endeavour27

Emigrating to Canada is - to put it mildly - a big decision. For a successful move, the underlying advice in many threads is that the “pull” of the Canadian opportunity needs to be stronger than the “push” factors from the UK.

Many recent comments have discussed negatives aspects of Canadian life like the cost of living, the cold, anti-social behaviours, difficulties of breaking into the job market, and so on. But what’s the other side of the story?

What makes living in Canada great for you? What transformational experiences have you had? What inspires you in a way you’d never experience back in the UK? In short, what are your reasons to believe?

dbd33

I can make more money in Canada than anywhere else.

unobscure

You can just walk up the border and widdle on the USA.

Engineer_abroad

For me my career is much more valued and respected here in Canada and my salary increased by 1/3 just for moving to Canada. The industry I work in is more active here and gives me the opportunity to work on more challenging and interesting projects. It was Canada or Australia and I prefer the cold to the hot.

cheeky_monkey

same here..im just here for the cash

Former Lancastrian

I can sign up to a British Expats site and moan about how backwards Canada is and how much I miss the UK and what I miss.

CanadaJimmy

There are a lot of great things about Canada.

Houses here are spacious, and most are nice to look at architecturally compared to the UKs boring brick boxes. New homes still have decent back yards. There's lots of new housing stock so you find it easier to find a nice modern apartment than in the UK.

Newness in general. Canada is a young country, so lots of new buildings, infrastructure, businesses, and ideas. There is a feeling that you can influence how things develop over time instead of everything having already been done.

World class city planning. Most cities are laid out on a grid which is great for navigating around and also avoids traffic bottlenecks. Vancouver has an amazing city plan considered one of the best in the world for it's density, walkability and green space.

Incredible nature and scenery. Literally millions of acres of natural unspoilt parks. Hiking trails with amazing views. Lots of interesting wildlife and critters.

Variety of cultures. I can go to the Chinese/Japanese/Korean part of town and go to an Asian mall and visit a Japanese dollar store (Daiso). I can go to the Indian part of town and get authentic samosas and indian food. I can go to the Italian part of town and go to a European-style supermarket. Multiple cultures are not diluted and lots of imported items and foods can be found.

Education system. The school system here is very good and allows students to focus on subjects they are genuinely interested in a lot more than in the UK. People in general have better critical thinking skills.

More organizations and utilities publicly owned. Electricity is still provided by a public company here - BC Hydro here in BC. Public transit is still operated by a public organization. Not being squeezed for profit but there to provide good service.

Easy access to America. America is a consumers paradise, if you live near the border you can have items shipped to a US mailbox for easy pickup.

Safe. Asides for a very small amount gang activity, most cities are very low crime. You don't see groups of youths wondering the streets causing trouble.

Nikki1234

If you have lots of money to come with....its awesome but if you want to live below the poverty line forget it! You need a minimum of $50k per year to live above the poverty line as a single person/couple.thats just to exist! A realist income has to be 100k with kids without extras. It has changed so much in the last 5 years
now we ate taxed to the hilt. Remember what you are used to is paid for by the population
We dont have the population and in our province most people buy their cooking and drinking water
We do love it here but...but...you will not have what you have now.imagine 20 years ago or the youngsters can imagine that lol

scilly

All of the above, plus you are judged much more on your abilities than on where you come from (north vs south), accent (northern vs southern), or who you know.

We came here in 1968 for 2 years, before we tried somewhere else. We found our place, both had good jobs that we stayed in for 30 years in my case, over 35 in OH's. We've never once regretted the move.

hg42

Much, of course, depends on where you choose to live and what you choose to spend your money on. Speaking as an actual povvo (not really many of those around here, I think) IMO if you're actually poor (as opposed to being of the, uh, temporarily embarrassed millionaire bent) in the UK but have some sort of skill, even if nothing formal, you'll probably end up better off over here, subject to some decisions you make. Far more of a risk if you're actually poor, of course - If I'd been hit by a bus the first few months I'd have been in big trouble - but you'll be a relatively larger fish in a relatively smaller pond, I suppose.

