What are the pluses and minuses, likes/dislikes about your town - I'm thinking more of those already in Canada - and would you choose to move?

Pluses:

I feel safe whatever the time of day or night
Low crime rate
I can see for miles....so really appreciate the wide open spaces
Cleanliness - no dog dirt, no glue bags, no syringes, no rubbish
No MacDonalds and Timmies! Sorry - but this is a plus for me!

Minuses :

Small town unfriendliness which causes a feeling of isolation
Only one expensive grocery store
A lack of vibrancy - family businesses closing down; town is dying
Lack of employment


Perhaps you could state your town/city/village?

Yes, I probably will move within a couple fo years - don't know where yet, so don't ask

Pluses:

- Diversity: you can get any kind of food, save grits, raw or cooked.
- Cheap housing means more money for other things.
- Stability, I've been here twenty years and nothing much has happened yet.

Minuses:

- Physically ugly.
- Bureaucracy, there's a law for everything and two on Sundays.
- Boredom, I've been here twenty years and nothing much has happened yet.
- Pollution, one shouldn't really breathe the air nor swim in the lake.
- McDonalds and Tim Hortons in abundance.

I'm about to move but only to the edge of the city.

Wouldn't this make more sense if people said which town..if its not in there profile location already. This is for Stirling Ontario, our local village

Pluses:

All the stuff I usually go on about...
Cheap property ($130k and up)
Friendly People
Zero crime/ graffiti / litter
Local trail system to explore
Lots for Kids to do...footy, skating, skate park etc, fairs and festivals.
No big box stores, stores owners and staff know who you are, have a chat and really do provide customer service.
Small town community feel


Minuses (limiting this to the town, rather than any wider issues of canadian living)
Can be a bit parochial due to small town tight nit community, church is important still.
Not a lot to do for adults, although there are restaurants and a theater, you normally have to drive 20mins to Belleville or Trenton for some stuff or 1.5 to 2h to Toronto.
Not a lot of good employment opportunities I have to go to Belleville to work, but Belleville is alright really.
....erm thats all I can think of right now.

Oops - yes, you're absolutely right Iaink - thanks, I knew I'd missed something !
I've added it now......

I Sometime think I am living in a different part of canada when I read some of the posts here but:

Pluses:
Small Town Friendliness - First night a neighbour turned up with a cake - no joke!
Large town friendliness - the unfriendly ones are normally expats from somewhere
I actually like Timmies - but I have to drive 15 mins to get one
Pike fishing
Bass fishing
Muskie fishing
lots of water
my boat
we are all employed with great jobs and only 1 degree amongst us

minuses - this is a tough one
government I guess
too many commercials on tv
too much water and not enough time to fish it all
and of course, the fishing season is too short

maybe you have guessed my passion???

Erm,,, so where is "Round the bend" then

I blip on the map between Startford and Goderich....funnily enough we looked at Belleville/Stirling before we came back here (used to live in Port Perry back in the 80's), but chose this area as we have good Canadian friends from all those years ago, now living near Listowel.

So you live somewhere between Stratford, Goderich and Listowel... that takes in an area of about 560 square miles with no community of any consequence (IMO) within that space. And you are complaining about a lack of vibrancy? I hope you like the quiet life.

Quite!

I live in Quebec city about 2.5 hours east of Montreal along the St. Lawrence river.

Plus:

Small town feel
voted in Chateleine magazine a few years ago the number 1 City in Canada to raise a family ( Ottawa was second) but this might have changed .
very low crime rate ( I never lock my front door)
beautiful City ( UNESCO protected)
very european feel
very clean
excellent schools
very safe
my spoken and written french has drmatically improved
my kids are 100% bilingual
fantastic restaurants
my sister is a teacher in the GTA and the things that her students do in class and the way she is treated by them would never be tolerated here.. ever.
great ski town ( for the kids)
hockey ( for the kids)
skating

minuses:

small town feel
very white, very french and very catholic
if you dont have a car, transportation is a huge head ache
you have to see an english movie within 2 weeks it is out , otherwise it is gone in a flash
there is a small english community, but very cliquey
army town so hard to make english friends as they come and go
if you dont speak french, employment is very limited
always very aware that i am english ( i must be asked about 3 times a day.. I love your accent where are you from?)
always aware that I dont quite`` fit in ``
very hard to get service in english ( hence my dramatically improved french)
if you want to eat chinese , moroccan or any other ethnic food , you wont get it here ( atleast not very good, the good restaurants are french)
tourists in the summer over run the City
not multi-cultural enough
not enough action for me
winters are long and tons of snow( although not this year..)
9 hours to Toronto to visit my family



glad to have raised the kids here, but now that they are getting older we are moving to montreal in July

By that riddle, I thought she meant near Grand Bend on Lake Huron in a community like Goderich.

By looking at her avatar maybe she lives in a town that has a lot of beehives.

I try to keep busy - hence the bee.. I am going slowly round the bend in this town
Have you ever been to Grand Bend - it couln't be described as being "like Goderich"

Calgary.

Pluses:
- good friends
- sunshine and great skies
- plains, foothills, mountains
- friendly people
- easy networking
- great pottery throwing facilities
- Talisman Centre - great gym!
- black squirrels all chubbed-out with their winter fat
- as a pedestrian, I am God
- amazing x/c skiing
- a lot of opportunity
- good restaurants/eating
- the high/mania I get from Chinooks

Minuses:
- expensive
- the lack of care and understanding a lot of people have about homelessness and other social issues and wildlife/nature conservation.
- cyclists/cycling on the sidewalks
- toque hair
- static shocks

... hmm, not really much else - an advantage of being unplugged from reality.

Yes, I've been to Grand Bend many times, but Goderich is literally around "the bend" of Lake Huron from Grand Bend.... btw, in what town do you live?

I used to live 15 minutes east of Grand Bend in a tiny community called Crediton and although I picked many faults with it at first (comparing it to Red Deer too many times), I eventually grew to love it there. We haven't ruled out returning there to live either because of the housing affordability and familiarity.

Here is mine anyway....
Red Deer, Alberta
Pluses: A thriving city of 83,000, growing bigger every day
Almost every store you can possibly imagine to shop from
Numerous job opportunities (even though I have been struggling!)
A wonderful trail system that connects throughout the city.
Very good public transport and reasonbly priced too.
Amazing wide open, often sunny, skies
Hot, dry summers and crisp, dry winters
Excellent education/schools
I am just a 3 hour scenic drive to the Rockies
An easy 1.5 hr drive to both Calgary & Edmonton

Minuses: A city growing way too fast to cope
Crime is definitely rising and has sadly become more noticeable
The drivers here are f****** idiots (could be said for all over)
Litter is becoming a problem
Extortionate house prices are forcing us to rethink where we should live
Landlords outrageous rentals
Majority of wages here are still not enough to meet rental costs or purchasing a basic home

That's all I can think of for now anyway.....maybe I should do another one on the + & - of Crediton......