I just wanted to air the turmoil that goes on in what used to be known as my mind.

In brief I am 43, I have a loving a very tolerant DH, 6 kids aged 23 down to 8, 5 huge dogs and I own a business in Manchester UK with my sister.

I looked at emigrating a few years back in 2006, and then pinged before I had ponged and instead of moving to Australia (had a friend who wanted me to go into business with him in Brissy) moved to Cornwall. There were a lot of factors in the decision, including a hysterical eldest child who refused to go with us and announced that I would leave her 'an orphan', a sister who said that she would never forgive me and my dad who burst into tears - tower of friggin' strength my lot are.

Two years later I got itchy feet again, but then my business in Manchester went from strength to strength, so instead of taking the plunge I again opted to move within the UK - stayed in Cornwall but moved right onto the coast into a major renovation project, unfortunately although it is beautiful it is also in the arse end of nowhere.

Fast forward to now and eldest child is safely ensconced at uni doing Law and Japanese and talking about working overseas, my dad spends 3 months of the year snowbirding in Thailand and my sister is living in LA - funny how these things work out eh? - and we are in the process of selling our business.

I have the opportunity to emigrate now on an investor category visa, and having looked around the world - as you do - have decided that the only person that I have to really talk round is my dad, and Canada is the closest to him. Not the best reason in the world to pick a country I know, but to be honest Canada and Oz were pretty much neck and neck for various reasons.

I have spoken to an immigration expert at great length, and he reckons that it would be fairly straight forwards, but obviously all swings on the sale of the business going through - which if you have never done it is like the ultimate house sale, but with a 12 weeks bl**dy survey. Frustrated? You bet.

I have never actually visited Canada before, but in order to do a reccie like we did with Oz I need to know roughly where to visit and Lord is it a big country!

My question to you all at this stage ( obviously there will be loads more!) is given that I have 6 kids, at least 2 of whom will need part time jobs when we get there ( I am a firm believer in them getting into the swing of work at an early age) where should we consider and why?

If I lay out our needs do you think you could give me some pointers?

1. I hate living in the city, we have 4.5 acres at the moment and a few neighbours, but we are 10 miles from the nearest supermarket which drives me insane when I forget the milk. I am not particularly sociable ( very low tolerance for the terminally stupid) but then I can in all honesty say that I would hate to have me as a neighbour, who would want to live next door to 6 kids- who all ride quad bikes, yes I am that annoying - 3 Newfoundlands and 2 Labradors?

2. The kids moan ( a lot.....) about the lack of public transport and facilities, so we would need to be on some kind of a transport network and near a town

3. I am used to very very low crime - we dont lock our doors and can leave the keys in the car overnight if we forget.

4. Opportunities for work for the kids - not so much of a problem for me and HD as we will be in the enviable position of being 'retired' - but the job situation in Cornwall is beyond dire. Do not believe what you read about the SW having low unemployment, the only jobs available here across the board are minimum wage, seasonal, tourist related crap. A job at Tescos is like the holy grail of employment opportunities and they are handed on between families - I kid you not.

5. Proximity to a city (within 2 hours drive) with preferably an international airport. At the moment we have to drive for 6/7 hours to get to an airport and add 2 days onto the holiday which is very annoying.

6. An area that is friendly towards immigrants, I know that people are people and all that, but having compared Manchester to Cornwall in the UK I am also aware that some areas are more closed minded than others.

7. Somewhere that kids can still be kids and they aren't caught up on labels and materialistic nonsense ( Cornwall is very good for this)

8. Somewhere with beautiful scenery and near to water, we can walk to the cove at the moment and the kids swim with the dogs etc in summer and I would hate to lose that.

9. I veered away from Vancouver area because everything I read said that their weather is very similar to the UK and the idea of yet more grey fills me with horror. Yes I know the winters elsewhere can be brutal, but I am sure that if the kids get to trade quads for snowmobiles they will get over it.

My biggest fear is that I will once again talk myself/ get talked out of the decision and in 2 years time will still be sat like piffy on a rock bun moaning about wanting to emigrate. I have a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really don't want to waste it. I really really dont want to ping before I have ponged again..... or is it pong before I have pinged?

