we have a baby.

I realize from the practical point of view, the quality of life is significantly lowered by the lengthy winter and is not necessarily better than that of Australia. Am I a fool? I choose to stay in Canada because of feeling well/future-safe being close to the U.S.? If I went to Melbourne, I would probably have similar purchasing power because of the higher income and at the same time, almost all year around, I would be able to go out for a walk.

I might not be myself today as I am little bit depressed.

Oink

For most people, that'd basically sum it up.

Alan2005

I'd quite like a bigger telly. Can't justify it right now though, especially with 4k right round the corner.