I don't think I've earned $100k total since moving over a hair under three years ago, but I have enough money set aside to go back to school for a couple of years and not worry too much about working, and that's after paying for all the PR crap, going back to Europe for a month's holiday, sending a bunch of money back too, buying a car that should last a decade or so along with plenty of useless rubbish. I'm sure I would have been broke and miserable if I'd tried to live some kind of rosy-cheeked suburban Toronto (or wherever) lifestyle on that sort of money, but then I didn't try to. I got lucky in the sense that I've been working constantly since I got here and work provides somewhere for me to live for not too much money, but at the same time I've chosen to live in the places I have and do the in principle poorly paid jobs that I have because the first was all but guaranteed and the second reasonably likely. Considering I stepped off the plane in Vancouver three years ago carrying everything I owned, I can't really complain; I've been a hell of a lot better off, happier, more comfortable, fulfilled etc than I was in the UK.

I don't find taxation to be vastly different vs the UK in the grand scheme of things; some of what you get for the money is a bit better, some a bit worse. Services are mostly provided by people who are on average perhaps slightly incompetent, but generally pleasant and positive and care about what they're doing. I hear a lot of whining about taxes but I've found most of it to be prompted by people thinking that the only services that anyone should ever be provided are those they personally want at that exact moment.

Oh, yeah. I can see my house from here. That's an upside. Doesn't pay the bills, of course, but it doesn't hurt.

dbd33

I could not more strongly disagree with you if you were Donald Trump. The Canadian built environment is god awful ugly and about to collapse around the ears of the occupants.

dbd33

100k is 1/8th of the price of an ordinary house. One can live on that money, of course, most people earn less, but I don't think it's "buy a property" money. Perhaps if a couple each bring in $100k.

BristolUK

I'm not sure why it has to be "lots of money" or below the poverty line. What about all the in-betweens?

Nevertheless, my experience is completely different and while I'm in a clear minority, I am so far away from the "you need a $100,00 just to get by" crowd there has to be room for something in between.

Average household income in New Brunswick is around $59k and all 776,000 of us are not at the food bank About one in twenty are on social assistance though.


"Povvo" is a new one on me

Things are much better for "the four" that we are now (because it was planned that way) but when $60k was the BE "minimum just to get by" (around 2010) we had a quarter of that coming in. No mortgage because I bought the house outright but that doesn't mean free housing, what with property tax,, buildings insurance and water bills.

If you add the additional cost that a very nice apartment would have cost in this city, our lifestyle could have been run on just under $20k and if you did the same for the rents that people talked about at that time in Toronto, $26k would have done it.

But bringing us up to date, we are now four adults and household income just hits the $50k. We don't want for anything and we even buy beef tenderloin and lamb

Even goose last week

I think of us as being in the upper in-betweenies but we're still below NB average.

BristolUK

What you and others call macmansions might be ugly and there are plenty of other buildings that are ugly too. And the big streets with the box stores and fast food places are pretty ugly too.

It obviously varies quite a bit but much of the housing around here is just nice to look at. All different too. Back in Quebec, quite different to here too but still very appealing in its own way.

I think that's what was meant by lots of money to come with.

endeavour27

Thanks for everyone's comments so far. Maybe "Reasons to believe" is a bit tongue in cheek as a thread theme but it's helpful to hear what Brits like about Canada particularly as it's all too easy for us to get cynical and downbeat. So far, posters seem to be saying there are material, financial and job benefits to Canada but no one has said much about Canadians and Canadian society. Why is that?

If you haven't come across her before, there's a Canadian YouTuber called Alanna who's made a tonne of videos comparing life in Ontario (where she was brought up) with life in Kent (where she's been living for the last four years): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkJ...yrbQZ7YtdjKT7Q. After covering aspects like British drinking culture, Monster Munch, puddings, washing machines, swearing, Brexit, personal attacks and a lot more, her visa has now run out and she's on her way home. What she has done in her YouTuber-ish way is flag up what's great in both countries, as much as what's not - and that's actually really valuable insight.