..Knowing what you know now about the place you live - if you could up sticks and move to any other area in your province, where would you choose to live?

I know it's a question that ignores many real life barriers such as your current job, fact child may be happy at school, relocation costs etc etc. It also ignores the fact that you probably love the place you chose to live.
But ignoring those facts, if you had to move to another town/city/ or even suburb - where would you go? It may be miles away, it may be just down the road.

The only critera being that you would be confident of getting ANY old job as a means of income. A somewhat flawed question obviously...but i'd be interested in your idealistic answers.

Mine from a UK perspective:

In an ideal world I'd love a stint in Ambleside. Surrounded by beautiful countryside, fresh(er) clean(er) air, plenty of open spaces, decent enough shops, nice school for kid, lively enough in the summer months, relaxing and atmospheric during winter. Just a few hours away from several major Cities - therefore easy enough access to a night/weekend out..

So if you had to do it all again, knowing what you now know about other areas in your province or other suburbs of your city.....where?!!

We've been through that a couple of times ... I got laid off and we agonised about moving to BC ... in the end I'm glad we didn't.

We're currently looking at other houses in different neighbourhoods in Calgary ... can't see anything better than we have that isn't double the price.

The one thing I would change is how I handled getting a job, but then again you can only get Canadianised so quickly ... we would also have spent our pot of UK money differently, but as they say hindsight is 20:20.

An interesting comment. Seeing as we still have our "UK pot of money" do you have any advice to offer?

Sounds an awful lot like where I am now! I was tempted by a job in Calgary once though, mainly cos of the proximity of the Rockies. Not sure how I would handle the climate though, and in the end I wasnt offered the job anyway

That's the trouble with you lot, you all do such a damn good job of selling your own areas! Makes making a decision where to go all the tougher

Glaswegian - you said that you agonised over whether or not to move to BC. is that because you genuinely thought (at the time) BC had more to offer you, or was it because you had a downer with Calgary at the time having just lost your job?


I know! I have read your posts and seen some of the pictures of your region. Looks like a beautiful place. It seems that not getting the Calgary job made up your mind for you. However had you got the job and purely from a 'good place to live perspective', did Calgary appeal to you more? Or was the job better paid!

I think it was more a case of finding a job initially looked more possible over in BC. In the end I'm glad we stayed here in Calgary. Did you see Wilmores comments about the weather there recently?

Mrs G

I like it here, but my job is very nichey, apart from my current employer staying here required a change of career into Quality Engineering at the time afte a "lay off". The one in Calgary was better paying, but would have needed to be as property is more costly there. I was very impressed with Calgary as a city when I visited, it is on a more managable scale than Toronto for example, and having the Rockies in the backyard for skiing, walking and breathtaking scenery was a definate plus point. Honestly it would be hard to chose between here and there, so maybe disposable income would be a key factor in deciding. At the time had I been offered the job in Calgary I would have taken it for sure, if only to see what its like there, but I am not brave enough just to move there "on spec" without a good job lined up already, if i was a Chemical Engineer I might feel different about it though. Not sure the even longer winter out West would have agreed with me, but with the rockies right there maybe that is a good thing?

You adapt or go nuts sometime around April ...

I came to Calgary 'on spec' in the first place with no job to move to ... I was used to being an 'in demand' IT contractor in the UK, working in a whole bunch of cities commutable from Leicester ... the way the Canadian population is spread out and the cost of travel pretty much restricts the opportunity to run the same sort of business here ... plus, outside of Toronto/Ottawa the cities are pretty much geographically isolated.

If I didn't have to work then I'd get waaaay out of the city somewhere in central Ontario. I think we'd stay in Ontario simply because all my wife's family live here although as I grew up on the coast in England I think I wouldn't mind living in a small coastal town, probably on the west coast by the pacific. Staying in Ontario though you could get somewhere fairly in the middle of nowhere with land and trees and maybe ona lake while still being able to drive to the Toronto area. not commute but you could drive there to visit friends/family or for the weekend.

Unfortunately work is unavoidable without a lottery win so we will have to stay by the city unless we can get good jobs outside the city. There are however some really nice parts of Toronto that feel like being outside the city. Trouble is they are expensive.

Drew

Learn to count in Canadian dollars as fast as you can ... learn to imagine the prices are in pounds ... just remember your UK pot of money is your capital and don't expect any Canadian property to increase in value as fast as UK property... also bear in mind it costs a lot more here to sell if you make a mistake ... preserve your capital at all costs!!

Hello!

Quite an interesting question. If I could, I would live in beautiful Charlevoix region, Province of Québec. Pure air, welcoming and charming people, amazing food, whales, montains, great ski resorts, the beautiful Manoir Charlevoix, and much more! Unfortunately, not much jobs otherwise I would move tomorrow! See for yourself:

http://www.tourisme-charlevoix.com/en/accueil/index.asp

or;

http://www.quebecweb.com/charlevoixt.../introang.html

Temperature is difficult in winter, but it is a minor price to pay to live in such a poetic environment!