Has anyone got any ideas or pointers (other than suggestions regarding therapy/positive visualisation etc) that may help?

Thanks in advance for your help.

This makes me realise that one really shouldnt be pushed around by other peoples emotions so much as eventually they may go their own way anyway and you are left doing what they wanted you to do.

It sounds like you could settle pretty easily in NS as long as you are on a bus route and manage to pick somewhere reasonably rural thats still on said route. Not sure that is possible though, but maybe I just dont know enough about that as we all drive.

If you are used to being in an area where who you know helps you to get a job then you will fit in rather well here as networking is pretty much everything.

This is a province of opportunity as well, especially since we won the shipbuilding contract.

I am sure someone with comments on other provinces (and more on this one) will be along soon to add to this.

sorry, I am not very good at the quotes thing or else I would use it and answer each point - this place has a load of water. Maybe somewhere like Porters Lake could be a good option, its on the metro transit route (29 km to Halifax if I remember rightly), its right next to amazing beaches and of course its on a lake so water water water.

Kids stay kids pretty much everywhere here, especially in the more rural areas

Very true! I do tend to end up as the emotional security blanket for my family, but I am a soft arse when it comes to them all. It is a fine balance between potential guilt and simmering resentment lol.

By NS I assume that you mean Nova Scotia? It is not an area that I know much about, are there part time jobs for teens? Is there an international airport in Hlaifax? How are you finding it there? Porters Lake sounds like just the ticket I will have to google it - what did we do before tinternet?

The Investor category is closed to new applications until July 2012. They now have a 700 applicant cap for each year, so if you are thinking of applying you will need to have everything ready and in place for submission.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigra...tors/index.asp

Hi, yes I do mean Nova Scotia. Halifax Airport is an international one, the flights between it and the UK are between 5.5 hours and 6.5 hours long
There are part time jobs around but it depends what they want to do, I know quite a few that work in Tims or McDonalds part time.

Oh and dont allow yourself to be talked out of this, unless you personally dont want to do it.

I did notice that, which isn't a problem as it would take me that long to see the sale of the business through etc. The thing that is worrying is that according to the Canadian Embassy site it is taking 32 months to process the investor applications

I know that the Quebec program is still open and a lot quicker - 14 months at the moment - but as I don't speak French it is a bit of a non starter.

If you want the best of both, I'd consider the Niagara escarpment and surrounding areas, it’s not cheap, but it’s easy access to the GTA and the lakes, has lots of very nice acreage properties, setting up business in the GTA gives a lot of scope and with Toronto as your international airport

look up Caledon on MLS

That is less time than it takes my DD to get the train from Manchester to Cornwall, and looking at the latest rail hikes would probably be cheaper.

That is the sort of thing I am looking for work wise for them, just something that they can do around their studies.

I am the worst offender for talking myself out of decisions that involve the family, never have that problem in a business sense but struggle when it comes to family happiness.

Define not cheap? Do you mean London prices or are we talking uncomfortable but not unreasonable?

I am thinking of semi retirement, maybe get some rental properties or just passive investments. Though I was thinking about ground source heat pumps after reading about the fuel bills...... how green/eco aware is Canada?

Oh Ignore my first comment I just had a quick look on that link, they are actually not bad for price and hopefully the exchange rate will pick up a bit in my favour. I will have a snoop on the internet at the area.

Comparable to Texas.

Put simply: it isn't. It purports to be, but spending 10 mins observing any Timmies drive thru will blow that out of the air. No one has been able to explain to me why every downtown office block in Calgary has to have every single light on all night. Pretty, it may be, green/eco it is not. I doubt that any other city in Canada is any different, but I suspect I will be proven wrong.

Pricing I would say is reasonable considering its proximity and access to Toronto, (Caledon is about 45mins peak period from the Airport). I’ve only shown Acreage on the link, un-click to get smaller properties
Ground source and solar energy are growing in popularity in the area, I think that’s partly due to its location, and catering to wealthier home owners who can and do think long term, as well as provincial grants available for green energy in Ontario

we heat our home with wood. Its much cheaper than electric or oil. I am afraid that Canada is not green at all (apart from the scenery)