iaink

If I were to play devils advocate i would say that sallyannes english pictures of those folks drinking real beer and the canalside pub are making me salivate a lot more than two trees sticking out of a brownish BC foreground.

Maybe its just cos its Friday evening here. I'm off for beer and pizza

sbays

lol, enjoy,,,,,,,

Piff Poff

LIKES

The big blue sky
Kids not terrorizing everybody
No dog poo everywhere
Free ice rinks in the winter
Free swimming in the summer
Happy helpful people
Having time for my family
My house
The seasons
The space
The scenery
The cleanliness I see everywhere
The well equipped schools
The choice of summer camps
No graffiti (weell not much anyway)
Snow
Facilities
Choice
More for your money - yes I do know that loads of people will disagree, but I would rather pay $175 for 10 months for housing tax for my 4 bed 3 bath 2 double garage home than 200 pounds for 10 months for my old 2 up 2 down semi! With noisey neightbours, wheel spinning idiots and screaming teenagers.

Things I don't like

Not being sure of where in the blooming shops marmite/sugar/herbs may be placed - marmite and branston pickle can usually be found with the marinades!
Cool Aid - why can't we get squash?
The rain today when we're supposed to be doing the superrun cruise.
Not having my Ducati
Getting lost around town - or as my daughter says - "Oh we're on an explore!"
The immigration process and wondering if we'll pass our medicals so we can stay

oceanMDX

^^^ Getting lost in Red Deer? LOL.

Piff Poff

It is soooo completely possible - have you experienced the one way system AND how can towns/cities here have more than one road with the same name/number - hmm thats something I don't like!

sydney

You can buy marmite and branston pickle? Where? I haven't found it yet. Mind you perhaps I should look with the marinades. The Canadians I know have never heard of marmite.

dbd33

Loblaws keeps Marmite under cooking supplies. It's expensive, get someone to send you big jars.

iaink

Ive seen marmite next to the yeast in our local IGA. Noone knows what it is or what to do with it. I forget where they hide it in No Frills, but its there somewhere. I bought a jar once to demonstrate its awfulness to the (canadian) OH. She agreed. Do you want it?

Branston is easy to find, either with the condiments or marinades more often than not. Ive even found Irn-Bru, Both sorts of mushy peas, and real instant Bisto in our local No Frills. Some days I cant find any brown bread, but they have all that English crap, but thats another story.

oceanMDX

I lived in Red Deer for 8 years. Within a given city, one road has one name - it may not be continuous though, because of a river for example. Edmonton is like that too - watch out for the river because it confuses the issue.

You better be careful if you ever drive in Kitchener/Waterloo - it's far more difficult. All the streets/avenues are named (no numbers). Take two major roads for an example - King st. and Weber st. They run parallel for most of their length, yet they intersect in three places!!!!

Deer Hunter

The people on this forum are in 3 different categories which is why these threads ALWAYS end in tears

1. The people who say that Canada/Australia/NZ is heaven on earth and they enjoy an amazing outdoor lifestyle blah blah blah

2. The people who hate Canada/Australia/NZ because it's full of rednecks who are stuck in the 1950's and can't drive

3. The people who want to leave the UK because it is full of yobs, Pakistanis, Polaks and it's too expensive.

According to the BBC there are around 14 million Brits living abroad. Around 41% of these migrants return to the UK in 2 years. This % is probably much higher for those who return after 2 years. Of these people I would estimate that only about .0001% of those returnees post on this forum. Of the other 59% of successful migrants I would guess that only .0001% post on this forum.

You have to ask yourself whether these .0002% of people are giving you the whole story. The 'rose tints' who say that St. Albert is utopia won't tell you that thier Mchouse is made of weatherboard and thier neighbour got broken into last week. They also won't tell you about how thier kids have taken up smoking weed and that they have a truck that they can't afford. And if these people are so damn happy why do they spend half of thier lives posting on a forum for expats?

The disaffected expats are clearly biased and will tell you about their neighbour and house and kids. Fair enough but they won't tell you that they can drive to the Rockies in an hour.

The people who aren't in Canada will tell you that Canada is soooo much better than the UK and their sister's cousin's friend went there and said it was great so it must be wonderful and will put the blinkers on when they hear something bad about it.

It is pointless asking people on this forum what's good and bad about Canada. The answers you will get will be biased and of no use to you. Does the fact that you can buy a huge shoddily built house and a truck to drive to Walmart and buy clothes made by 12 year old Chinese kids make you want to go there? What will change for you when you move only you can say. There are no less social problems in Canada than the UK. It is expensive. You will not all of a sudden become an athlete. Your kids will start to backchat you in a Canadian accent and learn some cool new French swear words. Immigration is tough and you have to ask yourself why it is you want to leave.

dingbat

Ha ha...so true..so very true....

sinope

Deerhunter, of the 50 odd answers I have had on this thread yours have been the only unhelpful ones. Why is it that you assume I am a brain dead moron who needs the obvious pointed out to me? Of course every single post will be biased to some degree or other but I wanted an idea of what life is like in Canada and I have more of one now than before I started this thread.

I don't understand people like you. Why do you feel that you have to be so condescending and negative? You come across as a very bitter and disappointed person. Very sad.


To everyone else who has posted here, thank you so much. It has been very interesting and certainly opened my eyes to a few things that I had no idea about. No doubt I shall continue to call on you for advice and opinions as I research whether a move to Canada is for me and my family or not. I had assumed that the ex-pat community would be friendly and helpful and, with a few exceptions this has been the case.

emu72

Yet another case of a poster that slates any reply that they didn't want to hear as unhelpful and negative.

If you don't want people to think that you are "a brain-dead moron" stop trying to make a life changing decision based on the opinion of strangers on the internet.

sinope

I actually think you might be a troll and just want something to kick off - I can see no other reason for your post. However I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

I am not making a life-changing decision based on 'the opinion of strangers on the internet', it is just part of my research about living in Canada. I also fail to see why the posts on this thread should be discounted just because they are personal opinions. You are invalidating the whole forum by that argument.

Deerhunter didn't even try to answer my op, was not helpful and came across as vindictive, patronising and insulting to the other members of the forum. Helpful would have been positives and negatives about life in Canada as I asked and which the majority of posters have answered brilliantly.

taradem

Apologies for invalidating your extensive research but we don't fit into any of your categories ............. what about

4. The people who have moved on an inter-company transfer, quite liked their lives in the UK but happy to experience something different?

Anyone else not comfortable in any of deer hunters boxes???