Its just hard to afford based on my observations.

Thats one advantage of my bit of Canada, we can pay the mortgage on one salary. Thats true of large swathes of Canada. The downside of course is there is no immediate family around , so we have to pay the mortage from one salary cos if she worked too that money would just go to child care. Its OK though, we are old fashioned and figure that kids should be raised by the parents rather than the sitter, at least up to a certain age.

In my opinion there is more scope for low or middle income earners to find a nice place to raise their kids here in Canada than in the UK without being stretched to the financial limit and beyond. YMMV. If you earn a ton of money then its maybe a different debate as you can buy into a leafy million pound Surrey lifestyle, but even then last time I spoke to my brother he was trying to figure out what to use to prevent his new trailer tent from likely being nicked. In reality it was probably unlikely to happen where he lives, but thats just the way you end up thinking in the UK, even in the stockbroker belt. Here my neighbour had one for sale for 6 months and anyone could have towed it away in the night. But it just doesnt happen around here, so we are free of the paranoia of UK life, and thats priceless.

• Less crouded - I can't seem to go anywhere in the UK without other people being around doing the same thing e.g. walking in the country
• I can buy own and use a hand gun in a club - hand guns are banned in the UK
• I can afford to buy/run a truck/SUV - In the UK these are seen as more of a status thing and we get punished by the government for owning such vehicles
• A new place/culture to discover
• More freedom
• Camping on the beach with amazing scenery or in the forest with camp fires - not a crouded cut grass field in Norfolk with no fires allowed
• I can own a bigger, detached house
• Housing estates/roads are bigger and don't get crouded and packed with cars unlike every cul de sack in the UK

I think if one deconstructs Canadian 'family values' and 'good clean fun' one will probably find that behind the vinyl sided sub-plots and the above-ground pool parties there lies typical human depravity.

Caledonia, now thats a shiity end of rural affairs, people being chased out of their house by violent drunk natives and the police refusing to get involved...

I would think it fair to say this town is close to the Greater Toronto Area, and would be conisderd to be within the Golden Horsehoe?

Table service in bars.

Attractive female bar staff.

Food served later in bars.

Sweet Potato fries.

More coffee shops.

A stepping stone to the US of A possibly.

Now this is a good list of misconceptions

Given that the vast a majority live in the cities and we have much more high density ( condos) building for most in Canada it is more crowded, with only a few benefiting from the vast track of emptiness, many not really benefiting from what can be considerd being isolated without any support at all.

If it a hand guns you want, see the US,

For SUV's Trucks they are not more expensive than the UK if you factory in salary and that a huge number aren’t owned but leased.

It may be a new place to discover

But with the Canadian government we don’t have more freedom of choice, we legislate almost everything right down to wear a shirt on ‘your’ lawn if you want to drink beer

Camping on the beach with Fire is only allowed in the right parks with the right permits in most provinces

Yes you can have a bigger house

In most cities where the vast majority live they have all the same traffic problems as the UK, just made worst in winter by huge amounts of snow

Ah, not rural enough? I picked it because I'm tired of citing Dundalk!

I'm bemused by gun ownership as a reason to emigrate, I use mine so rarely that I don't know what I did with the bullets.

Wow.....you really ripped into those 2 eh? Serenity now, breathe in and out

Not even close, here the police had a choice to not get involved

In many rural areas with issues, people live outside of the 911 zone and don't have the option of the police choosing not to help!!!

+1 also.

This is the problem you see. When I first arrived I used to really like these, but after the honeymoon period the novelty wore off and now I like good old fashioned normal potato ones.

Many of my friends in Yorkshire are in exactly the same situation. The only difference is the size of property in comparison.

They have good clean fun, affordable lifestyle, their kids have great lives, good education, and probably more opportunities for work and local education than those in rural-ish Canada.

No one country is better. The mentality of the person and the area they choose is key.

Ok i feel better now. Just watched the World Superbike race 1 from yesterday with my coffee and all is well in the world

There is a lot of hassles that comes with owning a gun in Canada, with regards to transportation of it and storage. You can always just acquire a gun licence and just go to a club and shoot anytime you want.

It's the least fascinating part of my job to be honest, I enjoy the satcom and gadgets area more

My wife loves them. I think they're a bit shit and, like you, prefer the salt infested proper ones